I attended the Christian Schools National Policy Forum in Canberra over three days this week. It is an annual gathering of Christian School leaders from around the country. We addressed such topics as the spiritual profile of Australians based on the national census and also the National Church Life Survey, what it means to hold a faith in an increasingly secular world, the changing profile of school sectors in Australia, the rising tide of depression and anxiety in teenagers.  

This gathering helps us understand and reflect on what is happening in our culture and how we as Christian school leaders might lead our schools well. They are always very insightful and challenging events.  I especially appreciated the presentation by the Headmaster of Shore, Dr John Collier who is one of Australia’s leading principals. He spent 12 years as Headmaster at St Andrews Cathedral School and is currently at Shore helping them to wrestle with many of the issues we noted at the Forum. I have known John for many years and he is an insightful and wise school leader.

We at GPCC are experiencing a growing number of students who are experiencing anxiety and depression. Dr Collier pointed to a range of possible causes including, poor and unsupervised social media use, the loss of a spiritual focus in student’s lives, weak parenting, the prevalence of illicit drugs, the allure of the ephemeral and superficial in the entertainment industry and so on. There is no simple answer to all this but helping young people to have a vision of the world and its future that is hopeful rather than hopeless, is one of the keys. 

At GPCC we are working on encouraging a more outward and service-oriented focus for our students. Focusing too much on ourselves and buying into the individualistic philosophy of modern Australia, is not producing the type of adult we would hope for. The Christian faith calls us to consider God and others before ourselves and is an antidote to the self-absorption that so many of our young people are falling into.

We have talked about setting up a parent support program to help you deal with the many challenges of being a good parent today.  Following the ideas presented at the Forum, I have moved that up my agenda. We all want the best for our children, and we all need help to be good parents. We can work together as school and home to do this. I also encourage you to consider involvement in a local Church as another good place to get support in raising your children. It takes a village they say, well between school and Church and the sports clubs and other organisations that children and young people can get involved in, there is every reason to provide a healthy environment in which they can grow.

Phillip Nash

Principal