Working with children and teenagers is an interesting career choice. In fact, I did not ever really imagine myself as a teacher because school was not a place I particularly enjoyed. I was home schooled for most of my primary years, then was in a Queensland high school for a year before going to an elite British school in the Solomon Islands where the local students were selected from the brightest and best of the country and I got in simply because I was a foreigner.

After 36 years of being in schools, I now recognise the value and significance of the choice. Investing in the lives of children and young people is a terrific thing to spend your working life doing. It has many challenges, not least of which is not actually the children but sometimes you, the parents. Sorry to have to say it, but on occasion, you are tougher than your children.

I have always believed that the best education comes from school and home working closely together. To help a child move through their formative years and see them equipped to go beyond school and into the rest of life successfully brings great satisfaction.

As we seek to work together at GPCC, it is important we show respect for each other’s roles, experience and knowledge. We need each other for the best to be done for our children. I have enjoyed getting to interact with many GPCC parents and recognise the commitment you all have to see your child get the best. We may sometimes fail to deliver what you hope for, and for that I apologise. But our hearts are to do the best we can for your child, and we are committed to improving and learning to do better.

The children and teenagers in our school are great. We often get asked at enrolment time if we have bullying or drugs or relationship issues in our school. We always say yes, because of course we occasionally do. When you put 1000 children and teenagers together you are going to get some poor behaviour happening – that is the human condition. But I am pleased to say that these things are rare.

Our greatest challenge is in helping students to learn how to relate well together. We live in a world of spiteful and hurtful comments on social media being almost the norm and this spills over into the way children relate to each in the flesh. But this is a great challenge to have. We have opportunity to help them learn a different way of being – to be kind, to be helpful, to be considerate, to be thoughtful and so on.

This comes when they see it modelled by home and school so that we stand out from the virtual world where people hide behind anonymity and facelessness. We want our students to be Godly people who stand up and stand out for what is right and best in humanity. We can help them achieve this as we work together in partnership to equip them for a fruitful life.

Principal