“You are fearfully and wonderfully made…”

Psalm 139:14

Thank you to our community for a wonderful start to the term. It has been amazing to see our students, new and old, engaging in all the opportunities presented so far. From water play to carnivals, from sport trials to dance trials to Chapel teams being formed, it is awesome see our students finding their place to belong.

At our recent "Meet the Teachers" evening, I shared a thought that I have been pondering for a while regarding our core purpose at RCC as we live in a world often obsessed with results that focus on how much a person can produce, achieve or earn.

In considering this, I’ve been watching the educational trends of some of the world’s most famous entrepreneurs. For instance, Elon Musk has expanded his own tech-based schools, charging a staggering amount per hour of teaching. Meanwhile, Richard Branson has launched DyslexicU, focusing on the marketability of dyslexic thinking in the business world.

While these leaders rightly recognize that every child has unique gifts, I can’t help but notice a shift in their focus toward how the world can profit from a person, rather than the intrinsic value of the person themselves.

Looking back at last year, we certainly have plenty of practical achievements we can celebrate. Our Stage 6 students continue to make the HSC Honor Roll with Band 6 results (90 – 100%) and NAPLAN scores remain among the strongest in our region. For those unaware, for the fourth year running, an RCC student has been a recipient of a Ballina Citizen of the Year award, congratulations again to Tyler for being named Ballina Young Citizen of the Year and those from our school also nominated. We had musicals return and students make state athletics teams, we celebrated Tournament of the Mind wins and so much more.

However, at RCC, we define success by a student’s capacity to know who God made them to be and their ability to leave this unique fingerprint on their world. Success is a student having the courage to try a new sport, the resilience to learn from a mistake, or the confidence to speak on stage simply because they want to grow.

At RCC, we look at things through a different lens. Our deep hope is to create students who know they were intentionally created to do good things. Whether a student is neurodiverse or neurotypical, our responsibility is to help them understand they are fearfully and wonderfully made and can have a positive impact in their world.

None of this happens in a vacuum. The partnership between staff and parents is the most critical ingredient in your child’s success. A school community can have all the fancy facilities and expensive hourly rates in the world, but without us working and praying together, those opportunities for our kids are easily be lost.

We want to maximize what happens at home and embed it here at school, and vice versa. It is together, as a community, that we work for the good of our kids.

Thank you for committing to working with us again this year so that we can achieve success for our kids and they can live out of the hope that comes from being a part of this community.

Good Tidings,

Jonno

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