Every season set before us has its own blessings and challenges. In the last few weeks we have been showing groups of students through the new Rawdon Middleton VC Sports Complex. This substantial structure has emerged, over the past twelve months, from the side of a hill and is now almost complete and ready for a new season in the history of the College. The scale of the facility and the quality of the building has been met with some enthusiastic responses from students, teachers and visitors. The multi court facility will soon be operational and officially opened in late August. Plans are currently being prepared to host a range of sports and activities for the benefit of students and our broader community. Thomas Hassall Anglican College is blessed with an amazing resource that reflects the ‘more excellent way’ that underpins our College logo.
As we toured with the various groups of students I talked about the College logo, ‘A More Excellent Way’. I mentioned that this term refers to excellence on two levels, an excellence in the way in which we ‘love’ (both God and one another) and an excellence in the way we ‘live and do life’. I then challenged the students, as I challenge myself and my staff, to ‘walk the walk’. That is, to walk in excellence in all that we ‘say’ and ‘do’. So, what does this look like in practice? Excellence looks like something; it has a practical expression that can be seen in all the little details and is not simply something that is presented at Open Day or in glossy colour brochure. Excellence is captured in the small details: in the way in which we treat one another; excellence is seen in the way we work in our study rooms at home or as we finish that assignment to the very best of our ability; excellence is seen in our commitment to attending sport carnivals and making sure we participate in all the carnival events; excellence is seen in the way in which we speak to teachers and travel home on the bus or conduct ourselves at the local shopping centre with our mates. Excellence is an attitude and a practice that will set us up for success in life and more importantly glorify the great God that we serve. I am not wanting to aim for ‘good’ I am calling each member of the College community to ‘excellence’.
Now the call to ‘excellence’ needs to have some substance. Over the next twelve months the College leaders will make it very clear just what our expectations are around excellence. We are not happy just to get compliance but we want a sense of real commitment and agreement in all the key areas of College life. Finally, I don’t want to aim at being a ‘good school’; I want to be a school that is known for its’ excellence in all areas of life. To achieve this ambitious goal, we need all the students, parents and staff to be in agreement.
