Principal's Page

Building strong relationships with God and each other

Tyndale Christian School belongs to Christian Schools Australia (CSA) which brings many distinct advantages. One of them is access to high quality research into Christian education. 

Earlier this week I enjoyed reading Being and belonging – Teacher and student relationships in Christian Schools (CSA 2020 & https://relationalschools.org/). It is a study of how strength of relationships between teachers and students affect education. Some things in the research were not surprising to me, while others were.

For example, I was not surprised to read that “male students perceive a stronger relationship with male teachers”. Female students have a similar effect with female teachers, but it was not as strong in comparison to the males. This data comes from a study based on 150 surveys about students completed by their teachers and 1186 surveys about teachers completed by their students. 

In contrast, I was surprised to read that “middle-ability students… appear to have become more distant from teachers”. This provides a key challenge for every teacher and many students in their classes if the data is indicative of our school in Strathalbyn. It is a theme I am taking up with my staff and one I would be happy to hear about from you as well.

Proverbs 1:8 states: Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. 

We all have an incredibly important role to play in our children’s learning, whether we are the child, the parent or teacher. I am grateful that no matter where each child is on their current learning journey, they can pause, listen to and hear from our loving Heavenly Father. His guiding voice is clear and reminds us that we belong to Him. That sense of belonging, as the title of the study suggests, is a critical ingredient for success at school for every student.

May you have time to rest with your families and hear from the Lord, this long weekend.

Sam Cheesman

Principal