Words have Power…

Over the last two weeks, I have enjoyed seeing the fruits of having the whole school embrace a renewed, explicit focus on sentence writing, watching students being generous with their gum nuts while using teamwork to build their cubbies, hearing questions that our students are asking about God and His world, and seeing our students and staff create a ‘30’ image on the Oval for a drone photo to commemorate our 30 Year Anniversary. There is much to be thankful for, and God continues to be so good to us at Northern Christian School.

I would love to be able to stop here after sharing all the ‘good’ news stories, but we need to be honest and give a truthful picture of our reality. Sharing good news stories is always easy and enjoyable; however, we must ensure we have a balanced and honest picture of life at Northern and share some of the ‘not so good’ news and sad realities of our ‘messed-up-ness’.

The late Martin Hanscamp, a Christian ‘giant’ and well-respected principal in Christian education, highlights the importance of schools remembering that God’s hand and blessing is also there when we have to address our school’s fallenness. We must be honest and recognise when we fall short. Only then can we begin to take steps to do better; to be God’s redeeming agents.

This last week, I have been quite saddened to witness an increase in hurtful things our students are saying to each other. This increase in poor behaviour has caused our students and their families great distress, and staff have spent many hours reconciling relationships and highlighting the expectations around how we interact with each other. Although not new, the increase in this type of behaviour is something that we are focusing on with students this week. We want everyone who comes to our campus to feel safe and valued. We know that we are all loved by God, and we want everyone to reflect that same love in how they speak to others and about others. Every single person in our school community deserves to be treated with the utmost respect and kindness.

At Line-Up, I spoke with our students about how the tongue can build others up or tear others down. I shared a verse from the Bible where Paul was writing to the Ephesians, reminding them to live their whole lives in response to what Jesus has done for us, which is a new way of thinking. In Ephesians 4:29, Paul instructs the Ephesians

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

This is a challenge for us all, and we need to ask God for his help, strength and wisdom as we live out each day trying not to fall into the trap of speaking badly to others or speaking badly about other people to others.

During these last two weeks of term, our teachers are prayerfully asking God for His wisdom as they provide the opportunities and time to remind our students that God calls us to be wise with our words, help students understand the impact of their words and take time to nurture opportunities for healing to broken relationships. Earlier this week, I mediated a restorative conversation where the students were genuine in resolving and restoring the friendships between themselves and their peers. What a privilege it is to support our students to help them reflect, forgive, and restore relationships resulting in changed behaviour.  

As a transformational Christian learning community, we continue to work hard to ensure that our School Values of ‘Respect', ‘Kindness’ and ‘Resilience’ don’t just look good on the Office and classroom walls but truly define our school culture for students, staff and families. From reading these values on our website to joining our school community, all families, whether existing or new, should be able to personally experience our School Values through the outward demonstration of our faith. As I have reflected on the value of ‘Kindness’ this past week, I have been reminded that God’s act of kindness to us in Jesus should be both the motivation and the power for us to be kind to others. I am thankful that we have a loving God who blesses us, even with and through our challenges of poor behaviour. Through this blessing, we are encouraged to critique our weaknesses and seek to bring about redeeming actions to the way we treat others with our words and actions.

Bethany Armstrong - Principal

Term 4 Reminder - No Hat, No Play

As detailed in our Uniform Policy, and in line with our recognition as a SunSmart School, all students and staff must wear a hat when outside during Term 4. If students aren’t wearing a hat they will be asked to sit on the undercover deck.

The School’s bucket hat must be purchased from the Uniform Shop either via the Qkr! App or from the Office for $12.

In HASS, we have been learning about the countries of Africa and South America and comparing these countries to Australia. Students have been using their skills to research individual countries and discover how blessed we are to live in Australia, where we have clean water, access to education and medical facilities and many other resources. Students have created digital presentations to demonstrate their findings as informative texts, which they will share next week.

In Science and Design Technology, students have been learning about forces and how they work in our daily lives, focusing on the new Bridgewater Bridge. Students had the privilege of having Mrs Laura Middleton from the Department of State Growth, who shared with students about the design of the new bridge and how the team of engineers, designers and builders have worked together to solve problems that come with bridge construction including the force impact wind and tidal movement. Students enjoyed the opportunity to create bridges in groups using straws and connectors under the guidance of Mrs Middleton. This provided students with a foundation for their design challenge of building a bridge with design specifications. Students are looking forward to finishing this unit on Grandparent’s Day tomorrow.

In our devotion time this term, we have focused on learning about the Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10-20), which helps us to stand firm in our faith and resist the attacks of the enemy and how we can see God working in our lives through the fruits of the spirit including love, joy, peace, happiness, gentleness, self-control, patience, and kindness (Galatians 5:22-26). Students have greatly enjoyed our 'sword drills' where they race each other to find selected Bible verses and work to identify the theme of the day. 

As we head into Term 4, I look forward to continuing to work with students as they learn new skills, concepts and facts.

Tara Williams - Year 4 Teacher

Mustard is a national schools ministry organisation that started life in Melbourne around 20 years ago. They named their organisation after the seed Jesus uses to describe the kingdom of heaven in Matthew’s gospel which says

 “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

This year, we launched our own Mustard lunchtime group for Years 5 and 6 students to come and learn and grow in their faith. All students are encouraged to ask questions, seek answers and explore how to thrive in both the world and in their faith. 

So far, we have looked at some topics such as Identity, Labels and Courage and explored some of Jesus’ teachings by looking at some of his parables, such as the Parable of the Mustard Seed.

Dan Meehan - Chaplain

Thursday 21 September
10.45am - 12.30pm

Please join our Northern community for Grandparents Day tomorrow!

Enjoy FREE barista-made coffee, a morning tea and classroom activities with your grandchildren!

The aim of the occasion is to build connections and community between our students and their grandparents. We look forward to sharing this special time together.

Footy Colours Day
Wednesday 27 September

Fight Cancer Foundation’s ‘Footy Colours Day’ is a national fundraising campaign that helps kids with cancer.

On Wednesday, 27 September, students are invited to wear their favourite footy team colours, and there will be fun activities held throughout the day.

Students are also welcome to wear their free dress or their favourite sport team if they do not wish to dress in footy attire

A Hot Dog and a packet of chips - aka ‘Footy Food’ - is able to be purchased for $5.00 (Gluten-Free $5.50). Place your ‘Footy Food’ orders and/or make a fundraising donation for the Fight Cancer Foundation via QKR! before 4.00pm Monday, 25 September.

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.

Thursday 19 October 2023

Northern Christian School will be taking part in Day for Daniel, Australia’s largest day of action to raise awareness of child safety, protection and harm intervention.

On this day, we encourage all students to wear red, and donations can be made via QKR! between now and Thursday, 19 October. All funds raised will go toward helping this foundation develop free resources and programs for parents, carers and educators to teach children to stay safe.

All students will be revisiting our Child Safeguarding Statement and will be sharing what this means for them and others. 

For more information about Day for Daniel or for access to free resources and advice about talking with your child about personal safety, please visit danielmorcombe.com.au

Friday 20 October
2.00pm - 4.00pm

This year, we celebrate 30 years of God's goodness and faithfulness at Northern Christian School. Together, we will continue to build a bright future that will transform not just the lives of our students but the wider school community.

You are invited to attend our afternoon of celebrations!

Our Service of Thanksgiving starts at 2.00pm. You will hear stories from our special guests, including from those who built our school, in some cases literally with their bare hands! The service will conclude with an afternoon tea where you can reminisce with others as you look at the school's history.

At 3.30pm, tours will commence so you can see our new Kinder precinct, some memorabilia and the beautiful work of our current students.

What a wonderful way to celebrate what God has done through Northern Christian School!

Tickets are FREE but must be ordered via EVENTBRITE. As this event is held during school time, current Northern students do not need to reserve tickets. Students must be accompanied by an adult after 3.00pm to remain for the afternoon tea and tours.