Values as Verbs…

For the last few weeks at Line-Up, students have been exploring our school’s Value of Respect as a verb rather than a noun. I have recently been rereading Simon Sinek’s book ‘Start With Why’, where he articulates that we often look at values as nouns instead of as verbs. Sinek suggests if you would like to build a positive culture, you need to enact the values by showing up every day. Building good culture in a school is hard work, and it is not something that happens overnight. It involves us all playing our part in creating a positive culture.

Most importantly, we need to continue to seek Jesus by spending time in God’s word and prayer, as He is true wisdom, At Northern, we do not want to be a school that reacts to problems. Instead, we continually pray that God will grant us Christ-like wisdom so we respond carefully to all situations and sow seeds for the future.

We launched our ‘Building Positive Behaviour and Culture’ framework with students at the start of the year. We want to be intentional with encouraging students to model positive, productive and caring behaviours. We also strive for each child in our care to feel safe and valued by taking the time and effort to show students the love of God in extending kindness, forgiveness and acceptance. Students are also taught the consequences of uncaring, unsafe behaviour, with the clear aim of restoring them to good relationships, respectful behaviour and valuable work.

We model and teach positive behaviours while encouraging and celebrating these behaviours in our students. Our school Values of Respect, Kindness and Resilience define and frame the expected culture at Northern, serving as a behavioural compass guiding how we act, what we say, our choices, etc.

I want to share some examples that Mr Samuel Whittle, our Pastoral Care Coordinator, has shared with students in regards to Respect as a verb:

• We show respect in the way that we talk to others.

• We show respect in the way that we listen to others.

• We show respect in the way that we treat others.

• We show respect in the way that we treat ourselves.

• We show respect in the way that we look after our belongings, the classrooms and the school grounds.

• We show respect to others by helping create a safe school.

At Northern, we want everyone to feel safe and valued. We know that we are all loved by God and want to reflect this in our behaviour and how we treat others. We want everyone that comes to Northern to see our values lived out each day, not as nouns but rather as verbs. We pray that our students, families and staff will be able to articulate, understand, promote and celebrate values that will guide how they act, what they say and the choices they make.

Bethany Armstrong - Principal

Light Festival

Current Northern families are warmly invited to enjoy our new community event on Friday, 17 June from 5.00pm - 7.30pm. Experience live music around our fire pits on the Oval (BYO camp chair if you have one), with hot soup and dessert provided! There will also be a art exhibition in the PAC with the theme of ‘Let Your Light Shine’. This free event will include a special activity to light up the night. We'd love to see you there! You can RSVP via our Facebook event.

Please note due to COVID-19 minimisation, catering and car parking, only immediate families of current Northern students are invited to attend. Unfortunately this means, unless they are the primary carers, we are not able to welcome grandparents, cousins, aunties or uncles to this event. We have other events coming up that we can extend to the greater Northern community.

If you would like to reserve a Disabled Parking space, please email the Office so we can ensure your needs are catered for.

To make this a success, we would greatly value parent help with the planning and the organising of this event. We need help with the planning, stringing lots of fairy lights, cooking soup and many other activities.

If you would like to be involved with the planning of the Light Festival, please refer to the email that was sent yesterday with all the details, and we encourage you to register on our Volunteer Sign Up sheet.

Student Data Collection Notice

Each year the Australian government collects data regarding your child and their enrolment. This data is used to inform Commonwealth school education policy, and to help ensure that Commonwealth funding arrangements for non-government schools are based on need, and are fair and transparent.
Our school provides this data to the Department of Education, Skills and Employment automatically, but is required to inform you that this will occur. You can read more about this process or contact us if you have any questions.

From the Office