Up to her ears in mud, muck and catering, the wedding-events organiser paused in the “stables” and sat for a few minutes to have a coffee and I wandered past and joined her.
Her business was new but seemed to be thriving, and amid all the chaos of the hours before over 150 people descended on the country property for a wedding celebration, she asked what I did for a living.
I answered that I worked at an independent school in Port Macquarie. This information seemed to re-energise her and she talked glowingly about her family’s decision to send her two young children to an Anglican independent school in their area.
Their previous school had been “nice” but….
She admitted that, in conjunction with being in the early days of a new business, it was a bit of a “financial stretch” but that it had been “one of the best decisions for the family” that they had made.
Their children felt happy, safe and well known in their new school already. Any resistance to getting up and going to school had been replaced by an eagerness to get to school that was both pleasing but occasionally daunting (“So many activities, so many opportunities!”).
I know the school she spoke of quite well and am sure that there are many other families who would tell a similar story. A happy story of finding what they needed and wanted for their children.
I hope that there are parents in our area who would be happy to tell a relative stranger how happy they are with their choice of St Columba. Not only because it is nice to hear that we are doing a good job but because feeling happy, safe and engaged at school is an important “gift” that some students never receive, and there is no doubt that their potential for success in life can be compromised by this.
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is my firm belief that no individual school or school system can be perfect for every child, but that it is wonderful when each individual child finds a school that is truly “theirs”.
In a world where things change so quickly and there is so much to worry about, schools such as ours can be the place that parents feel safe sending their children, knowing that they will receive care as well as opportunities to grow into a bright future.
 | Mr Terry Muldoon Principal, St Columba Anglican School |