About Us
Principal’s Message
Welcome to the Greenacre Christian College website and I hope you will be able to learn all you need to know about our wonderful school we call “GCC”.
The school has served the Christian families of Greenacre and surrounding suburbs for over three decades and we are seeing the children of former students coming to the school in recent years. It is a great reflection of God’s work in the school in the early years. I am determined to keep that culture alive in the twenty-first century.
For a small school, GCC is blessed with many great teachers who are willing to give of their time to establish sports and cultural events as part of the school’s calendar. Although academia is a vital cog in the machinations of school life, a range of extra-curricular activities make school life interesting and can keep many students engaged in school life.
One thing needs to be made clear. The Christian focus of the school remains unchanged from its inception in 1985. The school employs committed Christian staff and we see God’s hand over the school in many ways. The school’s Christian focus is bible-based and this overarches above all areas of school life. It is something we hold dearly.
I hope you learn more about GCC, the school that is often described as a “country school in the city” because of its friendly culture and nurturing environment. We hope you can sense that from perusing this website.
God Bless
Mark Shume
Principal
Our Mission
“To nurture learners in a Christ-centered community who thrive in a changing world.“
School Leadership
Mark Shume
Principal
David Loon
Business Manager
Kerry Stanbury
Family Community Liaison Leader
Monier Saad
Head of Secondary
Grace Porceddu
Head of Primary
Nina Rihani
Head of Student Engagement and Wellbeing
Governance
Greenacre Christian College is a member of Melos Education Limited. The Melos Education Limited Board provides the school’s governance. The day-to-day running of the school is delegated to the Greenacre Christian College Principal and is supported by the Melos Executive. This structure enables our school to continue to provide high-quality, distinctively Christian schooling for families in the Sydney metropolitan area. See the Melos Education website for more information.
School History
Way back in the early 1980s, Greenacre Baptist Church decided that they had the vision and the facilities to start a primary school to be a feeder school to Christian Community High School which had been operating since 1975. In February 1985, GCC opened its doors under the leadership of Mrs Kathleen Toussaint who would be principal for two years.
Mr Ross Crothers led the school for an amazing twenty years in which the school grew to become a single stream primary school of around 200 students. Mr Crothers retired at the end of 2006. He oversaw the development of new buildings for all classes and a library that catered for the school’s needs. With ESL and Support staff, the school looked after a range of student needs to a high level, resulting in excellent NAPLAN results and a very positive reputation.
In January 2007, Mr Ken McCarron, commenced at GCC. Mr McCarron had previously been the foundation principal of Christian Schools in Swan Hill (Victoria) and in Grafton where the school continued from its initial primary school beginnings to be a flourishing K-12 school during his tenure.
In 2011, parents made a request to commence a secondary school that would allow students to continue their education in the same wonderful culture of the primary school. Eighteen months later, in January 2013, the school commenced its first secondary classes. In the subsequent years, the school has grown by one grade each year to the first Year 12 group in 2018.
Despite a great academic record, the strongest feature of the school is its Christian focus. The spiritual traditions of the primary school such as daily devotions and a weekly chapel service have continued into the high school and these are a feature of weekly school life. This has culminated in the school offering a mission-based trip to Cambodia for Year 10 students which started with the first cohort going to that country in March 2016. It has been a wonderful success as students work hard to serve the people of the town of Siem Reap and nearby villages. In just under two weeks, the students have a life-changing experience but also help change the lives of others.
The coming years will see the establishment of a whole new range of special features as the skills and interests of a great staff become part of GCC culture.