Principal Communications, 4 August 2023
An Evening with the Principal
Dear Parent and Carers
Please join me at Springwood on Tuesday 8 August in the Florence Young Building at 5:30pm OR at Carbrook on Thursday 10 August at 6:00pm in the Koolyangarrah block for our annual Evening with the Principal. As one College with one philosophy and ethos, the content of each evening is the same, so please choose the venue most conveniently located for you.
I’d like to share with you again what matters most to us at Calvary and why you made a good choice when you entrusted your child’s learning future to us. When the event was first announced, I promised to share with you the plans we are making to make Calvary better tomorrow than today. We begin 2024 by celebrating our 40th Jubilee – it is 40 years since our Springwood campus opened its doors to students under the name LUPS (Logan Uniting Primary School) established as a ministry of Logan Uniting Church now known as Real Life Christian Church. And we have grown to a P-12 College established on two campuses, Calvary Christian College.
Since 2019 we have been implementing an innovative learning model that is research based and evidence informed. This means we follow and respond to research about how children learn best, and we monitor the outcomes so that we remain evidence informed. If the evidence does not reveal the results we anticipate, we interrogate and modify what we are doing.
Next year we are introducing Stage 4 at Carbrook accompanied by refurbishment of the Culbert building downstairs. In January, Years 5 and 6 will move upstairs and Years 7 and 8 will enter stage based classes downstairs. There will be six learning areas of more suitable shape with flexible doors between them. Glass doors from the outside learning areas and half glass doors leading into the breakout area in the centre completes the piece. This gives us maximum flexibility with spaces capable of being configured into many different variations to suit student learning activities. Each downstairs learning area will have an outdoor learning area (to be completed during 2024).
Agile and flexible learning spaces are an important element of our stage based learning model and at Springwood the prep room was refurbished for 2023 with this in mind. Since then we have committed to replacing the interior clumsy room dividers with more aesthetically pleasing and more easily adaptable folding doors. (Visit Prep at Springwood to see the model in action!)
Recently we notified you of our plans for upgrades to the CAPA facilities. These will be completed during 2024. We are pleased to be continuing to invest in CAPA as we seek to offer our students exemplary facilities and teaching staff in the performing and creative arts.
Over the past two years we have been in consultation with community using focus groups among parents and students to determine ways we can update the uniform with two objectives: the comfort of our students and an update that reflects contemporary style. I had hoped to provide samples for your viewing, but these are not ready. This is delaying the final community wide consultation and the dates of implementation. The best I can give you are photos of styles, and I am keen to hear your feedback. As with the logo updates made in recent years, all current uniforms can continue to be worn and there is currently no cut-off date for a changeover. You may find yourselves frustrated by certain item sizes being out of stock in the next few months as we have instructed the uniform supplier not to replenish stocks on items earmarked for update. Please be patient with us and talk to us about the compromise we can make to ensure a comfortable and cost effective transition process.
And finally our Finance team is preparing a grant application under the Go for Gold scheme offered by state government to develop a state of the art hard court for multi-sport use (netball, basketball, volleyball and futsal) on the site of the current grassed netball facility at Springwood. It has always been our desire to match the Carbrook experience for our Springwood students as closely as possible. This is an audacious goal, and I will elaborate on what this means for our Springwood campus and how the facilities can be developed with some thought and investment to provide for a Springwood JS student on a P-6 campus, experiences that closely resemble those of a Carbrook JS student on a P-12 campus, while simultaneously retaining the charm that is Springwood and the distinctive community that is Carbrook.
We have also recently engaged two Senior staff members to work in the Student Development Team: one to head learning enrichment (support for all our students) and the other to help enrich the quality of teaching across the College. I look forward to telling you more about these two appointments and how they can benefit your child’s Calvary journey.
I look forward to meeting with you next week to share with you and to hear from you. It is helpful to me if you send your questions ahead by using this link for Springwood and this link for Carbrook. Questions will also be taken on the night. It’s important to me that you have opportunity to engage in rich discussion with me as so many of your children do. I love the chats I have with them in our many on campus encounters. It is they who make my every day worthwhile and enjoyable despite the many challenges that accompany a role such as mine!
Yours sincerely
Cherylynne Gostelow
Principal & CEO