I am writing this from Brewarrina Christian School, 750 kilometres from GPCC in north-west NSW. I am here for the official opening of Brewarrina Christian School which commenced operation on 7 February. This has been an initiative of GPCC working with the Melos Foundation, our umbrella group, to serve the needs of families in the Brewarrina Shire.

The school commenced with 14 students from Years 3 – 8 on the 1200 acre site of a school that closed in 2018. With another property under renovation in town to serve Kindy to Year 2, the school will grow over the coming years and eventually open boarding facilities as well.

This story is one common to the foundation of most Christian schools in Australia and around the world. GPCC began with 17 students in the Sunday School rooms of Green Point Baptist Church and now hosts 1140 students in its own purpose-built facilities. Christian parents, desiring a different approach to education than that being offered in the public system, opted to place their children in these small and untested institutions. Today there are hundreds of such schools throughout Australia and it is the fastest growing part of the independent school sector.

But the journey for these schools has not always been easy and once again we face a growing threat to what we do. We were founded on the idea of Christian teachers and staff working in a Christian educational community to deliver an education that guides students to understand what a Biblical Christian worldview is like. This meant being able to select only those employees who held faith beliefs in line with the schools and to remove them if they decided to abandon that faith.  In the social and political climates of decades ago, this was accepted and understood. Diversity and tolerance held different meanings. We could agree to disagree and do it with respect and grace.

Today, there is growing antagonism to those who will not accept certain views. Intolerance of those who hold differing beliefs is growing and Christian schools are under the spotlight with lobbyists demanding we lose the ability to employee only those who hold and practice our beliefs. Not being able to do this removes the very foundation upon which our schools operate. We are pushing back against this and lobbying governments at state and federal level to allow us to continue to be who we are.

You can support this, if you desire your school to continue to be what it is – a Christian school. Our national association – Christian Schools Australia, has set up a website that contains information on this issue and links to help you express your views on the matter. I encourage you to explore https://mychristianschool.au  and do your part to protect what we have worked at GPCC for 40 years to build.

In all this we are not seeking something we don’t want of others – the right to practise our religion and express that in all of life, including in education - a right we used to take for granted in a liberal democracy.

Phillip Nash

Principal