Tags Message from the Principal - Shellharbour Anglican College

Message From the Principal

We are all a little sad that we couldn’t have all the community together to celebrate what has been an awesome year of learning at our Presentation Events - unfortunately we've ended the year in the same way we started it!

Message From the Principal

Last weekend I was enjoying a bit of downtime, floating through a lovely bookshop and I came across a whole section that focused on Aboriginal life, history and culture.

Message From the Principal

Last week we commissioned our new Student leadership team for 2023. It was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the nature of leadership at the College. We follow the example of Jesus who came to earth “not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 10:28).

Message From the Principal

Every year that I have been at the school and as we approach Graduation it feels like there has been something significant - bigger than us - happening in the world. This year, we find ourselves in a week bookended by the funeral of the longest reigning British monarch - Queen Elizabeth II, and the Year 12 graduation.

Message From the Principal

As we plan for the future of our school and prepare our vision and strategic plan, a central aspect is preparing for change and managing it so that our community stays strong, keeps growing and provides a great learning environment and an inclusive community. We want to stay faithful to our faith and the hope we have in Jesus!

Message From the Principal

Earlier in the year our family and staff surveys both asked questions around how we can do this better – and we want to thank you for both encouraging us in the areas that we are doing well, and also helping us identify where we can do better. Later this term we’re going to provide some opportunities to tell you what we learned from you, and also create some time for you to engage in how things might look in the future. This will then become part our College strategic plan that we will finalise by the end of the year. I encourage you to get involved, be a part of the solution and look out for that invite to help us pursue tomorrow together as a community! We can walk, we can run, we can crawl, but we can’t stand still!

Message From the Principal

When we talk about who we are as a College and our values, it is in the little day to day events we show what we really believe. We live our values in what we do and say each day. Whether it's ensuring we put our rubbish in the bin - or picking up someone else's mess, inviting someone to join in who looks lonely, or helping someone who is struggling in class. Our actions show if we really are respectful, compassionate, faithful and wise. Sometimes it's also what we don't do that can send a message about what we believe - if we don't put our rubbish in the bin, or if we stand by and watch someone be treated poorly, or watch as someone breaks something that doesn't belong to them. Someone who stands by when another person is behaving badly, without saying or doing anything, is called a bystander. It's the person who watches a friend get called a name, or be teased about how they are different for their body shape or size, skin color, ability level, or any other real or imagined difference, and does nothing. In contrast, a person who is compassionate, respectful, faithfulness and wise will not be a bystander, but an upstander. They will stand up for the person who is left out or teased, they will call out unfair behaviour, or if they can’t they’ll let someone know who can.

Message From the Principal

As a College we are seeking to work with our local First Nations groups to ensure we are an inclusive community that welcomes and honours their heritage and culture. We have some staff currently working on our College Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), in consultation with community representatives, and we are keen to include our local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families to help us with that. We want to acknowledge the rich culture and heritage in this area and to support all indigenous students. We now specifically offer an annual Indigenous scholarship to further this. We want that rich heritage to be more visible in our community, but also to be authentic in what we do. Our Senior and Junior Schools student leaders are planning some celebrations for NAIDOC week in early Term 3 to reinforce this – wait and see!

Message From the Principal

What a joy it is to finally be in our new double storey learning space! We love the “new” smell in the spaces, the bright and shiny spaces, but we don’t love them so much for being a new space but for what that space will enhance – learning and community. A new building is indeed exciting, but the purpose of the spaces in a College like ours is to enhance creative and collaborative deep learning. All the classroom spaces have dynamic and movable furniture on wheels – so that shifting the layout is easy to facilitate different types of learning.

Message From the Principal

To navigate such times, we need a sense of hope. Hope may seem very vague, but it has been researched as a part of positive psychology. Charles Snyder, one of the pioneers who studied the “hope motive”, has demonstrated that increased hope is linked to positive academic and athletic performance, physical health and wellbeing. But what is hope?

Message From the Principal

When we talk about who we are as a College and what we value, it is in the little things we show what we really believe. Our actions speak louder than our words. For our students, whether it's ensuring you put your rubbish in the bin - or picking up someone else's mess, or helping someone who is struggling in class. Our actions show if we really are respectful, compassionate, faithful and wise.

Message From the Principal

We are much further ahead with our Compass Wellbeing review, and at a really exciting phase! Our starting place, after the analysis and identifying of key areas to address, has been developing a Shellharbour Anglican College definition that takes into account all the research in this area, but applies it to who we are as a unique community, and can be easily understood. We now present it to you, our families and community. Please take a read and let us know what you think!

Message From the Principal

Thank you for a fabulous 2021! It’s been a joy and an adventure to walk through this year with you! It has been a privilege to watch our students grow and be empowered to live with purpose and make a difference in the world near and far. We pray God’s blessing on all those who are leaving us - Year 12, other families and staff, knowing He will bless the communities to which you go! May the hope of Jesus’ love shine through this Christmas!

Message From the Principal

With one eye on the present but continuing to look to the future, Term 4 may seem like the end of the year but we see it as the foundation for the next steps in our learning journey as we pursue tomorrow – where are we going and how do we get there? I hope you join with me in not only asking but also finding some powerful answers to these questions!

Message From the Principal

We made it!! Well done! What a Term! I want to celebrate the finish and acknowledge the hard work everyone has put in. I want to acknowledge the tears shed by many, the hairpulling and the arguments. BUT I also want to acknowledge the golden moments of reading together, baking, riding a bike and those moments when you watched your child achieve something amazing! It has been such a term of highs and lows!

Message From the Principal

We’ve gone solar! As of Saturday afternoon the College was running on solar power! This is an exciting step forward as we look at how we can be an environmentally responsible organisation, and model a sustainable approach to our daily practices. For me, this is an important part of being God’s stewards for the resources we have – to respect the world and the environment He gave us, to care for the communities and the wildlife within it and to work for a positive impact on our planet.