From the Principal

This week, our Year 9 and 10 students have been undertaking their yearly exams. For our Year 9 students, this is their first experience of formal exams. It is intended to give them practise at both preparing for and going through the process of completing the exams.

I want to commend both year groups for their approach. It has been clear that the vast majority have engaged in purposeful revision leading up to the exam and have given their best effort each day.

Congratulations to our Secondary leadership team for 2025. Please see the Secondary page for further details.

Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast

Each year, SCC arranges for some of our student leaders to attend the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast. This year, we had student representatives from Years 10, 11 and 12. The morning is an opportunity for Christians from across the state to gather, to acknowledge the contribution of our political leaders and to pray for the state.

This year’s guest speaker was Mike Baird, former Premier of NSW. Mr Baird offered some reflections, based on his experience of leadership. He began by explaining how he had come to faith as a teen. He had been mentored by a church youth group leader. During a Christian surf camp, the leader asked Mike whether he knew how much Jesus loved him. When Mike responded that he did, the man pressed more intently, ‘Do you really understand how much Jesus loves you?' From that time, he began to grasp that Jesus had died so he could live, and that his has shaped his life since that time.

Mr Baird recounted that, not long after he became Premier, he received a call from a long-standing former Premier who told him that he had been listening to him on the radio but that he had a terrible voice. No words of wisdom or encouragement, just commentary on the sound of his voice. Around the same time, his faith was highlighted as a concern by some media outlets, with newspaper headlines such as ‘Dangerous Devotion’. Baird’s response was, ‘My voice is my voice and my faith is my faith. I need to be who I am.’

Mr Baird talked of some of the highlights of political life, including having the opportunity to meet significant world figures, such as Prince Harry and Joe Biden. While these were special experiences, he argued that much more special were the times he had met unassuming people who touched him deeply. He gave examples of taking part in a mentoring camp and connecting with a young indigenous man who was the first in his family to finish Year 12 and is now a leader in his community. He also recounted the story of a couple who had been married for 71 years, both with dementia, who were separated for 6 months because of the pandemic. He showed a touching photo of the moment they were reunited and the love between them jumps from the image.

Mr Baird narrated many other compelling experiences. Through each, he talked about his efforts to bring his faith into the situation, to be the voice for the voiceless, to act for what he thought was right, even when it would not be popular, to work for unity across the community and to be willing to be humble and acknowledge when he got it wrong.

‘One reflection I had on the prayer breakfast was the strong and committed faith of the guest speaker: Michael Baird. I found his commitment to faith in the face of persecution and negative media attention quite encouraging. I also found his way of mentioning both important and seemingly unimportant people quite kind. I felt it reflected his perspective that all are equal and created in the image of God.’ – Angus, Year 11

Jodie Bennett

Principal