The Primary Athletics Carnival yesterday was an exciting day filled with personal bests, photo finishes and students encouraging their fellow competitors, in what was a beautiful, sunny day at The Ridge Athletics Track.
Following the Liberal/National Coalition's surprise election victory last weekend, it will be interesting to see what action the government takes to protect the rights of Christian schools to do what they have been doing for many years – employing Christian staff, teaching the Bible through devotions and Christian studies lessons, providing a Christian perspective on a range of areas of learning and being guided by the Scriptures to lovingly care for our students.
Since the election, LNP Senator Amanda Stoker delivered a speech at the Christian Schools National Policy Forum which gave an indication of what the Federal Government intends to do. She said that the coalition is committed to introducing a Religious Discrimination Bill, which would make it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of a person's religious belief or activity, including discrimination in education.
Senator Stoker also noted in her speech that the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) will be conducting an inquiry into religious freedom. She said that the inquiry aims to achieve the twin purposes of: (1) limiting or removing legislative exemptions to prohibitions on discrimination based on a person's identity, while also (2) protecting the right of faith-based institutions (including religious schools) to conduct their affairs in a way consistent with their religious beliefs and ethos.
The recommendations of this inquiry will be very influential on the specific wording of any laws that are subsequently created or changed. Therefore, I encourage our parents and supporters to consider making a submission to the inquiry when the ALRC invites people to do so.
I also encourage parents to continue praying that governments in the future will support and protect our approach to education and also provide us with a fair amount of funding.
For those who are concerned about this topic, you may also consider writing to Labor Party Members of Parliament. Since the election, I understand that the ALP are reconsidering several of their stated policy positions and I trust that religious freedom will be one of them.
NAPLAN
Before concluding this fortnight’s newsletter article, I would like to briefly acknowledge the NAPLAN tests and also provide you with a quick update on our hall renovation. The NAPLAN tests went smoothly this year and I thank our Deputy, Mr Stonestreet, and a member of our administration team, Mrs Waters, for all of their work in administering the tests. I appreciate that this year's tests were surrounded in some controversy; however, this did not affect our students because the problems were experienced by students who completed the tests on a computer. Our school opted for our students to use a pen and paper. Next year, however, it is likely that all schools will be obliged to complete the tests online.
School Hall Update
Finally, while the renovation on the school hall is progressing well, I was advised this week of an unforeseen and unexpected issue which I am very confident can be resolved; however, it is likely to delay when the project will be finished. We had planned to hold separate Junior and Secondary thanksgiving assemblies in the hall in the last week of term; however, I think it is wise to postpone those assemblies to a later date given the delay. I thank everyone in the school community for their patience and flexibility while the hall has been out of action.
Mr Brett Hartley
Principal
