Issue 5, 2021

Dear College community,

Wow, what a time we've had here at the College yesterday. Staff and students, parents and grandparents, and community volunteers, packed over 320 hampers to send out to the Hawkesbury community. We have been blessed beyond measure from our College and wider community, who have all come together to make Phase 1 of the 'Love Hawkesbury' campaign an overwhelming success. A huge thank you to the NWCC Community, Glossodia Community Centre, Mission Australia, Stanhope Village, Bakers Delight - Stanhope Gardens, Gift of Bread, Donut King - Stanhope Gardens, Woolworths - Schofields, Coles - Rouse Hill Town Centre, SecondBite, Dignity Charity, Glenwood Community Pantry and Guildford Baptist Church, and many others. Through all these donations we have already been able to bless a number of community centres and schools. What an incredible display of community spirit.

Today is another massive day with College Cross Country, Live @ Norwest, Phase 2 of Love Hawkesbury and the ground floor slab of the new build being poured. I am so thankful for a wonderful team of staff and parent volunteers who just relentlessly give of their time and resources to make all of this happen.

As we begin another period of holidays let us remember that this holiday exists on our annual calendar because one man, Jesus Christ, gave His whole life to enable us to enter into a relationship with our Creator God. He demonstrated in His death on the cross the enormity of His love for each of us and in His resurrection His life-giving power. I pray that each of you will take time this Easter to contemplate the significance of the Easter events.

Mrs Felicity Marlow
Principal

As Term One comes to a close, we have just commemorated the anniversary since we were forced to close our classroom doors and adapt, overnight, to online learning. The growth in professional competence and agility in reimagining how learning would look from the comfort of students’ homes may be likened to the adaptations experienced in the business sector where there has been much discourse on how business models successfully pivoted to meet new conditions and responses to the market.

As we grappled as a broader society to agree on what constitutes an ‘essential service’, what has become clear to me is that it is near impossible to predict, at this time, the range of employment opportunities that our children will be faced with when they graduate from tertiary studies. Universities have been similarly forced to pivot and respond to market forces, writing new courses and offering elective combinations to produce graduates who have both the technical knowledge and develop ‘soft skills’ for a shifting employment landscape.

Among the uncertainty one educational truth has emerged prominently in the past year: our Building Purposeful Lives Framework is an assurance that our students will experience learning opportunities to develop the range of skills required to adapt and pivot regardless of the context, so that they are equipped to cultivate lifelong skills for learning. These are the very skills that have so many adults have been required to draw on as we have each pivoted in our workplaces in the past year (and even at home as we immersed in remote learning!)

As we prepare to enter a season of Secondary subject selections in Term Two, it is important that our students continue to reflect on those pursuits that stir their emerging passions. God has gifted each one of us with talents through which we can serve our community. It is through connecting with these that our young people can listen and trust in the purpose for which they were created. As Paul reminds the Romans “… we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28). Thus, is it not for us to choose our purpose but to pay attention to those natural inclinations that help to light the path to discovering what our purpose is.

As the end of term assessments are submitted and students take a breath to rejuvenate over the holiday break and give thanks for our Saviour’s sacrifice, it is important to reflect on those learning moments that have lit their spark a little brighter so that students can notice those pursuits they would like to dig deeper into in the future. This will make the next phase of subject selection clearer along with good guidance from parents and staff who know them well. Together, we can help our young people prepare for the changing nature of 21st century living, where adaptability, agility and the ability to ‘pivot’ in adult life is well established during their formative school years.

Linda Hogan
Director of Secondary Teaching & Learning