Principal's End of Year Address

The Good Shepherd Lutheran Primary School

2008 End-Of-Year Service And Graduation Ceremony

Principal’s Address

A warm welcome to our special guests this evening;
• Dr Ken Bartel, Director for Lutheran Schools, South Eastern Region, and his wife Cheryl.
• Mrs Elizabeth Kloeden, Deputy Director for Lutheran Schools, South Eastern Region.
• Mr Adrian Wiles, Principal of Luther College.
• Mr Tony Dillon, Chair of The Good Shepherd Lutheran Primary School Council.

A very special welcome to you and thank you for joining us tonight. May I also mention that our Director, Dr Bartel, is in fact retiring at the end of the year. We are very pleased that he has been able to include our Service tonight in his extremely busy schedule.

Would you please join me in recognising the service of our Director, Dr Bartel (applause).

Parents, friends, staff and students of The Good Shepherd Lutheran Primary School.

It does not seem so long ago that we were gathered in this Chapel, celebrating the commencement of another School year and looking forward to all that 2008 would bring. These past four School terms have quickly come and gone, and here we are again gathering to celebrate the end of another successful and rewarding year. We come together to thank God for the many blessings we have received and farewell those departing our School community; closing one chapter in their lives and opening another.

From a School perspective, it has been an interesting year. Our students have continued to enjoy and thrive from their participation in a variety of rich learning experiences. Our teachers and support staff have continued to devote so much time and energy to provide for the educational and pastoral needs of their students. And our parent body has continued to provide the high level of support and involvement on which our School relies.

As a School community (our staff and our students) we have learnt patience. We have learnt to wait … and wait … and wait some more. And then we celebrated, as the fences came down, the barriers were removed and we invaded … the new oval.

It has been an interesting year nationally and internationally too. What are the stories that have dominated the air waves and the print media during this past year?

We have lived each day of the USA Presidential nomination and election campaign … and survived!

We have been told that the global economy is slowing but not in danger of a recession, is nearing a recession, is not in a recession but is in something resembling a recession, is in recession, is in the worst recession since the last recession, is as close to a depression as we have got since the last depression … in fact it is all quite depressing!

The Australian dollar has dropped, lost value, plummeted, or reached its realistic value, depending upon whether or not you are an importer or exporter, or are planning an overseas holiday.

There are quite a few things that haven’t changed;

There is still war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in lots of other places too.

There is still violence in our city streets.

Poverty and disadvantage still afflict so many people in our community, in our country and in our world.

The earth is still getting warmer, or is that colder, or is that warmer?

There, without realising, I’ve worked my way back to depression again!

As a Principal, as a teacher and, like a large number of you, as a parent, I am profoundly aware of the world in which we bring up our children and the messages we constantly expose them to.

Where is the message of hope in our world today?

Maybe I should make it clear what I mean when I define hope. I am not referring to the wishful thinking, lottery ticket based type of hope. You know, the type of hope people may have that their numbers will come up and all their dreams will come true. There is not a lot of basis to it … it is a wish, a hope for something to come true or happen. No, that is not the hope I am referring to.

I’m talking about a hope that is founded on a confident belief that there is a future, a future worth embracing. It is worth persevering; I can laugh, I can strive, I can plan, I can celebrate and I can at this moment make a difference.

I am firmly of the opinion that we at Good Shepherd, concerned as we are with the educational, social, emotional and spiritual welfare of our students, are in the HOPE business. We are about entering a partnership with you our parents to form hopeful young people; ready to meet the challenges of this life and this world, with confidence, with joy, with perseverance and with … hope!

The most inspirational people throughout history were “hope filled” people … and many were from circumstances that were seemingly hopeless.

Last year, while travelling on Long Service Leave, I was made aware of the achievements and writings of the famous Czech playwright and politician; father of the new Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel. Despite the political oppression and turmoil of his time, his writings are full of hope.

“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out”. Havel.

“Hope is a state of mind, that is not of the world. Hope in this powerful sense is not the same as joy that things are going well, … but rather an ability to work for something because it is good”. Havel.

So what is the recipe for instilling or developing hope in our young people, and what role do we as a School and as parents play?

I believe hope rises best when an education at school and at home has a good serving of the following ingredients;

• opportunities for potential to be discovered and nurtured.
• an academic foundation on which success and the pursuit of excellence can be built and effort applauded.
• inspiration, wonder and exploration.
• opportunities for the development of self-confidence, initiative, self-reliance, resilience, persistence.
• social and emotional intelligence that fosters the growing of healthy relationships.
• encouragement.
• a realistic view of self.
• laughter, fun and dreaming of dreams.
• influential, positive role models.
• and a very large serve of something … of someone to believe in.

As parents and as a School, we each contribute to this recipe in various amounts. However, we are all involved in the cooking … it is not a one person job … it is us working together, mutually respecting and supporting each other.

As a School community, we heard again tonight another story of hope; the story of salvation, presented to us by the students.

A Saviour promised to a world and a people who needed saving. The fulfilment of that promise through the birth of the Christ Child, and the freedom received through the life, death and resurrection of God’s Son.

It is a message of hope for all human-kind … past, present and future.

It is a message of certainty, of confidence, of trust, of faith in God’s love for us and His special plan for us.

In a world in which the message we receive is frequently one that causes us to tremble in anxiety and uncertainty, God’s message of hope causes us to tremble with excitement and anticipation; of opportunities for the grasping and promises to be fulfilled.

The Christian writer Eugene Peterson writes;

“Hoping does not mean doing nothing … It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusion … Hoping is not dreaming. It is not spinning an illusion or fantasy to protect us … It means a confident, alert expectation that God will do what He said He will do. It is imagination put in the harness of faith. It is a willingness to let God do it in His way and in His time.” Eugene Peterson.

Dear students graduating from The Good Shepherd Lutheran Primary School. You have such exciting futures ahead of you … and you have only just scratched the surface of all that is before you. Live with hope.

Dear parents, staff members, and friends; only God knows what is in store for each one of us. Live with hope. Live with the hope that comes from putting all in God’s hands, and letting Him do the worrying.

Thank you.

Greg Schneider
Principal

12th December 2008