A warm welcome to our students and their families
as we commence the 2024 school year at
Northern Christian School.

It has been such a blessing and a delight to welcome students and families back to Northern. The school has been very quiet these last few weeks; however, as lovely as it was to see the abundant wildlife exploring the school grounds, it's not the same as seeing our precious students and families fill our school with life. It has been such a delight and a blessing to see so many new and familiar faces on Monday and to witness students' joy as they started the new school year – observing them reconnect with their friends, the playground filled with students, and classrooms buzzing with excited learners.

Last week during our staff dedication service, I asked staff to describe our precious students, and these were just some of the words that they chose:

• full of potential

• resilient

• precious

• kind

• unique

• made in the likeness of God…

It was a very special time of sharing as we were reminded of all the beautiful children God has created and of our staff's great care and commitment to nurture and support students. As a staff, we also spent time reflecting on and pondering the biblical truth of what it means for our students to be made in the image of God. I shared with the staff this beautiful quote from Christian Education National:

"We (including our students) all reflect in different ways the image and majesty of God and His kingdom, each made with individuality, uniqueness, and complexity."

This reminded us all that without God and our precious students, none of us would be at Northern Christian School, and our school would not exist. I shared this sentiment with students at Line Up on Monday of how God has blessed Northern with such beautiful students and families, and I don’t say this lightly – they are all made in the likeness of God! My prayer and deep hope this year is that we will all see each person who is part of the Northern community as a precious image-bearer of God with distinctive gifts and being full of learning potential, full of faith, and as responsive disciples of the Lord Jesus both now and in the future.

Ethan, one of our School Captains, wrote this prayer, and I encourage you to read and pray it with us:

Dear God,
We thank you for the school and the incredible students that make up
Northern Christian School.
We are thankful for the Kinder’s and hope they have a fantastic
first year of school in front of them.
We also pray for the Year 6 students to have a good final year at Northern,
and pray they will be good role models to us all.
Please keep our students safe, that every student has lots of friends
and let us have an amazing year of learning in front of us.
God, help us all to practice our school values of
kindness, resilience and respect.
Amen

As we enter the 2024 school year, may I encourage you to continually pray for the upcoming year, seeking God's guidance and lifting our school in prayer? God has been so good and gracious to us. Let's join together in seeking how we can honour and glorify God as we partner together with you to educate your precious children.

Bethany Armstrong - Principal

Friday, 23 February 5.00pm - 7.00pm

Have you heard about Northern's Kite Festival? We warmly welcome Northern families to join us for this exciting event!

Kites will be provided for students to decorate with their parents and carers, or feel free to bring your own kites for a fun flying experience! It's also a fantastic opportunity to reconnect or make connections with new families and staff.

This free event takes to the air at Weily Park, Bridgewater. There will also be a free barbecue from 5.30pm. For catering and parking purposes this event is for current students and their immediate families only.

We encourage you to bring your camping chairs or a picnic rug for your family to sit on.

We're excited to see you all at this event as we soar to new heights at Northern this year!

Parent App now available!

Available to all parents registered on Consent2Go, the Consent2Go Parent App is a powerful tool for parents to manage and update their child’s care information, approve excursions, and much more. To register, please follow the steps in this Information Flyer

Annual Review and Update of Student Details

On Tuesday, 30 January, you received an invitation to update your contact details and your child/ren’s health details via our online approvals system. This system makes providing permission for school excursions and camps much easier than paper notes that get lost at the bottom of the bag.

As required at the start of each year, all parents/carers will be asked to confirm or update their personal information and their children's health data. New families will also be required to confirm their photography permission. This is due as soon as possible.

If you did not receive the invitation please contact the school to confirm your email address. If you need to update any details for your child or yourself at any time throughout the year, please follow the links under Information & Medical on our Parents Page.

In Term 1, Northern Christian School will be offering netball to ​boys and girls​ in ​Years 3 to 6​. We are hoping to form a Year 3/4 team and a Year 5/6 team but this is dependent on the amount of students who want to play. Once forms have been returned, we will inform the students of the teams. Payment will only be required after this. Registration forms have been sent home with students.

Game information:

​Dates: Tuesdays 27th Feb – 7th May (8 rounds in total)

No Games: 2nd, 16th, and 23rd April

Venue:​ Games will be played at the Southern Tasmanian Netball Association courts on the corner of Creek Road and Main Road, New Town. 

Times: ​Games start at 4.00pm and 5.00pm on Tuesdays.

Uniform: ​Normal sports uniform.

Cost: Cost is to be confirmed, however will be around $40 per child.

Training: ​Tuesday lunchtime.

Claire Gardner - Netball Coordinator

This year, we will be increasingly vigilant in alerting families to students who are not wearing the correct uniform or using the correct school bag. Our desire is to work with parents in partnership. However, it’s not possible to easily vary the uniform on the basis that an individual is unhappy with the interpretation of the guidelines.

Please be reminded that students in Years 3 - 6 will be required to wear the Formal Uniform on days other than PE (currently Fridays) when they can wear the Sports Uniform. Kinder to Year 2 students can wear any combination of the uniform items. All students are expected to use the Northern school bag.

Term 1 is ‘No Hat, No Play’ so please ensure your child’s hat is labelled clearly. Hats can be purchased from the Uniform Shop or via QKR!

Uniform expectations are outlined in our Uniform Policy and Uniform Catalogue, which can be found on our website.

We desire that all students may be neatly presented in a consistent manner that represents to the wider community who we are as a school. Every child is an ambassador in the way they present themselves.

We value reading very highly, and the benefits of reading are immeasurable. Our hope is that our students will develop a love of reading. To encourage this, we will continue our '100 Nights of Reading' initiative. Thank you to the parents and students who participated in this last year. We had some students who even completed 250 nights of reading! It is wonderful to see students’ love of reading grow!  

In 2024, all students are again encouraged to take this challenge on.

Kinder to Year 6 students who complete '100 Nights of Reading’ will receive a book of their choice.

Teachers will be sending out more information shortly about reading logbooks

We hope our students will continue to read at school, and at home, and learn to love reading!