This year we have been very blessed to have many guests come and visit St Andrews Christian College for a range of reasons and purposes. 

We continue to benefit from our partnership with Professor Lea Waters as we outwork our Visible Wellbeing framework at the College, and Lea has commented that she always feels very welcomed and ‘at home’ when she visits to deliver staff professional learning. We have been privileged to host nearly 40 Christian Principals, Deputy Principals, Heads of School and other leaders from Hong Kong as a part of their bi-annual study tour. We have hosted network meetings for school leaders from Chistian schools to collaborate, share ideas and learn from each other. We often say here at St Andrews Christian College that ‘we want people to feel welcome and feel that they belong’. We feel blessed to welcome visitors and guests and express a spirit of generosity toward them through hospitality. We see this as a practical extension of honouring and bringing glory to God in all that we do. 

When we do have visitors and guests come to the College, I am always interested to hear what their observations are of the culture. I am interested to understand their fresh perspective of what it is that they see, what they hear, and what they feel when they step through the gates. So often, I hear words such as warm, welcoming, calm, authentic, God-honouring, faith-filled. At the heart and essence of who we are as a College, we exist to be a community who brings glory to God in all we do and seek to know Him more every day.

With this in mind, we also see it as important to seek reflection and constructive feedback from our families, students and staff in order to ensure we are staying true to our mission, keeping our faith as our cornerstone and always seeking to glorify God through excellence and incremental improvement. For many years, the College has engaged the services of Vividus Marketing to engage our stakeholders in annual satisfaction surveys. These surveys provide the College with rich and valuable feedback that identifies areas that we are doing well and areas that we can improve. In our 2024 Vividus survey results, 92% of families expressed high levels of satisfaction with the College, and similarly 92% of parents feel that the College’s vision and mission are clearly stated and integrated into College life. This feedback is affirming to our desire to keep our mission and God’s calling central to who we are as a school and how that reflects in the day to day life of the College. As we embark on our 2025 Vividus survey window, I encourage all families to use this as an opportunity to provide valuable feedback which can support us to continue in our desire to grow, improve and glorify God.

Yours faithfully,

I have recently been reminded about the importance with grappling and leaning into adversity.

What have you been grappling with lately? Perhaps it’s a novel that you’re reading and needing to really concentrate on rather than swipe quickly, as we often do with many online devices. Or are you learning a new hobby or language? Regardless of the context, it’s valuable to recognise that it can be when we are finding something hard, or we need to grapple with it, that we learn. In a professional development conference recently, I was privileged to hear Professor John Hattie (Professor of Education and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne) speak on the importance of grappling with adversity to push ourselves, and our students further. 

In my day-to-day life at St Andrews, I see how this grappling can be of significant advantage to our students. I enjoy thoroughly each week the opportunity to engage with Year 6 students with their reading. Recently students have been learning how to run and lead Literature Circles. Through adopting different roles within the Literature Circle, students can grapple with their text in different ways to not only enhance their learning but also their communication skills, an important part of literacy learning.

The Vex Robotics students (under the leadership of Mr Brendan Hennessy) have also experienced the beginning of the competition season. To run and host a showcase competition early August in our MPH was a highlight of this Term and an opportunity to see the hard work and consistent approach of each student come to fruition. Whilst it was fantastic to see St Andrews win, the effort and adaptability of each student to work and collaborate was the most rewarding example of students facing competition under a pressured situation. Well done to all students and staff involved.

The recent Performing Arts events and concerts constantly inspire me in the way that each student comes together to produce an amazing outcome. Students have had to grapple with musical literacy, learn their individual parts, rehearse and refine and practise. Each student must listen to and read each other (like Vex Robotics or running a relay or connecting with a team member in sport) and then show bravery to perform in front of an audience. Finally, a sense of achievement and success in the final product. For many of these VCE students these concerts and events will be the final time that they perform together. Well done to all involved this term.

It has been a fast-paced term, action packed with Athletics Days, competitions, camps, excursions, Parent/Teacher and Student Learning Conferences. How blessed we are as a community to provide and create these wonderful learning opportunities for our students.

Last term I reminded you about the use of the College HUB app for communication with all families which can be downloaded onto your mobile phone. This continues to be the case for all communication, and I am pleased with the uptake from our community with the use of the HUB. These notifications are the key way to keep up to date with the comings and goings of students and events across the College and if you are unsure of how to download this app, please contact the IT department (adavis@standrews.vic.edu.au) for more information. You will very rarely receive an email communication for news items and updates, so please ensure that you are following the HUB to keep up to date.

Wearing correct uniform is an important part of school life and here are a few reminders for you as you prepare for Term 4. All students will be expected to wear a HAT when outside in Term 4. Please ensure that your young person has a HAT to wear for Day one of Term 4. Over the term break please check that your young person has uniforms that fit correctly and are ready for the beginning of Term 4. There will be a two-week transition period where students can wear either their winter or summer uniform (not a combination of both). After Week 2 of Term 4 all students will be expected to wear summer uniform.

Finally, I encourage you to have a conversation with your young person at home to lean into the concept of grappling in the upcoming Term 4 as these moments are generally the ones where we really grow.

I wish all students and families a restful holiday break and thank you for your continued support.

Warm regards,