2018 been a very full 20th year in the life of the College with many successes celebrated and challenges faced. In a sometimes turbulent world, we have aimed to provide stability and consistency, and to be faithful to the trust that you have placed in us. Through the year, each one of us has made decisions and judgments based on who we are and what we believe to be true. Problem is, there has rarely been more uncertainty and more discomfort about a notion of absolute “truth” in our history as there is in the western world today.
Our society continues to drift towards self-centredness and secular thinking; and in doing so, tends to discard anything of a spiritual nature; and leaving us with humans establishing their own truth framework.
At Charlton, we believe that when we take God out of a society, we remove purpose and hope and replace Him with a failed paradigm with humanity at the centre.
As a Christian school, we pray we have faithfully identified and operated with a set of absolute values centred around God and our accountability to Him. We pray that we have operated in a way that reflects our belief that each person is uniquely created and loved by God, with a purpose to use the gifts God has given in the service of others. We pray that we have fulfilled our responsibility as a College to partner with parents to develop these gifts, giving each child an opportunity to reach their potential.
As staff, we are unified in seeing our work as one that we do in partnership with you as parents, to see your children educated in a holistic way; seeing education as academic, spiritual and character development. To this end, I applaud the commitment of our staff who have once again worked in a way that sees the value and potential in each child and who consider it a privilege to guide them on their journey through quality relationships.
When we work with people, particularly when it is good work that produces a satisfying outcome, relationships are formed. Similarly, God calls us to relationship because He wants us to know Him better, working with Him for outcomes of eternal significance. I look forward to continuing to share this work with you as we head into 2019 – but in the meantime, I pray you will be struck by a renewed sense of the fullness of God – His grace and truth – as you celebrate the birth of the Christ child.
Mr Mark Ash / Principal
