From the Principal

Made by Many

There's a moment in every school year when you can feel it happen.

It's not on the calendar. Or in the diary of events. It’s hard to measure but you just know it when you feel it rather than see it. 

If you have spent any time in schools, 30 years for me as a teacher plus my time as a student, you will know exactly what I'm talking about.

It's the moment a group of people become a tribe. When we become a community. When we are stronger together than apart. When we understand we belong.

When and how does it happen exactly?

It might be at the swimming carnival when a student who doesn’t swim competes anyway and the whole House stands together to cheer them on.

It might happen when a new parent walks through the gate for the first time and someone says, hello and welcome. 

You're one of us now.

Belonging isn't a program. It's not a policy or a pillar or a line in a prospectus. It's a feeling. Like most feelings that matter, you can't manufacture it. You can only create the conditions for it to grow.

I have spent thirty years trying to understand those conditions. Across seven schools, thousands of students, more assemblies than I can count. This is what I have learned looking back.

Belonging is built, not inherited. It is made by many.

I believe the very best schools understand this. They are the ones that change lives. Not because they have the best facilities or the highest ATAR results. Because they do the harder work. The human work. The work of making someone feel like they matter before you ask them to perform. 

Belonging here makes us better together, being here makes you better. 

Pittwater House has been made by many. I like saying that and you will hear me say that a lot, because I believe it deeply.  

It has been built by decades of people who showed up and gave something for others, teachers who stayed late, parents who volunteered, students who tried, alumni who came back.

Every school has a story. 

But the best schools understand that the story isn't finished. It's being written right now, by every person who walks through the gate. Your chapter matters. Your child's chapter matters. The teacher who learns your kid's name in the first week, their chapter matters. 

We are all part of the larger story.

Because that's what belonging really is. Belonging is different. Belonging is being known. Being challenged. 

Pittwater House. Made by many. For everyone.

Thank you Term One, You have made me feel as though I belong.