Principal's Message T4 W3 2022

Love, Just Love

It is hard to put into words just how special it is to be a leader in a Lutheran School, particularly this one. I am sure all principals and teachers share some sense of deep satisfaction in their roles. Our work is important, often frustrating, sometimes unpopular but mostly overwhelmingly satisfying. I just love it.

Over the past week I have had the great privilege of attending yet another Year 12 Formal. Not just watching the kids rock up in the fancy cars in their fancy clothes, which is stunning by the way, but more than that. I have the great joy of sitting down to dinner, watching them celebrate together, sharing a meal with them, hearing them speak to each other of their memories, listening to the leaders in the group work through the formalities and the speeches on the night. I just love it.

Following my address to the kids that night at the Formal Dinner one of our young lads took the microphone in an impromptu way and, in a very generous and authentic way, told the room that all the kids gathered there just knew that the teachers loved teaching. He spoke so beautifully, straight from the heart. He clutched at words to make sure that the teachers gathered there knew that the kids got it. ‘It is really obvious to us that you love teaching’, he said. What he was saying, in his own way, was that he knew that our teachers loved those kids. I just love it.

Each week the Secondary Exec team and I meet with a group of kids from Year 7 to Year 12 to ask them about the college, what is going well, how we can make it better. Each week I am blown away by how remarkable their responses are. How insightful they are, how respectful they are of being asked. I just love it.

As I walk around the college, Junior or Secondary campus, without exception every time I am greeted by kids. ‘Hey sir!’ with a wave and a smile, ‘Hello Mr Altmann’, from the little kids, usually accompanied by a high five or a fist pump. You can’t buy that kind of joy, that kind of affection, that unbridled assurance that the biggest boss in the school is happy to be greeted and will greet me back. It is such a special place, these kids are great. I just love it.

What kind of place values love? We do. Love is listed as one of the 10 core values of our Lutheran School. How absolutely stunning that a school would list as the most important of things, of all things, love.

I suppose it is no surprise when we consider that we are known and loved by He whose name is Love. Love is active in this place, it is His work. He is serving our students through the efforts of their teachers, He is providing for our kids through the service and dedication of their families, He is bringing a middle-aged, paunchy principal great joy through the words and actions of the students who attend here. I just love it.

Shane Altmann
Principal