From the Principal

Connected by values, separated by an ocean

What a visit from our friends in Atlanta reminds us about the things that matter most in education and in life.

Theodore Roosevelt once said that the credit belongs not to the critic who stands on the sidelines, but to the person who is actually in the arena, face marred by dust and sweat and blood, striving valiantly, daring greatly.

It is a sentiment that has aged not a day. And it is one that felt particularly alive this past week, as we welcomed our friends from Woodward Academy. Fifteen thousand kilometres separates our Northern Beaches from the streets of Atlanta, Georgia. Yet when the twenty students and three faculty members of Woodward Academy,  including their President Dr Chris Freer walked through our gates last Friday the distance collapsed almost immediately.

Here were people who understand, as we do, that education is not simply the transfer of knowledge. It is the formation of character.

“Excellence, Character and Opportunity.”

The motto of Woodward Academy, Atlanta, Georgia

Those three words are Woodward’s motto. They are also, in their spirit, our own. That alignment is not a coincidence, it is the reason a relationship that began in 1993 has endured for more than three decades, long outlasting the trends and disruptions that have reshaped schooling around the world. Some things remain constant: the belief that how a young person learns to conduct themselves matters as much as what they learn; opportunities for growth must be cultivated, and that excellence is found in our daily habits.

The conversations shared with Woodward’s leadership this week touched on questions that every school is wrestling with right now.

How do we prepare young people for a world none of us can fully predict?

How do we hold the line on character and depth of thinking when the pace of everything around us accelerates? Roosevelt’s arena is more crowded, and more demanding, than ever. What does it mean to step into it today?

There were no easy answers, but that's not the point. Understanding by those with similar issues was deeply reassuring. Our visitors were not simply tourists they surfed, fished, attended sporting fixtures, and explored the Northern Beaches and Sydney alongside our own students and staff. Connection, it turns out, is built less in conferences and on TEAMS than on beaches and in canoes.

We are a smaller school. Woodward is a very large school and now 125 years old. Our contexts are different in geography, scale, and culture. Yet size is not the measure of ambition, and proximity is not always needed for friendship. A basketball tour last brought Pittwater House to Atlanta in 2022, and we hope the road leads back there again before too long.

For now, we are grateful, for the visit, for the conversations, and for the reminder that the values worth fighting for are not limited to regional ones.

A commitment to excellence, character, and opportunity joins our schools and communities across the Pacific.