Showing respect by being on time…What an excellent start we have had to Term 2! We are now in Week 4, and I have been deeply encouraged by how students have quickly settled back into school routines. Parent partnership has also continued to grow and flourish. With the Community Engagement Committee hosting many events, it has been wonderful to witness our parents’ servant-hearts as they bless our community. Our recent ‘Mums and Muffins’ morning was a precious opportunity to thank the ‘Mums’ in our community for the incredible and important God-given role they play.
I sincerely thank all students, staff and parents for your contribution to our strong start to Term 2. Crossing the Bridgewater Bridge each day, I am intrigued by the addition of all the barges and their role in this mammoth construction project.
I notice each barge is named, and upon closer inspection, each carries the name of a particular human characteristic. Last week, I was drawn to the barge labelled ‘Reliability’. Reliability is not a word that we always hear in a positive context. Often, the media highlights the lack of reliability experienced in our society – public transport, internet signal, and customer service, to name a few. It is not a characteristic or value that is always promoted in business mission statements or company values. However, ‘Respect’ is a core value in most businesses' Value Statements and is one of our school’s Values. Reliability can be reflected in how we show respect to each other. One of my mentors, an interstate CEO, has told me numerous stories about how his staff would arrive late to work, often with a coffee in hand bought from a café up the street. Therefore those staff members have the reputation of not being punctual, thus unable to be relied upon. This characteristic of being unreliable shows a lack of respect. This is not a reputation that I want our students, staff or myself to have. As a Christian school, we believe that everyone is made in God’s image and that every person is valuable. We show respect by treating others well and putting their needs before our own. This is the same as the love God showed for us that we read about in the Bible. The Bible repeatedly tells us to love God, and, therefore, to love others. In John 15:13 it says, 'Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends’. 1 John 3:16 tells us, 'This is how we know what love is - Jesus laid down his life for us, so we ought to lay down our lives for others.'
I think this clearly answers why we need to be intentional in teaching our students to show respect by being reliable. As a transformational Christian learning community, we need to work together to model and teach students the values and characteristics that equip them for life now and in the future. One way we can do this is to prioritise being on time - being reliable - as a way that we show respect. For example, by arriving on time to school, we show consideration for the classroom schedule, routines and learning environment. This week, I encouraged and challenged students to work hard to be on time as a way to demonstrate respect and love for others. This term, we will equip students with ideas on how to be more reliable; to be at class on time in the morning and after recess and lunch breaks by moving towards their classroom, toilets and drinking fountains when they hear the first bell. Likewise, students have been asked to encourage others to be on time. This expectation also extends to our staff. We want our students to know that being on time is a beautiful way to show love and respect for someone else. Reliability is sometimes a challenge for us all, including me. Let us work together to seek God’s wisdom and strength to instil the importance to our students of being wise with their time and respecting and valuing others’ time. Bethany Armstrong - Principal
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