Issue 8, 2021

Dear College families,

In our moving through life, we easily lose sight of the truth that great things actually begin with small things. Admiral William McRaven of the US Navy captured this truth in a speech to University graduates when he said:

"If you want to change the world start each day by making your bed. If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed."

In our busyness, we forget that the little things can make a huge difference in the way we think or feel. Success with the little things can help us get a new outlook on some aspect of life or can impart new hope and inspiration. This is a powerful truth that we want to impart to our young people who, in our fast-paced society with its enormous pressures can easily become overwhelmed with all that culture tells them they need to accomplish.

One way we can impart this truth is by together prioritising the little things like uniform and seeing these structures and procedures as part of a much bigger truth that we are endeavouring to impart. Teenagers, in particular, may see uniform rules as trivial and unnecessary and as adults who were once teenagers we can appreciate that for this season of life this may be their perspective. However, let's come alongside and offer a different perspective, one that encourages them to feel the success of getting the small things right. Because, as adults with the benefit of hindsight, we know that getting the little things right leads to growing confidence to tackle the big things that are in store for them.

Felicity Marlow
Principal

There are some messages that I hear at church which really stick in my memory and refer back to when circumstances occur that remind me of this key message. I can't recall the date, month or year nor can I remember the pastor who shared the message however I can still recall the key message of 'Go to Camera 4'.

It can be very easy to be going about your daily life, day in and day out, keeping your eyes on the road ahead. This is a very task-focused life, moving from one event to the next, progressing forward with little awareness of what is happening around you. This is where it's important to go to camera 4. Camera 4 brings a new perspective, a new angle, a new insight, a new viewpoint. Camera 4 provides a wider lens, maybe an overhead view, a heavenly perspective, to see things in a completely new way. When the focus of your thinking, planning and movement is just on the road ahead you might miss the amazing scenery along the way, a stunning sunset in the distance or a nest of baby birds high in a tree.

As an educator of young children, I am often brought down to the world of a 3 year old who has found wonder in the yard, a treasure in the sandpit or can hear a strange sound in the distance. I call this the knee-high perspective - to see the world through the eyes of a child. Children have an amazing capability of slowing life down as their attention has been drawn by the smallest object. It seems that children live their life though camera 4 and the rest of us are fixed on camera 1. During term 1 in the ELC we introduced to the children the BPL disposition of Noticing and bringing to their attention how the skill of noticing can be a valuable learning tool. Young children are often great at noticing when things are a little different to usual and will draw your attention to this and start with their questions about why, how, when and what. The new building currently under construction has been of great interest to the children as they notice that things are starting to look different, that the soundscape of the College has changed and their path to the ELC may sometimes take a different route. In some ways, children seem to be the ones operating camera 4 and drawing our gaze away from the next task and noticing the detail in the day. Young children also seem to operate on their own timetable, having enough time to stop to notice something or sometimes to experience an emotional meltdown over what seems to us to be the smallest thing. It's important for us, as adults, to take pause during these times, go to camera 4 and take a knee-high perspective of the world.

It can also be said that God is the ultimate camera operator, of bringing a new perspective to our lives, of providing a different view to the one we held and was so sure about. Proverbs speaks about how a man's heart plans his way but ultimately it is God who directs his steps. If it was just up to us we could easily live our lives through the lens of camera 1 and not be aware of what else God was doing in our lives through all the other camera angles available to us. I wonder what you will see if you went to camera 4?

Suzi Scott
Director of ELC