Northern Newsletter | November 10

From the Principal

Feedback…

At Northern Christian School, we foster a learning culture where students receive feedback which assists them to reflect on their learning so they can make adjustments to improve their outcomes. Similarly, we always welcome families open and honest feedback to help us see a clear picture of our strengths and weaknesses.

You may recall the Endeavour Community Health Survey which parents, staff, and students completed earlier in the year. This was an excellent tool for receiving feedback from the school community, and I would like to thank each of you who completed this survey. The school’s leadership has reviewed your feedback, and there is so much to celebrate! Equally, there are areas we need to improve upon to ensure that we continue to be a transformative learning community providing quality Christian education. I greatly appreciate the time taken to provide honest, constructive responses about what’s currently working well and what can be improved.

I want to share with you some of the common threads and observations from the report.

Parents highly value the strong Christian environment supporting their faith, positive learning experience, quality education, positive emotional support and positive friendships.
100% of our families that responded reported feeling welcomed at Northern (scoring well-above the national average for this survey which is 89%).
The school strengths were very positive. Families highly appreciate and value Christian education, level and type of communication, the caring school environment and the supportive staff.
Parent satisfaction in regards to communication received a score of 8.5 - above the national average for this survey which is 7.9.
We received positive responses from the Year 6 students. Their comments are valuable feedback, and I thank them for their mature responses.

We will continue to reflect on your feedback as part of our planning for 2022 and future years. Your insights will help develop strategies to serve better our students and the wider community moving forward such as:

ongoing professional development for teachers to reflect on and continue to provide quality Christian education to ensure students see and understand the world through the perspective of God’s truth.
continuing to review our academic programs to improve student outcomes.
a school production is planned for 2022.
more school-based activities involving parents and families to help us to build stronger partnerships and grow community engagement.
combined sporting events with CST Schools to help build community amongst the students.

The opportunities and potential for new and continued growth across our school community are certainly very exciting and energising. We want to regularly critique ourselves by asking how we can build stronger partnerships with our families and continue to provide the highest quality Christian education for our students. Please feel free to contact me, or use the Feedback Form if you have any comments and thoughts on improvements at Northern.

As we reach the middle of this final term for 2021 - where our calendars are filled with so many events in so many spheres of our life - pray that we will not get caught up in the busyness of life. Instead let us set our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, and continue to focus on Jesus!

Bethany Armstrong - Principal

School Calendar

TERM 4

Week 6: November 15 - November 19

Monday | School Banking
Wednesday | Kinder Grandparents Day: 11.30am - 12.45pm
Wednesday | ThinkUKnow Online Safety Parent Session: 7.00pm - 8.30pm
Thursday | Kinder 2022 Orientation
Thursday | Years 2 - 6 Music Assembly: Parents and carers welcome to attend
Friday | Athletics Carnival at NCS - Parents and carers welcome to attend. Hot Dog and Zooper Dooper School Council Fundraiser via QKR!
Friday | Little Learners

Monday 22 November - Friday 26 November | Learn to Swim
Monday 29 November - Friday 3 December | Learn to Swim

SAVE THE DATE: Wednesday 15 December | Travel to Bethlehem - our school community event celebrating the birth of our Saviour - from 5.00pm

A list of Term Dates and upcoming activities for 2021 and 2022 can be found on our Parents Page and also on the School Calendar.

VIEW FULL SCHOOL CALENDAR

Prep Update

This term, the Prep class have had some great opportunities to spend time outdoors exploring the wonder and excitement of God’s creation. We have enjoyed Forest School, where we spent time looking at the plants and animals in our school. The students loved discovering the many different creatures and pondering their particular role in the environment they live in. We also explored God’s creation in a scavenger hunt during Outdoor Learning Day.

A highlight this term was the Geography excursion, where we explored the local shopping centres - Cove Hill and Greenpoint - and considered the many shops and their particular functions. We have been thinking about what each of us can do to look after these places to ensure others can use them as well. We also travelled to the very top of kunanyi/Mt Wellington to view Hobart and its surroundings. Unfortunately, there was lots of clouds so we were only able to glimpse small parts of the view! The most exciting part of the whole day was tasting snow at the top of the mountain! You can see more pictures from the excursion on our Facebook page

In Mathematics, students have had a lot of fun learning about Statistics and Probability. We have been thinking about questions we can ask to find out information about each other. We recorded this information and summarised what the information is told us. We now know quite a lot about which animals are favourites in Prep!

In English, we have been looking at the story of Tiddalik the Frog. This is an indigenous legend about a frog who drinks all the water in Australia, and the plan the other animals make to get Tiddalik to release all the water. We have had a lot of fun creating character puppets and presenting plays about the story.

Adrienne Bitt - Prep Teacher

Mission Support

Each term, we take the opportunity to bless a community, small group or individual either in Tasmania, the mainland or overseas. Last term, we were focusing on blessing individuals overseas through Operation Christmas Child. We are very excited to announce that as a school, we filled 19 boxes to be sent overseas to children who are less fortunate than us.

We would like to thank every family that generously donated items or filled boxes. Please pray for the children who receive the shoeboxes, that they will come to faith in Jesus Christ and share the Good News with their family and friends.

This term, we will be supporting St Vincent de Paul in helping them to provide emergency relief packs for needy families and individuals.

Each classroom will have a box into which the donated items can be placed. We are asking families to contribute specific food items, over a four week period, that will then be donated to Vinnies Mini Mart. The dates and items to be donated will be as follows:

Week Beginning Monday 8 November:

Cans of Big’N Chunky Soup (525g)
Long Life (UHT) milk (1 litre)

Week Beginning Monday 15 November:

Jars of pasta sauce
Pasta

Week Beginning Monday 22 November:

Breakfast cereals

Week Beginning Monday 29 November:

Biscuits
Shampoo/conditioner

The Student Representative Council (SRC) will be organising a fundraising activity to donate money towards the purchase of food. There will be more details about this in coming weeks.

Poster Competition

As part of our focus on Restorative Justice, students were given the opportunity to design a poster to be used across the school to educate and be a reminder about the restorative questions we use to provide a framework to resolve problems when things go wrong.

The main restorative questions used are as follows:

What happened?
What were you thinking at the time?
What have you been thinking since then?
How were you or others affected by what happened?
What do you need to do to make things right?

We would like to congratulate Malia Hogan and Lilly Burns for their winning entry that will be displayed throughout the school.

‘Kindness Boxes’

The Bible often tells us to encourage one another and build each other up!

As part of our focus on our new school value of Kindness this term, the SRC will be organising a ‘Kindness Box’ for each class.

Students will be invited to write down ways they have either shown or experienced kindness throughout the week. At the end of the week, the SRC will collect the boxes and Miss Armstrong will bring encouragement by reading some of the students’ stories of kindness during Monday’s Line-Up.

Luke Lamont - SRC Coordinator

Athletics Carnival

Hot Dogs and Zooper Doopers are available for pre-purchase for the Athletics Carnival on Friday, 19 November, to raise funds for the School Council. Hot Dogs are $2.50 (gluten-free option available $3.00) and Zooper Doopers are 50c (random flavour).

Place your orders via QKR! before 3.00pm Monday, 15 November.

No cash is accepted at the school and no late orders will be accepted. If you have difficulty making your purchase via the QKR! App, please contact the Office PRIOR to the order cut-off time.

2022 Canberra Trip
Years 5/6

We are very excited and hopeful that our Years 5/6 Canberra Trip will proceed in Term 4 in 2022. The biannual Canberra Trip is a highlight of primary education and in past years, students have had many wonderful experiences and learnt in ways that the classroom cannot facilitate, whilst enjoying the experience of being on camp. There will be more information about this trip communicated to students and parents in February 2022.

Uniform Reminders

We are currently in a transition period for some school uniform items, with a commitment to implement the Formal and Sports uniform guidelines for Years 3-6 in 2023 as outlined in our Uniform Policy. Hoodies, pinafores, polar fleece jackets and leggings may continue to be worn until the end of 2022. Please note: the knitted red jumpers are not to be worn and from the start of 2022, the old red and blue check-style dress cannot be worn. Leggings are to only be worn on the designated Physical Education day.

A friendly reminder also that only clear nail polish may be worn on fingernails. Fake nails or coloured polish are not permitted.

Thank you for your support in this transition period for uniform.

From the Office

Entering Campus

Parents and carers are not to enter classrooms between 9.00am – 3.00pm unless as a volunteer, signed in to the Office.

If you are simply dropping off or collecting your child before or after the start and end of the school day, there is no need to sign in; however, if you enter a classroom during drop off or pick up, please ensure you sign in using the COVID-19 Check In Tas App QR code at the entrance to the classroom prior to entering. (You only need to sign in once even if you enter additional classrooms.)

Parents and carers entering classrooms once the school day has started can be very distracting and unsettling. If you need to drop off or collect your child during class time, please visit the Office, and we will assist you. We will deliver items to classrooms and provide messages to students and staff.

All School Absentees

For absentees please fill-out our Absentee Form OR email us before 9.30am.

An SMS will be sent to parents for unexplained absences.
Please ensure late students who arrive after 9.00am are signed in at the office.
If students are leaving early they are required to be signed out at the office.
A doctor’s certificate is required for more than three days’ absence.
Please notify the office before 2.30pm for any messages your children need before leaving school.

Your Feedback

We’d love to hear from you! You can contact us or fill out a feedback form.

Parents Page

Don't forget our Parents Page with Handbooks, Term Dates, Medical Forms, and lots more!