by Madeleine Collins

Isaac Gates is still getting used to the idea of leaving his mum every day, but big sister Olivia is enjoying carrying her navy blue schoolbag and making new friends.
The Gates children, from Jamberoo, are like five- and six-year-olds everywhere this February. Both are excited – and a little daunted – at the prospect of that big step called school. And a big step it is, for the siblings have made history as two of the first students of the new $4 million Shellharbour and Wollondilly Anglican Colleges.
The schools are part of the Sydney Anglican Schools Corporation’s expansion into developing areas, where real estate is more affordable and there are growing numbers of young families drawn to lower fees and ‘values-based’ education.
Naomi Gates admits it was a difficult decision to take her daughter out of the local public school in Kiama and enrol her and her younger brother in the new Anglican school.
“I really liked the public system,” she said. But Mrs Gates says she was impressed by the overall values of the teaching staff.
“I want my children to have an acceptance of all religions, and it seems like the school will treat the kids with respect,” she said. “It’s also lucky they are starting now, because the classes are small.”
The schools currently provide education from Kindergarten to Year Seven and will move through to Year 12 by 2009. The populations of both areas are predicated to grow substantially within the next five to ten years, particularly with high numbers of young parent families.
According to the CEO of the Sydney Anglican Schools Corporation, Laurie Scandrett, 98 per cent of the students are from non-Christian homes. Both will be ‘flagships alongside local parishes for the gospel’, in what Mr Scandrett says is an answer to the prayers of keen local Christians to see Anglican schools built in the rapidly developing areas. “It is an opportunity to evangelise not just students, but parents and the local community, in conjunction with local parishes,” he said.
The high level of interest from non-Christian families is not surprising, says the Principal of Wollondilly, Stuart Quarnby. He notes the trend towards parents being attracted to the ‘good, old-fashioned values’ of an Anglican school. “The baby boomers were the last generation that went to Sunday school. There is an awareness in the community that the next generation has to have some experience of the gospel,” he said. “We establish at the interviews that the students will be spending time with the gospel everyday. God will not be a stranger.”
Tony Cummings, Principal of Shellharbour, agrees. He says the new schools reflect a greater call for Christian teachers ‘in a constantly changing educational landscape’, called to engage students drawn from uncertain family situations and who face uncertain futures in the workforce. “Classroom teachers,” he says, “[are] the daily face of the gospel”.