Dear High School Community,

On Friday, our secondary faculty gathered for professional development with Mr. Hin‑Tai Ting. He also addressed our elementary team on Monday. Hin‑Tai is a Hong Konger who grew up in the UK and now lives in London. He holds a first‑class degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford and is the founding headmaster of The Fountain Christian School, which will open in September in London.

Hin‑Tai’s central message aligned closely with what we’ve been emphasizing this year, which is that Christian education aims at wisdom and virtue, not merely achievement. He framed wisdom through three enduring realities, truth, goodness, and beauty, and reminded us that when these are rightly pursued, they order our souls toward God.

What this means for high school.

• Truth (mind): We train disciplined thinkers. In practice, that looks like clear learning goals, knowledge‑rich courses, academic integrity, and charitable argument. It also looks like students who can weigh evidence, read deeply, and speak with humility and courage because God is the source of all truth.

• Goodness (hands and feet): We cultivate habits that bless others. This includes reliability (attendance, deadlines), honest work (no shortcuts), service, sportsmanship, and leadership that uses influence for the good of the community, because Jesus calls us to do what is right and to love our neighbor.

• Beauty (heart): We nurture rightly ordered loves. We want students who attend to what is worthy, worship, the arts, excellent craft, the wonder of creation and who resist the cheap and the sensational. Beauty trains desire toward Jesus, who is altogether lovely.

Hin‑Tai used the classical term “virtue” for what schools often call “character.” In high school, this means we care about both the practices and the purposes behind them. We do not enforce rules for compliance’s sake; we form habits with meaning. Why do we cite sources carefully? Because truth matters. Why do we show up on time? Because our word matters. Why do we aspire to a phone-free campus? Because attention is an act of love.

You will see this emphasis in classrooms with more explicit connections between content and the transcendent; pursuing accurate thinking (truth), excellent workmanship (goodness), and creative expression and appreciation (beauty). You will also see it in our assessment and feedback. We will offer continued clarity about what mastery looks like, alongside feedback on “habits of scholarship” (focus, perseverance, collaboration, integrity). This emphasis on virtue will be present in worship and the arts with intentional opportunities to encounter beauty through chapel, music, visual arts, theater, and literature. We want our students to receive beauty and produce it. Finally it will continue to be present in student leadership and service, through clubs, teams, and service projects that move students from intention to action for the common good.