Dear Parents,
I write at this time in the knowledge that School Reports are being written for your children. They are a means of helping you gain insight to your son/daughter’s progress. Keeping it simple, the word ‘education’ defines a process of ‘adding value’. It is a lifelong experience and journey. The chapter of Primary and Secondary school is an important part of the journey. So are the critically important ‘before-school’ years, and the long-impacting ‘after-secondary’ years.
Schools (public and private) are subject to government requirements, and deliver educational programmes within an organisational setting that is designed to accommodate a grouping of students. If you are interested, you can read for yourself the ‘objects’ (ie the key drivers/issues) as determined by our WA State Government in our ‘local’ Education Act.
Within this setting, schools seek to communicate a child’s school related achievement with his/her parents and/or carer/s.
SCBC interprets ‘success’ in light of God’s character and love. We strive for excellence, but we do not ‘worship’ excellence. We encourage our students to be ambitious, but not to be driven by ambition. There is a subtle but significant difference. One of my favourite quotes by Max Lucado is below:
‘Ambition is that grit in the soul that creates disenchantment with the ordinary and puts the dare into dreams.’ He goes on to write: ‘but left unchecked, it becomes an insatiable addiction to power and prestige, a roaring hunger for achievement that devours people, as a lion devours an animal, leaving behind only the skeletal remains of relationships.’ (Max Lucado)
Christians are a group of imperfect people, individually and collectively experiencing and interpreting life, attracted into relationship with a loving God. It is within this relationship that they conceptualise ‘success’, and develop a sense of both personal and shared ambition.
It is a joy, and a privilege for us to share the journey of your child’s educational journey.
Blessings to you and your family at this time.