Principal's Message T3 W6 2022

Watershed

Many of our families are familiar with our MyPath@Faith program which we run at our Secondary Campus. We are doing high school very differently, way better than the way it has been done for literally hundreds of years.

In short, we have thrown out most ‘subjects’ and created around 80 integrated courses that students can choose from as they progress through the secondary school. Our kids pick 5 courses each semester, a total of 10 each year. They also do English and Maths and stuff like chapel, assemblies and Christian Studies. This runs up until Year 10 and beyond that our students can jump into a traditional university bound pathway or a vocational pathway through to Year 12.Throughout the MyPath@Faith program there is no imperative for students to stay in their particular year level. They can jump up and down year levels as required and relevant to their interest and capacity, for a short time or a long time, it is quite individualised. I could go into detail, but it is not my intention to do so in this space, the information is widely available and shared variously with our families as the time approaches.

Last Friday night Faith Lutheran College Redlands received first place for this program at the 2022 National Educational Awards in Sydney. The gold medal, the big gong, the Oscar, the Gold Logie.

The success of this program is evidenced even further by the amount of schools, colleges and systems who are keen to come and see how we do school, and ask how we got there. We have a constant train of educators moving through or college, Junior and Secondary, learning from us how to do school better. This really is a special place.

This award is a significant moment, not simply for our College, but for education more broadly. Education has been on a journey for at least 20 years now, and still is. The old education system is broken. It is based on a model of learning established in the heights of the British Empire. There was a need for everyone all over the world to know the same stuff and do it the same way so that the business of empire could function. Those days are gone, the structures remain. The Australian Curriculum is still built around that model, and we all adhere to it and have been bound by it.

Here at Faith we have worked out how to do it differently, how to meet our obligations with the Australian Curriculum, but in a way that is student focused and relevant to our learners. It’s the magic sauce and, with this national recognition we can now celebrate the fact that no one has to be bound by excuses to keep doing schooling the other way.

It is a watershed moment in our industry, in the care of young people in this country. The importance of this award and this program cannot be overstated. National recognition of the fact that there is a better way, and here at Faith Lutheran College Redlands we are leaders in that space.

Shane Altmann
Principal