From the Principal

Welcome to the 2020 academic year. It has been a challenging summer break with bushfires, floods and storms but a reminder we live in a tough country.
You will have received from me a welcome letter presenting our new core purpose statement, our mission goals, graduate profile and new motto – Equipped for Life!
The staff and I have been unpacking these statements together and I will be doing that for you over the coming weeks through this newsletter. I trust you enjoy our new electronic format and find it easier to navigate to find information pertinent to you.
I believe every organisation needs to know its purpose, have that captured in some simple statements and then go about its business making every endeavour to fulfil that purpose. It is good from time to time to stop and take stock of where we are at and how we are doing and then to re-launch ourselves. GPCC is doing that now.
I presented to the staff last week a draft of a School Improvement Plan for our school. This is an approach recommended by leading educational practitioners in Australia and around the world. I have sought to draw on the research and experience of others in this field as we develop a plan for the improvement of our school. Your participation in the survey from last year has also helped shape my thinking about the areas we need to focus on.
Our new core purpose statement and graduate profile shape our focus for school improvement. We want to be a high performing school and I have presented to staff ideas on how we are going to work at lifting our performance. High performance for us will mean much more than just raising the academic achievement of all students – although it certainly does include that. It means ensuring everything we do helps to grow each student in a positive way towards the graduate profile.
Together, you and we are parenting and schooling the children in our school towards becoming flourishing people, who understand their purpose in life, commit themselves to be what God created them to be and go out to serve others well in whatever field of service he calls them to.
The Staff and I look forward to partnering with you this year in this.
Phillip Nash
Principal