Entrance to school
Tyndale Christian School (TCS) is a P – 12 school located in Blacktown, which is situated in the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Tyndale Christian School has more than 940 students from Pre-school (3 year olds) through Middle school up to and including the secondary school. On 3rd July 2018 the school’s principal Jack Joyce and team member Bianca Kappelhoff met to discuss the school’s involvement in GPENreformation, current developments of the network, and to discuss Christian education.
Tyndale Christian School has been a member of GPENreformation since 2015. Jack explained that their approach at TCS was to teach from a Christian worldview perspective in and through all the subject areas including every aspect of school life because God is sovereign. For him, Christianity is a specific worldview through which we see the world around us – just the way we wear spectacles to help us see better. Tyndale Christian School has two sister schools in South Korea and organizes annual service trips for the students to Japan, Thailand and Korea. Jack pointed out that he is very interested in connecting with other Protestant evangelical Christian schools in Germany to maybe exchange ideas about culture, globalization and teaching Christianly. Bianca and Jack agreed that these are fields of action where GPENreformation might be able to make a major contribution.
Bianca explained that the current developments of the GPENreformation was to focus on Peace Education for the Period 2018-2021. Jack emphasized that students being taught to live together peacefully in the school community without bullying and with respect and love for each other (which is a Biblical principle) is an ongoing challenge for the School.
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- Preparatory school area
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- middle school area
After the discussions had ended, the two of them took a walk around the school where Jack described the different school buildings and playground areas while meeting some students who were enjoying their break.
After this fruitful exchange of thoughts and ideas both agreed to keep in contact in order to develop further opportunities as to how Tyndale Christian School and other schools in Australia might be involved in GPENreformation. To be continued!
Background: Bianca is currently living in Australia trying to strengthen the network’s structures in this region of the world, make it more known among Protestant schools throughout Australia and thus open up new opportunities of exchange.
She visited the school to get to know and understand how an Australian Protestant Christian School operated. Principal Jack Joyce welcomed her very warmly, and was happy to give an insight in his school’s life.
