Your Child’s Safety is Our Priority

Student safety is a priority at Northern Christian School. We aim to be a safe and a supportive learning environment for all students. The school seeks to create and maintain a caring environment where Christian values inspire and affirm the highest standards of ethical conduct in relation to the care, support, and welfare of the students entrusted to it. 

We, as a staff, acknowledging our responsibility to God, have a duty of care for all students and to protect their safety. In Matthew 18:1-5, Jesus speaks about how precious children are to Him. 

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.’

Every day we continue to work hard to ensure that we are eliminating or minimising hazards and are aware of all risks. We want our learning environments to be safe and healthy for our students, staff and parents. That said, Christian Schools Tasmania has employed Compliance and Resources Manager, Angela Gurney to guide and assist staff at Northern Christian with this. How does safety look on a day-to-day basis at our school? I hope the following will give you a glimpse of some of the practices that are embedded at our school:

• Mr Dean Prentice checks the playground for safety issues each week.

• Teachers always complete a risk assessment for an excursion and extra curricula activities.

• Safety is explicitly taught in all health classes throughout the primary school and all students complete cyber safety lessons each year.  

• All volunteers need to have a valid Working with Vulnerable People card and are mandated to sign in and sign out at the office.

• All staff complete compulsory Child Safe training and WHS training on an annual basis.

I would like to thank those parents who came and spoke to me recently about our lockdown procedures, and asked me to clarify them. Please find our lockdown procedure below. Thank you again for your support and help in maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment for our students, staff and families.

Miss Bethany Armstrong - Principal

Lockdown Procedure

The lockdown of the School applies when students and staff need to be locked within buildings for their own safety. This will usually occur if there is a dangerous intruder on school grounds or a violent incident, but may also occur in some circumstances in the event of a hazardous situation such as a chemical spill, fire or severe storm which makes it dangerous for students, staff, visitors and contractors to be outside.

The Principal, or another member of the School Senior Staff designated by the Principal, will schedule at least one practice lockdown drill per year and will be responsible to ensure all staff members are clear about the procedure before the practice drill takes place. Teachers will remind students of the lockdown procedure during the first day of each term.

In the event of a lockdown drill students will be directed by staff to enter into the nearest building if they are outside, doors will be locked, blinds will be pulled closed and lights turned off. Students will be instructed to sit in silence against a wall where they cannot be seen from outside. When the drill is complete all students will be called to an assembly point for a debrief with the Principal.

While we are aware this can be a stressful event for students it is necessary we practise these drills in the same manner we practise our fire evacuation drills.

We will communicate the day we have a lock down and fire drill scheduled but not the time of day it will occur.

We would encourage you to speak with your child both before and after a fire evacuation and lockdown drill to talk through any concerns they have.

Please be aware that should you need to speak to your child’s teacher or myself about this further, we are more than happy to do so.

Subway School Lunch Order Program

Subway lunches are now available on Fridays. They offer individually prepared packs for your students that include a 6-inch sub, an apple juice or water and an (optional) chocolate chip cookie - all for just $6.50. If you prefer a non-confectionary lunch, they also provide the option of a 6-inch sub and a drink for only $6.00.

Students can choose from chicken, ham, veggie delite or salami subs with a choice of cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrot and a range of sauces. 

Please ensure you place correct money in the provided envelopes as change is unable to be given. Envelopes are available at the office. If you have any questions contact us.

Year 4 News

In Year 4 English students have been writing book reviews about some of our favourite books!

We have learned how to write all of the important components of a book review, including a title, introduction, plot summary, character description, describing interesting language and giving a recommendation.

Students have also begun to design a new front cover for their books! 

Will Davis - Year 4 Teacher

Music Tuition 2020

There are still several vacant timeslots for music tuition for next year. Tuition is available for the following instruments: piano, guitar, beginner violin, flute and clarinet.

The cost is $25 per half hour lesson and the lessons are once a week during the school term. Please get in early as spaces fill up quickly. 

Contact Andrea Marks to book your lessons or if you wish to discuss the possibility of lessons.

In most cases you will require your own instrument to practice on at home. We may have a clarinet and/or flute available to borrow from the school.

Andrea Marks - Music Teacher

Kinder - Royal Botanical Gardens visit

We had a wonderful time at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens on Monday. We were mostly sheltered from the wind and we were even blessed with some sun. We spent some time wandering around trying to find various leaves and flowers. We arrived at the gardens with enough time to run around and have some fun, then had some time for lunch.

We then split into several groups and enjoyed a scavenger hunt. Our two main tasks were finding out how many different shaped leaves we could find, based on a leaf chart, and what colour flowers were most common.

During our day we also revisited some places from our previous trip to see how things had changed. All the students did a great job and kept up after a long day of walking around the gardens.

Thank you to our parent help who assisted us in making it such a fun filled day.

You can see more photos here.

Sam Whittle – Kinder Teacher

Library - Book Coverers Needed

There will soon be a number of new books arriving in the library for our reading program, which is very exciting! 
We are looking for volunteers to help with covering - everything (including training) is provided. Please contact Mrs Rowlings or leave your name and contact details at the office.

Linda Rowlings - Librarian