In my last newsletter article, I spoke to the mission statement or ‘why’ of St Andrews Christian College. Our mission statement is ‘To educate our students so that they are well skilled, understand life on the basis of biblical truth, and are motivated to walk with God and serve Him in their lives, so that they will be a positive Christian influence in the world’. When distilling our mission statement down to its core, we see four clear pillars that form our purpose here at St Andrews; well skilled, biblical truth, walk with God and serve Him, positive Christian influence. These are what we call our pillars of purpose, and they ultimately define our existence as a school and inform the direction we set for our future. In this and upcoming newsletter articles, we will be exploring and unpacking each of the four pillars of purpose and articulate what that means for our students, community and future.

The first pillar, well skilled, is one that on face value we view as being exclusively to do with the tangible outcomes of learning and the evidence that supports this. St Andrews Christian College has a strong reputation within and beyond our community for academic excellence, and for good reason. NAPLAN and VCE results continuously point toward a strong culture of learning and a desire for excellence. This reputation of excellent academic outcomes is something that we are immensely proud of and is something that we will continue to prioritise and support long into the future. However, it is also important to look to other areas that point to our students being ‘well skilled’, and understand the role these skills and capacities have to play in shaping the whole child in order to fulfil God’s plans for their lives.

To be well skilled requires more than just the understanding and application of knowledge and information; it requires far more than this. I see that self-awareness, empathy, interpersonal connection, humility and wisdom as being a few of the many characteristics or attributes that contribute to any person being well skilled in a capacity beyond the transactional demonstration of information and knowledge. Wisdom is the central theme throughout the book of Proverbs, and the narrative contained within Proverbs constantly urges us to seek and develop wisdom, comparing the way in which we should seek wisdom similar to that ‘if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure’ (Proverbs 2:4).

At St Andrews Christian College, we are committed to honouring our mission statement by focussing on our pillars of purpose. To educate our students so that they are ‘well skilled’ will always involve and prioritise excellence in learning and teaching which can be evidenced by academic outcomes. We are also committed the notion that in our work and calling as a College, educating students so that they are ‘well skilled’ will always include important character traits such as empathy, integrity, courage, humility and wisdom.