Culture and Values
This year in the College Executive, we have taken time at each of our meetings to review sections of the Christian Schools Association (CSA) Leadership Framework. This is a comprehensive and robust framework for leadership in a Christian school. The framework adopts four key domains for educational leaders, one of which is ‘Leaders of Culture’. I have been thinking a great deal about culture and how this relates to a school, and importantly to our school.
Culture is defined as “the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society”. Sometimes the idea of culture is simply stated as “a way of life” or “this is how we do it here”.
A few years ago, when I was looking to apply for my position here at Flinders, I researched the school and was impressed with the school's values. I knew that Flinders was a school I could work at because I align with the college's values. These values - love, faith, integrity, humility, grace, excellence and perseverance are the values that I have worked hard to instil in my own family and that we as a staff try to instil in your children. Our school culture is an expression of these values. I believe that like me, you chose Flinders because of these values. We, as a staff are in a partnership with you, the families as we strive to create a culture within our school where these values are demonstrated by all. Sadly, the world does not always consider these values as important. Many, if not all the issues and problems that I see and hear about in the news stem back to a lack of one or more of these values. How important it is for us to work hard at maintaining a culture where these values are the basis of how we live, behave and interact.
We want our students to strive for excellence because “this is how we do it at Flinders”.
We want our students to persevere when things get challenging and a little tough because “this is how we do it at Flinders”.
We want our students to show love (respect) to all because “this is how we do it at Flinders”.
The year seems to have passed by very quickly and our Year 12 students are entering their final weeks of secondary education. I pray that when they leave Flinders to head into employment or to take up tertiary studies, our school values will continue to guide them in their interactions and decision making. This will ensure that as a school we are truly living out our mission of bringing hope and purpose to our community.
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." - 1 Corinthians 13:13
Mark Hamilton
Head of Secondary
