From the Principal

Dear Friends,

Congratulations to all families and staff for a wonderful term that has ended well. I trust most of us will get a good break and celebrate the Easter weekend with a deep level of gratitude for all it holds. We will look forward to students returning on Monday 24 April in anticipation of further great times for learning and cocurricular activities. In particular, I draw attention to our Dawn Service commemorating the ANZACs on Wednesday 26 April, and our Open Day on Saturday 6 May, when our new Middle School Buildings will be formally opened. We look forward to welcoming families to these events.

The Christian calendar presents again the opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the meaning and events of Easter. This can be deeply personal experience or indeed, one with the church universal as biblical authors speak of it. Nevertheless, it is well summarised in the apostle Paul’s writing to the Christians in Colossae, where we understand the actions of the Christ as ending the hostility between God and humanity. His brutal death, and subsequent resurrection, makes friendship with God possible. It is the only means by which we may safely encounter God, either in this life or the next. The Easter holiday provides opportunity for an undistracted time to investigate and study the things that are most worthwhile.

As I noted in the last editorial, Oxley remains very open about its Christian foundation and purposes. We continue to reflect on the motivation for a Christian approach to education that is embedded in God’s exuberance and abundance in making the creation, that we exist because He loves to create and loves His creation. Such a creation is not merely about usefulness or practicality, but it is more about flourishing and beauty, about delight and being known. As such, the events of the first Easter are not just about fixing our brokenness, but also making us into a new creation. This combination of restoring us, but of also the generative newness in Christ, makes us more valuable to God than before the first Easter. The cost of the new creation is somehow embedded in our new worth. 

This editorial provides me the forum to wish everyone in the Oxley community a safe and refreshing term break, and to pray for the blessings of Easter to accompany us into the new term. I do so wholeheartedly.

Warm regards,

Dr Douglas Peck