I would like to congratulate all students who received awards or performed on the Perth Concert Hall stage at our Celebration Night on Monday evening. It was a very polished night and allowed us to acknowledge many of our students’ successes during the 2-hour long program.
As I said on the evening, I believe it has been another very successful year at Swan. I am encouraged to see so many different groups in our community working together and individually to make the most of the wide range of opportunities available in the College. In addition to the students who received awards, it is important to acknowledge those students who, although not recognised individually, can be happy that this is a year where they have achieved to their very best. To all students, as your thinking starts to move towards 2020, I encourage you to take part in one or more of the extracurricular options available at Swan Christian College. Join in and try new things.
Another item I addressed was how we prepare our students to be innovative, creative and curious students as well as good people in our rapidly changing world. As teachers, we need to balance the teaching of content with the creating of innovative thinking opportunities. We need to create connectivity between our content and our ideas. We need to ask bold questions; at what point does the focus on content impede curiosity? Or, when does the spoon feeding of content become a choking hazard? We know that we need to create connectivity between content and ideas.
These questions, and a rethink of how we teach and what we teach, continue to be investigated at Swan as we plan for the 2020 school year. This will be an ongoing focus as we seek to constantly improve the learning process for our students. Identifying which components of our school curriculum have not changed in the last 10 years and a critical investigation of our role as teachers in the preparation of our students for the future is central. How do we educate for the future beyond the present and educate for the present which becomes the past? How do we identify and find the balance?
Finally, my thanks to all parents and family who attended and supported our Celebration Night. In our busy world, it is difficult to find opportunities to come together as a learning community to reflect and share in our successes. I enjoyed sharing them with you this week.
Adrian Scott
Principal