Issue 3 / 14 August 2015
From the Acting Principal ‘Educating Hearts, Minds and Hands’ St Andrews is about providing ‘more than just a good education – an education for good’. Like other schools academic growth and development is our core business but a St Andrews education is about so much more! It is about exploring and developing all aspects of oneself; academic, spiritual, physical, social and emotional, within a community where the Gospel is a lived experience. The practical expression of this varies from our Early Learning Centre; where play based exploration and learning abounds, to the inquiry models in the Junior School; our diverse Middle School electives program, through to our Senior School cohorts’ depth of study across learning disciplines. At every age and stage, teachers work to personalise learning through differentiating tasks and experiences and to connect deeply with students, foster a growth mindset, and a ‘personal best’ approach to learning and living in community.
This term we have continued to encourage students to set goals and to pursue them with an understanding that they are striving to do and to be their best not for themselves alone but also for the benefit of others. In Middle and Senior School students have been exploring the themes of “Love, Humanity and Justice” and the importance of forgiveness.
Service Learning Last Friday a group of Year 11 student volunteers and Mr Schache extended their service learning into action and spent the evening supporting Rosies. Rosies is a volunteer-based non for profit organisation that reaches out to those who are marginalised and homeless on Gold Coast streets. 95% of the work done by Rosies is funded through donations from the local community and irrespective of weather; volunteers including our students, socialise and provide support through offering a warm cuppa, something to eat, a smile and friendly interaction. Earlier this term the Year 11s held a fundraiser and sleep out on the top oval in support of Rosies and a number of students have now decided to volunteer with the support of Mr Schache. That our students are actively seeking to serve others through this initiative, our Leos program, Relay for Life, 40 Hour famine and other programs is a testament to their character and indeed the Gospel being a lived experience at St Andrews. NAPLAN Our students performed above, and in many cases significantly above the Queensland state average and the National average in every single NAPLAN test across every single year level this year. On average students placed +33 points above the State and +24 points above the National averages. Individual student results and summary tables of results have been posted home to families with students in Years 3,5,7 & 9 this week. On average, 98% of our students were above the national benchmark across the whole array of tests. This is an outstanding outcome and testifies to the level of excellence in teaching and learning that occurs at St Andrews.