Principal

NAPLAN: A Critique.

faithadmin Mar 22, 2024 0 Comments

  I have written similar pieces to this in the past, so bear with me if you have read this before. At this time of year I begin to become a little frustrated, and perhaps start to feel professionally compromised. What about? Good question. About how our field of service, our industry, education, has become compromised in our country due to the over emphasis on standardised testing and the imminent league tables and articles that will inevitably follow in the papers and online. Don’t get me wrong we will do okay.  As well as expected, probably a little better. Our…

Principal Whole College

If they can almost do it … let them.

faithadmin Mar 8, 2024 0 Comments

On Wednesday night this week I was privileged to, once again, sit in the presence of Tonya Gilchrist. Tonya has been visiting our college this week and is working online with our team across the remainder of this year. An international learning strategist and a wonderful teacher she has been taking lessons and demonstrating best practice to our team when it comes to the face to face stuff of our work. The kids have loved it, that staff are being stretched and grown, the outcomes will be better for our learners. One of the amazing quotes Tonya shared on Wednesday…

Principal Whole College

Two’s company but three is even better

faithadmin Jan 25, 2024 0 Comments

Our annual theme for 2024 here at Faith is the word ‘together’. Last week our whole staff met in an opening session where we explored the idea of togetherness. One of the ideas we looked at was that shared in the Bible in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 4, verses 9 to 12. It reads; Two are better than one, for if one fails the other is there. Two can keep warm when the night is cold. Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. We are designed to be…

Lutheran Identity Principal Wellbeing

A Foolish Foundation

faithadmin Nov 8, 2023 0 Comments

When studying the relationship between theology and education for my Master’s Degree many years ago I was asked to consider the decalogue in a particular essay. ‘The wha?’ The ten commandments. ‘Oh! … that decalogue” I recall having an argument with a mate as a young zealot and arguing with him that the ten commandments were irrelevant, that Jesus himself told us that there was a new law, a new way and it was love, the old ways didn’t count. ‘We should be motivated by nothing more and nothing less than the death and resurrection of Jesus!’ I argued. Right. …

Principal Wellbeing Whole College

If I had more time I would write a shorter letter

faithadmin Sep 8, 2023 0 Comments

I love it when I learn something new. This week for the first time I heard the phrase, ‘If I had more time, I would write a shorter letter’. Wow. As a person who is energised by big ideas, and at the same time as distracted by shiny things, I found this concept, well, attractive. If I had more time, I would write a shorter letter. Brilliant. The phrase is attributed to many great names over history, Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin, Woodrow Wilson, Cicero, the list goes on. Most likely though the saying is thought to stem from the French…

Principal Whole College

10 Years Ago

faithadmin Aug 10, 2023 0 Comments

My Facebook feed can be really quite distressing. Recently it has been reminding me that it has been ten years since my family and I concluded our walk along the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrim route across northern Spain. And I really miss that special time. In bringing this up with people I have been asked many times over the past few weeks how the trip was. My answer is generally something like, ‘Magnificent, like living in a dream.’ And it was. And it was a long dream. And I didn’t want to wake up! For the record, the time…

Principal Whole College

Your Parenting is Curable

faithadmin Aug 4, 2023 0 Comments

I read an article this week in the Sydney Morning Herald titled, ‘Why are teachers struggling? Because your children are awful’. One of the lines in the article stated, ‘Your Parenting is Curable’. Wow. I mean if there is an award for a headline that is going to catch a teacher’s, or principal’s, attention, then surely that one is a contender. Essentially the article suggests that when we give in to our kids all the time and remove obstacles or hardship from their lives, we create people who expect that all the time. When we wrap our kids up in…

Principal Whole College

There She Goes

faithadmin Jul 12, 2023 0 Comments

One of my favourite songs is There She Goes by ‘The La’s.’ Simple, melodic, not over lyrical, timeless, brilliant. When it comes on the radio you turn it up, people look at you funny at the lights because they catch you singing along, it’s a feel-good banger. …and I just can’t contay-eee-ain the feeling that remay-eee-ains! Next week will be the final week of service at Faith for our remarkable Head of Junior School, Jodi Blackwell. As you will know by now Jodi has been appointed to serve as the Deputy Director of Identity and Formation at Lutheran Education Queensland…

Create@Faith Junior School Principal Uncategorised Whole College

The Wonderland

faithadmin Jun 7, 2023 0 Comments

Picture yourself in a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies. The line above is of course the opening words of the famous Beatles song, ‘Lucy in the sky with diamonds’, a trippy, probably drug induced, take on … well, who knows? Unless you are a primary school teacher, then it is basically a description of an Art lesson. I had the great pleasure earlier this week to wander through our Junior School and have a look at some of the delightful work on display from our primary kids. The theme for the work was the same…

Principal Whole College

Overtaking on the Left

faithadmin May 25, 2023 0 Comments

I live in Redland Bay and work at Victoria Point. Like many in our community I have the great joy of travelling each day up and down the Cleveland/Redland Bay Road. It is about an 8km trip, and it can take anywhere between 10 minutes and half an hour, depending on the time of day or night and, of course, the traffic. Now you need to understand this road. It is at points a two-lane road, at others a 4-lane road. The section I travel has, for memory, about 7 sets of traffic lights and there are currently various lots…

NAPLAN: A Critique.

If they can almost do it … let them.

Two’s company but three is even better

A Foolish Foundation

If I had more time I would write a shorter letter

10 Years Ago

Your Parenting is Curable

There She Goes

The Wonderland

Overtaking on the Left

You Missed

Joy

Do Kids Still Build Billy Carts? Rediscovering the Value of a Play-Based Childhood

School Leadership in Faith-Based Schools: A Unique Responsibility

It’s celebration time!