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They have returned after summer holidays, practical placements and, well, for many, work. New, returning and returning after absence students registered on Avondale College's Lake Macquarie campus over the past week.

"We've been waiting three months for the return of our life force," says student services director Kevin Judge in his annual welcome note. "It's largely the people and the relationships they form that make Avondale the place it is."

Staff members and students met for opening convocation on Wednesday, February 28, to officially mark the beginning of the academic year. Speaker Elizabeth Ward, the former principal (1998-2006) of Presbyterian Ladies College in Melbourne, referred to education institutions as being responsible for ensuring Christian heritage remains part of our culture. "The preservation of our belief systems, values and ethical and moral heritage, our sense of fair play and social justice, is the urgent business of all Australians including, most importantly, our schools and tertiary institutions," she said.

Ward challenged staff members and students at Avondale, as providers and beneficiaries of Christian higher education, to help shape "a revolutionary reclamation movement." She spoke of the need for education institutions to make biblical knowledge available to students and affirmed Avondale for "developing intellectual, mental, physical, emotional and spiritual learning supporting the health of the total person."

A record number of students studied at Avondale this past year, and preliminary figures, released by the academic office on February 12, show applications are healthy this year. The office will have final enrolment figures by March 30, the date of the census for semester one.

Caption: President Dr John Cox welcomes students to Avondale during the college's opening convocation.
Credit: Ann Stafford