Principal and CEO
Cherylynne Gostelow
Principal and CEO
Education for Human Flourishing
09 February 2026
Dear Parents and Carers
Just before school closed last year, I read the following statement from Andreas Schleicher in an OECD paper published in November 2025 : “Education for Human Flourishing”
OECD (2025), Education for human flourishing: A conceptual framework, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://oecd.org/en/publications/education-for-human-flourishing_73d7cb96-en.html.
… the nature of education that will help people become successful is changing as well. Education is no longer just about teaching students something, but about helping them develop a reliable compass and the tools to navigate with confidence through an increasingly complex, volatile and uncertain world. Success in education today is about building curiosity – opening minds, it is about compassion – opening hearts, and it is about courage, mobilising our cognitive, social and emotional resources to take action. And those are also our best weapon against the biggest threats of our times - ignorance – the closed mind, hate – the closed heart, and fear – the enemy of agency.
What intrigues me is that this highly respected educator, who has had a great influence on education in Scandinavian countries that perform exceptionally in education, has made a statement that echoes what we hold true for our learning model at Calvary.
Helping students “develop a reliable compass” is what we do at Calvary through our Formation program which makes clear to students the unchanging nature of God and the standards of behaviour he requires of us. Micah 6:8 answers the question asked of the writer “What does God require of us” and the answer forms the basis of our interactions with one another at Calvary.
Act justly
Show mercy and
Walk humbly with your God.
In the child friendly words our community uses,
Be Fair
Be Kind
Be Your Best Self.
As you may know these three behaviour descriptions form the basis of many of our conversations with students and each other both when things go well and when they don’t go so well. This is key to the reliable compass we want our children to develop.
At Calvary, formation of character and faith focuses on knowing and understanding Biblical truths, application of these to developing good character and the visible outworking is to serve others. What we know, shapes how we grow and inspires our actions.
Within our Christian faith community there is place for every student to explore their “reliable compass” no matter what their personal conviction in this season of their lives.
Through the Calvary character framework and the Calvary learning habits we seek to provide children and young people with the “tools to navigate with confidence through an increasingly complex, volatile and uncertain world.” For us as educators, these are not just words. They are at the core of all we do every day as we design learning opportunities, help students develop robust thinking skills and strong social skills. What we do to accomplish this is embedded thoughtfully in all we do and we seek to do this in an integrated way that has coherence and is accessible to students at every stage of their development.
As you partner with us, you will see the language of Andreas Schleicher echoed in classroom posters, at assemblies, in chapels, on our playgrounds and sports fields, in our communications (both formal and informal) and in our actions and interactions as we build what we know is an opportunity for your child to engage in an exceptional learning experience that impacts every aspect of their being.
This is best practice education. This is Calvary.
Yours sincerely,
Cherylynne Gostelow
Principal and CEO
2026 Steady Strategic Direction
02 February 2026
Dear Parents and Carers
I want to begin by thanking you for preparing your children so well for the start of the school year. I appreciate the priority you have placed on this. We have many students new to Calvary and returning students who have grown (uniforms needed), changed stages (new ways of working to be accommodated that reflect growing independence) and the usual stationery requirements, lunch boxes and what must often seem like an endless list to be managed in the lead up to the start of school. The year began with high energy and I am appreciative of the way you partnered with us in giving your children a good start to 2026.
The intentional work done over the past few years in learning more about the growth of the whole child, recognising that this applies to a lifetime of growth and development for all people, and applying our deeper knowledge and growing wisdom to Calvary’s teaching and learning model has reached a point where we can confidently say Calvary ‘grows the whole child through a stage-based learning model’ that seeks to draw together parents, staff and the young people themselves in designing, implementing and monitoring their growth goals.
It is difficult to describe briefly the outcome of a highly collaborative team working with a strong focus and in an integrated way. Our staff have succeeded in providing a seamless, powerful growth experience for students on their P-12 journey at Calvary. Of course, there are challenges along the journey of growth for all of us, and I am particularly proud of the way the Calvary community shows the courage and care for one another to tackle the difficult moments and find our way to the deeply vibrant, authentic faith community experience we hold in our vision for everyone at Calvary Christian College.
Over the summer break we have continued our work to renew facilities (both grounds and buildings) in ways that support our vision for what matters most in education. The damage from Cyclone Alfred shifted the priorities of some of our plans for 2025 and November’s storm damage impacted work over the summer. As I look back at what has been achieved since the start of February 2025, I can see how what may appear calamitous to us can actually help propel us more swiftly into the refreshed Calvary we earnestly desire. Careful planning has meant we could act rather than react as we know what the ‘dream’ looks like. Extreme weather and unreliable supply chains have meant delay to several projects we worked very hard to deliver for the start of 2026. The Carbrook campus has been more impacted by this and I thank you for your patience and the encouragement you give your children to make the most of each day. The Prep to Stage 1 playground under development at Carbrook will be open for the start of term 2. The long-awaited Springwood playground will be completed this year. Both campuses can look forward to even more improvements over 2026. There is always so much to do! And we have a plan!
Other projects begun a few years ago such as our support of Compassion where each cohort sponsors a child in the Iloilo area of the Philippines, and our support of Farm Angels as our national service project, have taken leaps forward as, in 2025, the College partnered with Real Life Christian Church to bring about a very successful trip to the Philippines where four of our students met the children sponsored by the College. This helps make the project real to all in our community. The Year 9 service trip to Chinchilla, Queensland headquarters of Farm Angels began three years ago with a somewhat reluctant and sceptical cohort who set out for a week of tent camping and service in late term 3. Only three years later, this trip has become a highlight on the calendar for our Year 9 students and the positive impact of the trip on them is undeniable. We look forward to this ‘rites of passage’ experience in the formation of our Year 9 students later this year.
And, of course, Calvary is still Calvary with our students participating in and achieving remarkable outcomes across sport, music, the agriculture (farm) program as well as the extensive co-curricular program. Many students have already signed up for co-curricular and extra-curricular activities and I encourage those who may feel they have ‘missed the boat’ in the ‘busyness’ of week 1 to talk with their teachers, their Heads of Stage, or their Head of School for advice and guidance. There is something for everyone at Calvary and we encourage our students to find their place through participation in the widely varied program, find their tribe through the opportunities to build deepening friendships, and to find what makes them the unique beings God created them to be.
None of the variety of what Calvary offers you and your children is possible without the commitment of a talented and (almost tireless) staff team led by the College Executive and we appreciate the support of the College Council whose often invisible work secures the support structure and direction of the business and culture.
May 2026 be a year of blessing and growth for each of us.
Yours sincerely,
Cherylynne Gostelow
Principal and CEO
Digital Devices - Effective Teaching Tools?
Dear Parents and Carers
Last week, psychologist Judith Locke addressed interested parents on Wednesday and Thursday evenings about how we can parent our children in ways that lead to them becoming successful, independent young adults. Thank you to those of you who took the time out to consider even better ways to parent your children. I remember from my own parenting journey how each stage brought its own challenges and, as you are aware, each child is different and that brings its own challenges.
I can also say that being a parent has been the greatest source of growth in my own character. So don’t be surprised if you find yourself examining your own values, behaviours and responses as you seek to balance what Judith calls ‘demandingness’ and at the College we call expectations with what Judith calls ‘responsiveness’ and we refer to as support.
Judith names five essential skills – the 5 Rs:
-
- resilience,
- self-regulation,
- resourcefulness,
- respect and
- responsibility
All five are identifiably part of our learning habits framework and the Calvary character virtues speak to how these 5Rs can help us grow in character.
Over the next few fortnights, I want to share with you what we at the College have been doing and plan to do to support you with screen time and the ways our children use screen time. We have also been interrogating our use of tech as teaching tool across the College P-12 and there are already several changes in place, with more to come. Look out for these subjects elaborated in the communications that are yet to come your way. Access to recent Principal’s communications is easily found on the website – the Communications button will take you to Principal’s communications where you will find tiles linking to previous communications. It’s worth looking back to get the full benefit of the ideas and information I am sharing with you.
In a recent McCrindle report Reimagining Education (2025), his social demographers have found that, in response to the statement "There is too much focus on teaching aided by technology," 83% of parents, 73% of students, and 86% of educators strongly agreed. This reassures me that the attention we are paying to the use of tech as teaching tool is not misdirected.
The work of many experts, e.g. Jonathan Haidt, Judith Locke and Danielle Einstein, presents a compelling picture of data linking student unhappiness with the ill-considered use of digital devices.
Today I want to update you on the work we have already engaged in with our MSS staff and students in recent years. In 2018 we required mobile phones to be kept in lockers during the school day. We were one of the first schools to do this and no one was more surprised than I when our students thanked us!
Over the past few years, we have been training our teachers to use technology in the classroom, particularly laptops, strategically and purposefully to enhance learning and to avoid using technology in a way that distracts or circumvents learning. Essentially, we want to use the laptop for something only the laptop can do, which has meant we have seen a resurgence of pen and paper in many classroom lessons. To promote effective use of laptops in classrooms when teachers make a deliberate choice that the digital device is the ideal medium, we have introduced LineWize – a software program that enables teachers to limit and safeguard the individual activities of students when they use their computers. There are many stories of students who are surprised when their teacher interrupts their off-topic access to the internet. Sometimes this interrupts their shopping or other undirected browsing habits! And we have made Qustodio available to all parents so that you can monitor the school device after school hours usage for your child and you may choose to monitor one other device your child uses. You will find instructions on how to find and use Qustodio in the Parent Information section of the website under the Cyber Safety Support tab. There are other examples of steps we have taken to protect the development of your children’s brains, work habits and social skill development. I shall elaborate on these in the coming weeks.
Of course, in a rapidly changing world, the challenges of parenting children with access to digital devices keep shifting as we seek to respond to the impacts on our children of rapid technological disruption. My recent reflections focus on three central tenets:
“Strong guardrails early. Growing autonomy over time. Human judgment always in charge.” (Andreas Schleicher) and I will share more on this theme next time I write. But today I want to share some encouraging news with you:
Over the past two years our MSS students have participated in an external survey run by the National Church Life Survey developed recently for secondary school students. In 2025 an encouraging 79% of our students rated themselves as happy, with an average rating of 7.1 across a ten point scale.
Benchmarks are significantly lower both nationally and internationally.
In my next communication (due on 9 March) I shall shift the focus to screens in Junior School classes. Last week I visited a Prep class as they began their daily rotations. Although technology may be used to support learning in purposeful ways, hands-on learning is prioritised and there was not one screen device exercise among the entire cohort of small groups. We are well on our way to protecting your children’s brain development while they are in our care.
I look forward to engaging more deeply with you as we explore together ways in which we can help our young people use digital devices well.
Yours sincerely,
Cherylynne Gostelow
Principal and CEO
Cherylynne Gostelow
Principal and CEO