Dear Parents and Families,

I hope you have had the opportunity to hear our children sing our school song - "We Shine" - written by a local musician/teacher Jane Mitchell.  Jane was asked in the late 1990's to create a song that celebrated our school name and values.  One of my favourite lines refers to a challenge Jesus set his early followers.  In many bible stories we hear of the reference to 'build the Kingdom', not a physical place but rather a culture where the gospel values were animated by everyone for everyone.  When we sing the song we challenge each other to contribute to making our school a place where we can all learn, while feeling safe and valued.  Love, forgiveness, loyalty and peacefulness are key planks on which we build the Kingdom here in Churchill.

Across all classes this term our students are learning about the parables Jesus used to teach about the Kingdom.  It would be an interesting conversation to have with your children about what messages they can see or hear in this animation about the Parable of the Sower taken from Matthew's Gospel.

Again this week we are confronted as a community with the uncertainty of Coronavirus.  Over the weekend it was easy to be consumed by the news, social media and conversations that all reinforced the many fearful unknowns we face as a nation and as a local community.  I believe as parents & teachers, we have a responsibility to each other to act positively and safely.  We will have to deal with changes to our home, work and school routines and we will have to behave differently and do unfamiliar things like wearing masks.  The way we respond will be modelled to our children so I ask everyone to really take stock of our own wellbeing and attitudes so that we can be in the best possible position to allow our children to not only simply survive but to thrive.  As the AFL head honchos have used as their catch-cry these past few crazy months, we will all need to be agile in our thinking.

Wishing you a great week ahead, take care and stay safe.

Dave