From the Principal

Newsletter 19 2022

Dear Members of the St Andrews College Community,

Having just completed a very successful Year 7-11 Awards Ceremony and Liturgy, and then receiving the wonderful news about the success of our Higher School Certificate students.We are looking forward to receiving the HSC Data Analysis in January so that we can gauge the Learning Gain that we expect to receive with the the Graduating Class of 2022. Growth, not ranks, is a concept that all educators should aim for. Educational Leaders who focus on the rank of the school rather than the growth of student miss what our true goal is. 

Thank you all for the support you have given myself and the College this year. I am blessed to be part of such a great community. May you all have a happy, holy, and joyous Christmas. I hope you all enjoy time with family and friends. Stay safe, and we will see you in 2023.

‘It’s All About Learning’

Advent Reflection: 

ADVENT - JOY and SORROW

The period before Christmas has that remarkable quality of joy that seems to touch not only Christians but all who live in our society, but Advent is not only a period of joy. It is also a time when those who are lonely feel lonelier than during other periods of the year. Those who have hope often feel much joy and desire to give during Advent. Whilst those who have no hope may feel more depressed than ever and are often thrown back on their lonely selves in despair.

Surrounded by a loving family, supportive friends and community, Advent and Christmas feels like pure joy. The challenge for me this year is that if I am able to remember loneliness during joy, I might also be able to remember joy during loneliness and so be stronger to face it and help others to face it. When Jesus was at His loneliest, he gave most. This realisation should help to deepen our commitment to service and let our desire to give become independent of our actual experience of joy.

Joy is the candle we light this week. The third rose coloured advent candle, but, what is this joy we speak of? Is it just a word we put on chalkboards, hang on mantels, and add to our Christmas card messages? What does it mean to have joy when there is so much sorrow and ache surrounding these particular holidays? The missing of a loved one who has died, the ache of loneliness, broken relationships and shattered dreams fill so many of our stories and seem to be so much more poignant at Christmas. Christmas holds so much wonder, and ache. Advent is a time of waiting, waiting in wonder and ache. A wonder at all we have seen God do and an ache for all that has yet to be done.

The words from “Oh Holy Night” blasted out on the radio this week and resonated with my soul in fresh ways. “The weary world rejoices.” Yes, the weary, weary world. I felt very weary. The rejoicing world, getting ready and caught in the preparation and joy of the coming festivities.

Rejoicing holds greater joy for the one who sees joy break into their weariness. My prayer for the families in our community is for joy, joy with a disclaimer; “Only joy please Lord, no pain”. What I forgot was that, true joy is not the absence of pain but the very transformation of it. The joy that I was praying for was the kind that transcends darkness, throws back the curtains of pain and shouts to a broken world, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:5) This is not the kind of joy found in the quick fixes of this world, but in the presence of the One who makes all things new.

It is often said that you cannot have true joy until you know great sorrow. The ache our hearts feel for the brokenness all around us, discovered in the midst of the sorrows that invade our lives. It is in the knowing of great sorrow that we more fully realise the joy that is coming, in that wonderful promise “Behold, I am making all things new”. This begins to grip the heart of the weary as we find joy in the presence of our Saviour and joy in the wonder and hope of His promise to redeem it all.

This story of ours, this story of our world that will be redeemed, and have great purpose, is revealed in the greatest story ever told. Joy will erupt, can erupt now, and will erupt fully. For when you know the King, then you know the Joy. Just as thousands of years ago, people waited for the coming of the King, so we know today He came, and we sit in our Advent season waiting for the King to come again.

“Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again,

and your heart will rejoice,

and no one will take your joy away from you.” John 16:22

It is there that we need to be, in the waiting, in the assurance of God’s saving acts and in the hope of Christ’s coming. The drama of Advent is our faith that in the midst of a darkening world, the candles that we light each week reflect the light of Christ, the light of God, that breaks into our challenges, loneliness, anxieties, grief, a light that breaks into shatter the darkness and turn our fear and grief into joy.

God breaks in on the world sharing God’s love in one human being, born in Bethlehem, who will show us the way of love. The God who comes to us in Advent and Christmas is a God who is with us, Emmanuel, in the midst of our pain and grief, a God who accompanies us on our difficult journeys.

The candles that we light are candles of hope, peace, joy and love, but they are also expressions of our faith. Our little gestures of lighting candles seem meaningless, irrelevant, up against the glitter and baubles of commercialism - but they are neither meaningless or irrelevant, they are signs of God’s coming to us in Jesus Christ, signs of the light that shines in the darkness, light that the darkness cannot overcome. Let us rejoice in that coming light, rejoice in the love that comes to us, and rejoice as we share that love with the world.

HSC Results:

Congratulations to the Graduating Class of 2022 on the excellent results achieved this year. Although some students are overseas, or uncontactable, we are endeavouring to collect all ATAR’s and start renewed conversations surrounding future pathways due to results exceeding what the students initial expectations were, or that their Early Acceptance Offers covered. This is an exciting time for students, families and staff as it reinforces our mantra of hard work and feedback. Ms Kalifa will add further detail to results we have to date further into the Newsletter, and we are already planning the High Achievers Assembly for 2023 where we have much to celebrate and acknowledge.

The fact that we had Joanna Owusu place First in the State in Community and Family Studies, and Abiel Santos receive a perfect score of 100 in Advanced Mathematics while in Year 11 speaks of the success of our Acceleration Program.

Congratulations Class of 2022 we are very proud of you all and the effort you put in.

Building Works:

At present we have the new portable classrooms being totally gutted and renovated on the Junior Campus. That will be followed by the older portable classrooms being totally gutted and renovated.

We also have the toilet block on the Senior Campus being totally gutted and renovated. All projects are due to be completed by the end of 2022.

Enrolment for Year 11 2023 NOW OPEN

Year 7 2023 still has a significant waiting list

We are accepting applications for 2024 now

Fidem in Christo

Dr Stephen Kennaugh
Principal