Since the beginning of remote learning quite a few parents have shared with me how they, and their families, are coping at this trying time. 

Thankfully, some are doing quite well. Work is busy, children are managing reasonably well with remote learning and the family have found some positive and creative things to do during the lockdown. 

Other families are feeling the strain more significantly. Remote learning becomes harder for the family as each week passes, the parent’s work can be stressful, and the family are feeling the weight of lockdown restrictions. Some families may be feeling the financial strain of the lockdown.

Where do we turn to when we find life hard? There seems to be no shortage of advice on the internet on how to cope with stress and anxiety, some of which may be helpful. Government and non-government bodies provide confidential phone counselling. Some people rightly choose to seek professional assistance for mental health needs.

In previous newsletter articles I have urged the school community to pray for God’s comfort and enabling as we navigate the lockdown and remote learning.

In this week’s newsletter I would like to encourage members of our school community to read the Bible. I know there are many individuals and families who read and reflect on passages from the Bible each day. God calls us to do this. Psalm 1:2 refers to Christians being blessed when they delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it day and night. However, I recognise that some people struggle to read the Bible regularly and others in our school community may only have read the Bible on a few occasions.

If you previously read the Bible consistently, but are currently struggling to do so, I encourage you to find 2 or 3 set times during a week when you give 15 minutes to reading a passage of Scripture. Choose a passage of Scripture that is familiar to you, try and read it in its context, work out the main point of the passage and determine if there is something from the passage that will apply to your life.

If reading the Bible is unfamiliar to you, a good place to start is Mark’s gospel in the New Testament. This book is about Jesus’ life, teaching, death and resurrection, all of which is central to the Christian faith.

This is the last newsletter for the term. I trust that the school holidays will provide families with refreshment and time to enjoy each other’s company.

Mr Brett Hartley
Principal

I was also reminded of a classic TV ad from years ago for Meadow Lea in 1984, “You ought to be congratulated!” For those too young to know, here’s a link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP-06DT2VQ0.

Congratulations, Parents! You have endured. You have helped your child learn at home, amidst work commitments, ongoing challenges, juggling home life, cooking, washing, working, online shopping, etc etc etc. You ought to be congratulated! So, CONGRATULATIONS! I am sure you will join the teachers and students next Friday when we celebrate what we have learnt and achieved this term. We hope and pray that you and your family enjoy the coming two week holiday and can enjoy any easing of restrictions that the government provides.

The school internet filtering will still operate for school hours only on Year 3-6 Chromebooks. We encourage all parents to monitor the use of these devices. We do encourage you to sign up for Family Zone as outlined in the last newsletter. However,  I encourage you to put the children’s Chromebooks, iPads and phones away and enjoy other activities during the holidays, take a break from using technology.

I shared this Bible verse with the staff this morning as a word of encouragement to them from 1 Thessalonians.

"We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Our teachers have worked and laboured tirelessly this term because of their faith, commitment, dedication and love for the children. Teachers and all of us have persevered and endured because of the hope we have in Jesus. We miss seeing the children face-to-face at school, in the playground, in the classroom and we look forward to the day when we can return.  

We will continue remote learning next term for each grade but will make some improvements based on feedback that we have received from parents, teachers and students. Regarding the return to school, we will follow the health advice and plan to welcome Prep, Kindergarten and Year 1 on Monday 25 October, Year 2 and 6 on Monday 1 November and all other grades on Monday 8 November. We will communicate more specific information about the return to school next term.

We will also be providing the opportunity to collect remote learning resources and Home Readers for Term 4 on Tuesday 5 October from 1pm - 3pm. I’ll send out an email and SMS about this closer to the date to remind parents.

Congratulations and God bless!

Mr Paul Carter
Head of Junior School

The Student Leadership Team for 2021/22 is:

• Stephen Barry
• Angelina Gonzalez
• Laurence Griffin
• Grace Innis
• Arielle Lee
• Jake Mellor
• Brad Nadin
• Emma Rupenovic
• Kayla Sagris
• Eric Stonestreet
• Joshua Veart
• Callum Wilkes
• Alysia Williams
• Joel Zabaras

This team will work together to be servants of others here at Shire Christian School and will strive to be Christ-like role models to all students. They will contribute to the school in many meaningful ways and think about assisting in creating a positive and engaging school culture.

For those who did not make the team, my encouragement to you is to stay involved. Regardless of a title or a badge, we all are called in humility to value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others (Philippians 2:3-4). Continue to take the opportunities across the next year to step up and get involved in events and be a student willing to lead others positively.

I would like to leave you today with the last two verses from Psalm 46:

¹⁰ He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” ¹¹ The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Just as the Sons of Korah reflect in this Psalm, it too is my prayer that you may know God as your fortress and know that God is with us. In a world which is unstable and constantly changing, know that God is ever present and still the same yesterday and today and forever. May you find time to be still over this week and these holidays and know that God is good and his love endures forever.

Mr Peter Richardson
Acting Head of Secondary School

We are all generally familiar with the types of learnings often associated with PDHPE; nutrition, drugs and drug abuse, relationships, healthy lifestyle and fitness etc, but it is in the unusually isolating events of 2021 that other key themes relating to mental health have also come to the fore. 

Ideas related to connectedness, supporting each other, and the importance of exercise in reducing stress have suddenly become life skills which have moved out of the classroom and into student's lives on a daily basis.

Our current emphasis in PE is to get students offline, away from screens and moving and interacting, if possible, with their family. In theory-lesson times we sometimes put the content aside and just do activities that are fun and help the students to connect a little or have a laugh. 

Focusing on the importance of gratitude is of course not a new idea for a Christian, but in secular psychology it is gaining wider recognition as an important component of good mental health and resilience. We have discussed the positives that have come out of the COVID lockdowns, and for many people, there are a few. Everyone's walking skills have certainly improved!

One of our senior PDHPE tasks has been adjusted to become about the effects of lockdown on the individual and the fitness industry, trying to explore how people can adapt and if there are any benefits amongst all the disruption.

And a special mention goes to Mr Liam Woods who has done a great job working with our students in lockdown. Completing your final prac teaching experience via remote learning is certainly an unusual and challenging way to finish university.

Mr Phil Askew
Head of PDHPE

We were all set to make our films in Term 3 and then lockdown hit! How can we make a film together when we are all apart? Our creative script writers came up with some ideas and our 2021 films are WUNDERBAR!

Capitalising on the remote learning situation, Year 8 came up with a story where a class is taken over by a “Zoom Bomber” (ZB), who takes control of the Zoom. He gives the class a choice; they can leave the Zoom, but they will never use technology again. Will the class decide to stay in the Zoom world or will they choose to leave? You’ll have to wait for our film to find out!

Year 10 came up with a different plot. After the whole class missed a Zoom lesson, it was up to one student to pass on some important information to the others. As can often happen, the message gets mixed up as it gets passed along with hilarious results! Luckily the Year 9 class come along and save the day!

Stay tuned for the results of the competition. Here are some still shots from the footage.

Mrs Gemma McWhirter

King David had a whole nation depending on him for physical protection and spiritual guidance and support amid hostile, complex and uncertain volatile circumstances. He even had a pandemic to cope with, and he didn’t even need the Daily Jerusalem Morning Herald or the IBC to remind him it was all HIS fault, or to criticise him constantly for the inadequate way he was handling the situation. He already KNEW that HE was the source of the problem. The pandemic brought great fear and distress on the nation and took 70,000 lives in just 3 days. You can read all about it in 1 Chronicles 21.

I therefore look to David to learn from him how he coped with it all. I find that he cried out to the LORD his God in prayers of confession and petition. And I also find comfort in a song he wrote, not necessarily on this occasion, but as an expression of how he coped with all his problems throughout his troubled life.  He wrote, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.  He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely goodness and love/mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.” (Psalm 23).

This song is both realistic and hope-inspiring. He knows that life in a sin-ridden, God-denying, fallen world will mean times of walking through ‘valleys’, under the ‘shadow’ of DEATH, but he also knows that in spite of this he can KNOW a God who can ‘make him lie down in green pastures’ and ‘lead him beside quiet waters’, even while the shadow hangs over him. He KNOWS the secret that the Apostle Paul will reveal a millennium later that in “ALL THINGS God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. … He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:28, 32), and that this truth applies even WHILE he struggles in the valley under the shadow.

Let us all reflect on these things, and encourage each other - our family, our children, our friends, as well as our selves - with them as we hang onto our Good Shepherd’s hand and look to him for guidance and support in every aspect of our daily lives and struggles. As John Greenleaf Whittier wrote: “I know not where his isles may lift their fronded palms in air, I only know I cannot drift beyond God’s love and care.”

Rev Bruce Christian

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