Sydney Anglicans have always had an interest in schooling. Yet the next few years are set to be critical ones for the transformation of education practice within the Diocese.
It was an Anglican clergyman, Richard Johnson, who set up the first school in Australia in 1788, and an Anglican layman, Thomas Hassall, who established the first Sunday School in 1813. For the next sixty years, wherever an Anglican church was planted, so was an Anglican school. But all this changed with development of secular education during the late 19th century.
Later this month, heads, staff and council members from most of the 39 Anglican schools in the Diocese will gather in St Andrew's Cathedral to praise God for his goodness during the 220 years of Anglican schooling in the Diocese.
This is the first time that such an event has been held. Sydney's Anglican schools employ over 4000 staff and currently educate over 40,000 students. They have played, and continue to play a significant positive role in the development of our nation. Providing support for Anglican schools will be a key function of the new Anglican Education Commission.
Each school is very much independent, cherishing its own culture and traditions. Some schools are over 150 years old; the newer ones are less than ten years old. Yet they do have things in common: an emphasis on academic rigour; an openness to ideas and debate; development of the whole child; a respect for the past and an orientation to the future; high standards of discipline and pastoral care; a commitment to biblical Christianity and a connectivity to what it means to be Anglican.
New Developments
1. Teacher training
The Commission will support Anglican schools in the development of current and future leaders. It is also assisting them to deliver robust programs of Christian education.
Anglican schools accept students from all religious backgrounds and parents happily allow their children to be taught from the Bible. It is therefore very important that those who teach Christian Studies in Anglican schools are thoroughly equipped for this task. The Commission is committed to helping the schools to achieve this end.
Through a partnership with the Faculty of Education at the University of Sydney, the Anglican Education Commission has brokered a rigorous postgraduate program in Mentoring and Action Research leading to a master's degree. About 25 senior staff in Anglican schools will be participating in this program in 2008.
Hundreds of other staff will be participating in AEC-designed short courses, including some that have been accredited by the NSW Institute of Teachers, to enhance their competence in teaching, assessing students, leading and managing people.
2. Research into Christian education
A new area in which the Commission is striving to bring about change is the nurture of research in Christian education. There is a dearth of academics in Australia with experience and qualifications in educational philosophy and practice linked to biblical theology. Identifying tomorrow's leaders in the field of Christian education, nudging and nurturing them to engage in postgraduate study and research, represents an important investment in the future.
3. Teacher recruitment
At the same time, the Commission is actively involved in recruiting Christians " young people and older "career changers' " into teaching, whether it be in an Anglican school, another Christian school or a government school. Ian Keast (Director of the Christians into Teaching Program and well known as "the teacher man") has been working full time for the past three years urging students in schools and universities to become teachers, and assisting older folk to change careers.
4. SRE Advocacy
Mindful that lots of Anglican parents have children in government schools, the Commission is playing an important role in representing the views of the Diocese to the State Government and its statutory authorities such as the Board of Studies. Dr Grant Maple, former Director of Education within Youthworks, has championed the cause of Special Religious Education (usually referred to as "scripture") and other issues in public education for two decades and continues to do so, in a part-time capacity.
5. Diocesan Education Policy
At the recent meeting of Synod, a new Policy Statement on Education was adopted. The statement is an exciting one for several reasons.
First, it moves away from the idea that education is just about schooling. Education is much larger! Almost everyone in the Diocese is involved in one way or another. That includes mums and dads, the prime educators of their children. It includes parishes, within which some have said 90 per cent of the work is educative! It includes every Anglican organisation in which teaching and learning occurs. The task of implementing the policy will be shared by lots of people.
Second, it sets meaningful education within the context of why God put us on this planet. It argues that a Christian approach to education " obviously the one to which we are committed " is deeply informed by a biblical theology and worldview.
The policy goes on to tease out a set of general principles derived from the biblical basis and translates these into 10 specific aspects of education within the Diocese.
The new policy sets the context in which the Commission can pursue its motto of "transforming education'. This has two sides to it: transforming the delivery of education through supporting those involved in doing it as well as promoting an approach to education which is, in itself, a transforming force.
Dr Bryan Cowling is Executive Director of the Anglican Education Commission
