Pause, Reflect and Celebrate

There was a Tik Tok video doing the teenage rounds a while back where judgement was proclaimed on specific Melbourne schools in two lines. I’m not sure it was based on extensive research and somehow DCC got on the list. The presenter’s summative assessment was something like: “Donvale Christian College -   you get married too early and like camps too much”. Listening to the criticism levelled at other schools, we got off pretty lightly.

Not everyone likes camps. Not everyone likes drama, or poetry or football or maths. I think everyone likes Bluey. But school activities aren’t always met with the same sense of universal warmth. 

Camps can be challenging – physically, emotionally and socially. You get exposed to a lot of new skills, can’t really escape your peers, get thrown into new situations and are far from the safety net of home.  Those same reasons inspire joy in some and worry in others and for some doing a day or two of a camp is an incredible step. 

As a teacher, and previously as a youth leader, I value camps. Part of the reason, for me at least, is that you get to step outside the script and have authentic conversations with teenagers, whilst facing challenges and seeing the majesty of God in the world around them. So much is packed into a camp. From learning to cook, to facing fears on a rock face, to carrying a pack when tired to wondering about the stars. They are a way of compressing lots of experiences that are hard to reproduce in other contexts. 

I love the picture above – the sense of adventure with others that is coming to an end but before heading into the sunset we look back and see what we have achieved. Apart from when parking at school where I have to be more mindful of kids around my car, I always park front first. I know that it is easier to drive out if you reverse park, but that is a problem for future Steve, and I just want to get wherever I am going and the extra step that a reverse park entails momentarily frustrates my ‘c’mon let’s go’ vibe. 

And, whilst here, I confess, I don’t bother about petrol until the needle is in the red for the same reason. I am all about the next thing and for the past few months, in fact since the start of Term 3, my brain has lived, at least in part in planning for 2025. 

I am not advocating this as good practice – on the contrary, Jesus promoted the idea of pausing, slowing, reflecting, celebrating and community (and lived in a context that tacitly encouraged that) and I recognise my approach is antithetical. I keep forgetting to stop and to look back and see how far we have come. 

Teen growth isn’t linear or consistent in all its facets, which can disguise progress – they can write an incredibly caring and mature card to a grieving friend but can’t make their bed. We are often caught misjudging what they now know and can do – sometimes overestimating and sometimes grossly underestimating their abilities. 

But our students have come a long way since the start of 2024. They have learned so many new skills and concepts, learned more about how to negotiate the complexities of social interactions, learned more about how they work, how they respond and what they value. They know more about technology and other cultures and how things have come to be how they are. They have grappled with faith and feelings and sadness and fears. 

I hope they can look back on 2024 and see how far they have come and be better able to take in, to paraphrase Paul, with all followers of Jesus, the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. 

Thankyou parents for all your incredible support to us here and as always, we value your prayers to ensure we can align as best as we can with God’s purposes for us in2025. 

Secondary Student Leadership 2025

Michael Halliday, Head of Senior Secondary

Our DCC Secondary Student Leaders were announced at a recent assembly and subsequently commissioned at our Thanksgiving Service. 

A student leadership position provides an intentional opportunity for students to lead and serve their peers, staff and the wider school community. It enables students to use their God given talents for the good of others, while also growing and developing these attributes. 

Students were invited to apply for the roles available and were elected via a staff and student vote. Where the children of staff members were nominating, the relevant staff were excluded from the selection process to ensure a fair and unbiased outcome. 

We were overwhelmed by the number of students who nominated for positions of leadership this year, demonstrating just how willing our DCC students are to serve their school community.

Whether students ultimately received a badge or not, I have no doubt all who applied will nonetheless lead and serve to make the DCC community a special place to belong. 

Student Council 

Student Leadership Teams 

House

Faculty Student Leaders 

2025 Peer Mentors