Dear Parents and Carers

Some in our community may be aware of the review of the Anti-Discrimination laws currently underway in Queensland and at federal level. Calvary Christian College is an open enrolment school with a strong commitment to protecting the rights of our diverse community.

What you may not be aware of is the proposed changes may impact our current staffing practices. Currently, we enjoy the privilege of being able to recruit and select Christian staff who align with the College statement of belief (which can be found on our website). This means that although our staff are drawn from a wide variety of Christian churches, we agree to focus the expression of our faith on the central tenets of the Christian faith – which we share in common.

Your children enjoy the outcome of this in the strongly caring Christian community that is aligned in our approach to teaching and learning as well as pastoral care and the wellbeing of our students, parents, and staff.

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has published a consultation paper considering the impact on Christian organisations (among them Christian schools such as ours) if we were no longer allowed to be selective in our hiring practices.

Our College Council and Executive staff are deeply concerned about losing our capacity to maintain our authentic Christian community through maintaining the privilege of employing Christian staff. We have been monitoring developments in this review of legislation for over a year. There is now opportunity for those of you to whom this is important to make a response. The link provided HERE takes you to a survey put out by the ALRC to glean responses from the public to the consultation paper. These responses close on Friday 24 February and I urge you to respond without delay if this is a concern for you.

The survey seeks thoughtful responses and provides opportunity to tell our stories of why it is important to us that our families retain the capacity to choose an authentically Christian education.

Some of you are alumni of the College and can tell the stories of your own and your children’s experiences. It is also an opportunity to say why, as parents, an authentically Christian education is important to you. Some are alumni, as well as being parents and staff. You will have a rich source of experience to draw on in response to the survey.

In summary, if it is important to you that Calvary Christian College continues to serve our wider community as it does, with Christian staff, please would you take the time to fill out the survey. You do not have to be a Christian to respond to the survey if you appreciate the choice that Christian education such as Calvary offers.

Should you have any questions or wish to discuss this further please don’t hesitate to get in touch and either I or one of the Executive staff will respond.

I assure you that the College will always continue to embrace and value the diversity that comes with being an open enrolment school, where students and families from different backgrounds and beliefs can interact respectfully with one another and grow as a community. As an authentic faith community, we hold the view that those with whom we lead and work should hold and live out our communal authentic Christian faith.

Yours sincerely,

Cherylynne Gostelow

Principal & CEO