Principal

Dear Friends,

One of the things we hope to learn on our journey through life is how to cope with success and failure.  We need to understand how to celebrate success and grow from our failures in a way that honours Christ and brings us closer to Him.

If we are teachable and humble we actually learn more and can significantly grow from our failures and mistakes.  We want to become more like Christ and be a better person, not a bitter person.

College Satisfaction Surveys

Every year we have grown and improved as a provider of excellent Christian Education.

Our College Surveys are an important annual process where we are able to glean from our community the things we do really well in the College and areas we need to improve in and work on.

Thank you everyone for your involvement and the time you took to partake in the Survey.

It is good to celebrate the wonderful progress that has been made in all aspects of the College but we also need to have a growth mindset and be constantly open to ways we can further improve and be the best school we can be for the Lord and His glory!

Over the past five years, areas identified in the survey that need improvement, have resulted in targeted programs.  Survey results have indicated improvement, and in some areas, past weaknesses have now become a strength of our College.

Targeted areas for improvement have included:

• The College’s Vision and Mission being clearly stated and integrated into College life.
• Improved day to day organisation and management of the College.
• Improved grounds, resources and buildings.
• Improved technology and equipment for students and staff.
• Concerns of students and parents being consistently and appropriately resolved.
• Increase in the choice of subjects for VCE.
• More opportunities in co-curricular activities, sport, performing arts, gifted and talented programs, career guidance, cultural activities, mission and service activities, Chaplaincy service.
• Clearer policies and procedures that are accessible.
• More effective methods of communications across the College community.
• Adequate and timely communications from the College.
• More Wellbeing programs in place to build resilience in students.
• Building the sense of community in the College.

Even though the biggest issue of concern is the ‘convenient drop off/pick up access and parking at the College’, there has been improvement in the ratings of this concern (from 6.2 in 2013 to 7.0 in 2017).

We have worked hard to improve this by providing more parking spots (paying for parking at FoodStar), providing better access and traffic flow in Rembrandts, providing more supervision, and persevering to build a safety crossing on Tyner Road.  Unfortunately the traffic control is an area which will be hard to continue to improve with the various constraints we have at the College.

Vividus Survey Results from 2017

The overall satisfaction with the College is high, both across parent and staff groups.  Less than 4% of each group are dissatisfied. 

There have been no significant changes in the ongoing satisfaction of the College Community in St Andrews Christian College and the general trend of improvement across the College continues.

Significant Highlights of the Results

• 91% of Parents and 92% of Staff feel that the College’s Vision and Mission are clearly stated and integrated into College life.
• 87% of respondents say that the greatest strength of St Andrews Christian College is the Christian ethos/values.
• Active promoters of the College have significantly grown over the past year for both staff and parents.  This reflects a growing satisfaction in the College and the special community spirit and fellowship experienced by all associated with St Andrews.
• Overwhelming positive response rates as to the positive Christian values and behaviour reflected by staff; the caring attitude of staff towards students, and the support teachers give to students.
• Very high ratings in the wonderful community spirit experienced by students, staff and parents.

Significant Areas to Observe/Improve

• Retention rates of students.
• Marketing and promotion to the wider community.
• Parents are not aware of all the special programs/co-curricular activities and Gifted and Talented programs we run at the College.  We need to improve our promotion of these activities.
• Be more active in promoting our Chaplaincy Program.
• Continue to inform the community of the availability of fee assistance for College Tuition fees.
• Check the appropriate level of ancillary costs in comparison with other similar schools.
• Continue to seek ways to improve pick-up/drop off areas.
• Remind parents of access to Anti-Bulling Policy/procedure.

Be blessed,

Catriona Wansbrough

Principal