Sutherland Shire Christian School
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 Delight in God's Word, Walk in His Ways |
|
| Principal | Mr. D. Stonestreet |
| Senior Executive | Mr. A. Middleton
Mr. J. Myer Mr. R. East Mrs. N. Taylor |
| School type | Independent (Parent controlled) |
| Established | 1977 (Association 1969) |
| School Song | Blessed Is The Man |
| Location | Barden Ridge, Sydney, NSW |
| Enrollment | 751 students, K-12 |
| Clubs and Societies | - |
| School Colours | Red, White & Blue |
| Website | www.sscs.nsw.edu.au |
Sutherland Shire Christian School is a non-denominational, Protestant, parent-controlled private school for co-educational students located in Sydney, Australia. It was founded in 1977 (Association founded in 1969) by a group of Christian parents who believed their Children were not receiving a biblical education while attending public state schools [1], because of this the school upholds a strong Christian ethos that influences most parts of school life.
The School primarily consists of one large campus in the southern suburb of Barden Ridge in Sydney, and this campus the two sections of the school:
- A High School (Years 7 to 12) and
- A Junior School (Kindergarten to Year 6).
Contents |
[edit] Establishment
The School Association was formally founded in 1969 by several Christian families whom believed state public schools were not offering a good enough biblical education to their children. The school officially began running in 1977 under the name Sutherland Shire Christian School and the Sutherland Shire Christian School Association Ltd was created two years later in 1979.
School classes were housed in several locations (such as local church halls) before purchasing several hectares in the southern New South Wales suburb of Barden Ridge in 1981 where the school has continued to build and remained since.
Student enrolment summary [2]
| Year | 1977 | 1982 | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2005 |
| Students | 11 | 263 | 564 | 722 | 752 | 750 |
[edit] Junior School
The school believes that it is important to give the junior school students, particularly students soon entering high school to be studying a variety of subjects. For this reason the junior school curriculum is based and structured around six specific subject areas:
- English
- Mathematics
- Science & Technology
- Human Society & Its Environment
- Creative & Practical Arts
- PE, Health & Personal Development
[edit] Facilities
The school has an abundance of facilities on its campus to cater for all types of students needs and interests including a fully equipped gymnasium, tennis & basketball courts and cricket nets. There are also several computer labs available for all students with ready access internet and other applications. A woodwork & metalwork room exists for students along with a textiles room, a home economics room and several fully equipped music rooms with recording studio rooms and an array of musical instruments.
[edit] Location
The school is located in the suburban area of Barden Ridge on Allies Road which is also occupied by Lucas Heights Public School. With the school based in the southern suburbs of Sydney the school has somewhat of a scenic bushland setting providing not only shade for students but also a bush playground for junior students.
[edit] Music
The school has two music rooms with a large variety of instruments. There are also two music recording rooms where students can play and record their own music. The music department of the school caters for many musical interests and has many pianos, guitars, xylophones and several other instruments.
The junior and senior schools both have their own choir along with several bands that play regularly at school events and several out of school events throughout each year along with entering a variety of competitions.
The school also annually hosts a junior school performance night, known as PIPE, where musically talented students in the junior school can demonstrate their talent, the senior school has the annual 'One Night Only' performance night event which is predominantly made up of a high standard of musical performances from the senior school students.
[edit] Sport
Students within the school participate both in interschool sports as well as competing against one another at both inner and out of school facilities. Sports open to students vary according to sex, age and availability.
Sports available solely to boys include rugby league, rugby union, australian rules football and cricket while sports solely available to girls include netball, baseball and volleyball. Several other sports that are available to both sexes and only vary according to age are basketball, soccer, tennis, squash, cross country and athletics & swimming which both have annual carnivals.
The school has to date produced two state championship winning teams, in 1997 the junior boys cricket team and in 2003 the senior girls soccer team. They also compete annually against local rival school Inaburra in both rugby, cricket and soccer for various trophies.
[edit] The arts
Each year the school runs an annual drama performance made up of predominantly older senior students and several members of drama classes throughout the school grades. The plays the school produces are usually a shakespearean performance the most recent being As You Like It.
[edit] Extracurricular
There are several extracurricular clubs run throughout the school each year. These include a debating team, a mathematics club, an audio-visual team, a drama club along with a junior school newspaper/year book titled 'Branches' and a senior year book.
[edit] Controversy
[edit] Corporal punishment
In October 2000 the New South Wales government outlawed caning of students as a form of punishment [3] which meant all schools that still upheld caning as a form of punishment would have to cease to do so or face deregistration as a recognised school and lose all government funding. All schools agreed to the new move set out by the state government except Sutherland Shire Christian School and the much smaller Nambucca Valley Christian Community School.
This was perceived by the general public as a "hypocritical" move [4] for saying they were a school that taught with love and nurturing yet still wanted to use the cane as a form of punishment.
Within the School community the perspective on corporal punishment was much more mature, reflecting broader perspectives on life and mankind's relationship with God and each other. These perspectives rarely surfaced in the public debate, where discussion was focused on the sensational and a sentimental view of history.
The NSW Board of Studies finally declared that the School would become unregistered unless it stated that it did not use corporal punishment. This was interpreted as having a choice between a School without corporal punishment or no School at all. With a lack of political support from other Christian Schools both schools finally buckled under the pressure and signed the statement.
[edit] Pirating music
Yay for pirating! In 2005 the school was in the media again [5] after a senior student of the school decided to begin an initiative discouraging piracy of music and movies.
He quickly began to rally students behind his cause against illegally burning copyrighted material as a practical response to a devotion given. On Monday 23 May 2005 illegally burnt CDs and DVDs [6] (equivalent of a $50,000 loss to the music and movie industry) were destroyed.
[edit] Principals
- Mr. Geoffrey Lainson (1977-2001)
- Mr. Stephen Renn (2001-2003)
- Mr. John Myer [acting] (2003)
- Mr. Mark Lewis (2003-2005)
- Mr. David Stonestreet (2005-current)
[edit] Notable alumni
- Niclyn Rendall (Model)
- Chris Graffiti (Musician)
- Matt Tomlin (Musician)
