Welcome

During the second week of the July school holidays, I had the privilege of leading a team of our leaders to the International Transforming Education Conference in Perth. This conference is held every four years and organised by Chrisitan Education National. Over 1000 Christian educators from all over the country gathered together to learn from some of the best thinkers in the world of education. Here are some of the highlights.

Dr Julia Verdow: Julia is a lecturer and researcher with the National Institute of Christian Education and led us in daily devotions from 1 Corinthians 13 focussing on faith, hope and love. She wove in the story of her husband’s recent passing. Her devotions were raw and real, reminding us of God’s love for us.

David Smith: David is an author and teacher who writes on Christian pedagogy. He spent time speaking to us about the elements of teaching and Christian schooling and how we can reframe them to be more intentionally formational and not just doing what every other school does. He challenged us to ask the question of ourselves; “do our students think we are doing Christian Schooling?”

Danielle Strickland: Danielle is a gifted speaker, and entrepreneur and spoke a powerful message about the disruptive times that we live in and posed the question what is disruption, is it an invitation into God’s transformation? She reminded us that the end of our own capacity is where God begins.

Lyn Swaner: Lyn is a researcher who specialises in what makes Christian schools flourish. One of the areas she has researched is the factors that help to cause lasting spiritual formation in our children long after they leave school. She found the two common factors within schools were community engagement, and responsiveness to students in the community with additional needs.

There were also several other excellent speakers on a range of topics that I don’t have space to summarise here, unfortunately. It was also wonderful to spend time with our leadership team, a brilliant group of thoughtful educators who desire the best for our community. We are in good hands!

Mrs Lisa Dumicich

Interim Principal