As you may know, we, as a staff, have core values which we created together in the fall of 2022 and which we endeavour to both live by and live into as we serve at GCCS.
According to Oxford Dictionary, a core value is “a principle or belief that a person or organization views as being of central importance.”
ChatGPT defines core values as “fundamental beliefs and guiding principles that dictate behavior and action within an individual, group, or organization. They represent what is most important and serve as a moral compass to guide decisions, culture, and interactions.”
When we worked on this, we found that coming up a long list was not hard, but rather trimming that down to a manageable number (7-10 of them) was the real challenge.
At the end of several discussions, we arrived at these core values:
- Making Christ the centre of everything we do
- Aligning our loves and longings with those of Jesus and encouraging our students to do the same
- Embodying and encouraging Christian character
- Serving and caring for each other, our community, our world, and ourself
- Cultivating a sense of belonging for everyone
- Integrating our Christian faith into all aspects of learning
- Encouraging wonder and creativity in the learning journey
- Believing in and encouraging the potential of all students
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing about each of these core values in more detail.
In the meantime, here’s a homework assignment – What are your core values? What are your family’s core values?
Justin DeMoor
M.Ed, B.Ed, B.A., OCT, CSPC, CSTC
Principal