Mar 29, 2021

Education the RCC Way…

In the world our children are inheriting, their sense of hope, purpose and identity are entangled in media driven notions of success, popularity (especially in terms of social media) and unrealistic aspirations for immediacy and perfection. Is it any wonder we continue to see dramatic rises in anxiety, depression, eating disorders and youth suicide? Our next generations, your children, are striving to make sense of their world and their role in it.

Many educational reforms* focus on developing successful lifelong learners who are creative, confident, active and informed citizens. These are excellent aspirations for Australian education, but the question parents ask me is: What are you actually doing at RCC to build these foundations?

And, will these foundations be like a solid rock upon which our children can stand and measure their worth in the face of what life asks of them?

At Richmond Christian College, we intend to equip our students with an enduring sense of identity, purpose and hope that will be foundational to their future. Our Christ-centred, biblically based, culturally relevant and academically rigorous approach to education is intended to equip students with solid foundations of truth and wisdom born by experience and rigorous investigation upon which they can rely to confidently and positively contribute to their world.

We achieve this through:

• Intentionally creating a culture of safety in our classrooms and school grounds. RCC teachers, students and parents find a sense of belonging in this safety that perpetuates courageous engagement in ‘mistake making’, teaching, learning and community.
• Intentionally creating a culture of teaching and learning that cultivates rigorous investigation and relevant application of the subject content—ensuring our students authentically engage with their world around them.
• Intentionally establishing and maintaining positive relationships. RCC teachers provide an environment where students and their parents are valued, listened to and cared for. Every teacher affords every student the opportunity to mature and develop safely as they gain insight and understanding to navigate their world, make mistakes and truly learn.

• Intentionally providing students with a significant variety of subjects. RCC students are able to experience the wonderful variety and complexity of life that our world has to offer and begin to find their place within it. In Years 7 – 10 RCC’s subject range includes: Digital Design, Material Technology, Food Tech, Japanese, Commerce, Photography, PDHPE, IST and much more. Our HSC course offers a similar variety of subjects, including: Physics, Chemistry, Extension English and Math, Visual Art, Music, PDHPE, Business Studies, Legal Studies, Modern History and much more. Furthermore, to ensure our subject offerings meet the needs of our students, the students themselves are always involved in determining the subjects we offer each year.
• A distinctively different Year 11 and 12 model that provides students with the opportunity to engage powerfully with their subjects whilst safely navigating these transformative years. A compressed curriculum model enables students to immerse in their learning and receive more immediate and relevant feedback, whilst reducing the heavy exam load and associated anxiety at the end of Year 12. Briefly, in this model students complete three subjects in Year 11 and then sit the three HSC exams at the end of Year 11. They then repeat this model in Year 12. This also affords students the opportunity to engage in early entry university subjects or an apprenticeship in Year 12 without it impacting their face-to-face class time. To date this model has resulted in every graduating RCC student accessing their desired university or course after competing their HSC.
• An extensive Learning Support program that provides every student with opportunities to maximise their learning potential. Students of all abilities are assisted to access the curriculum and grow in their knowledge, wisdom and skills. Extension opportunities are provided through Excellence programs in academics, creative and performing arts, sport and culture. Individualised, additional support is provided to students with additional needs through Individual Education Programs that involve extra one-on-one teaching time and adjusted content, environments, processes and outcomes where possible.
• An extra-curricular program that assists students in gaining experiences that will contribute to their character and connection with the community. This program includes opportunities for leadership, creative and performing arts, music, sport, and cultural engagement.

A famous parable of Jesus’ from Matthew 7 likens a person’s ability to incorporate truth and wisdom into their life to the wise man who built his house upon the rock and the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. One was washed away in the tides and storms of the world, the other withstood the difficulties and was not washed away. Our children deserve an education that will provide them with foundations of hope, purpose and identity that cannot be washed away in the tides and trends of our world.

RCC is a small school with big opportunities.

RCC staff are passionately devoted to partnering with parents and the broader community to provide a place where our children can safely build an identity, purpose and hope based on God’s Truth—a foundation that will launch them into their world as unique, powerful contributors to the flourishing of society.

Identity. Purpose. Hope.

Education the RCC way.

 *(including Australia’s most recent, Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration (Dec 2019)