Welcome back from Mr Bray!

Focus verse: ‘For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.’ Psalm 100: 5 (NIV)

It was wonderful to welcome our students back for the 2018 school year this Tuesday. I enjoyed seeing students, young and old, greeting friends who they hadn’t seen for many weeks and sharing their holiday experiences. The sounds of excited voices in the playground and the sight of groups of students all neatly attired in new school uniforms added life and vitality to our well-presented school grounds. Added to this sight, were the many mums and dads and carers who were bringing their children to school, some for their very first day at Nowra Christian School. In fact, we are greatly encouraged that currently we have 95 students who are joining our school community this year. I have had the privilege of holding further enrolment interviews during this current week. Please remember to pray for these students and their families that they will soon feel very much ‘at home’ here at NCS.

We commenced our day with a ‘Welcome Assembly’ and it was pleasing that so many parents and carers were able to stay to join with our students and staff for this event. As always, we began with a time of prayer and community singing, acknowledging that this is God’s school and that we look to him for wisdom and direction. We were then delighted to individually welcome a number of new staff to our NCS team and I would encourage you to take the opportunity to personally greet them during the coming weeks.

Following the assembly our students all headed off to their classes, many of them with staff who were teaching them for the very first time. In no time at all, it seemed that everyone had settled back into a productive school routine. I was delighted that many parents and carers were able to remain behind after the assembly to enjoy a delicious morning tea. This provided valuable opportunities for relaxed conversations to develop as brand new parents and carers met with those who had been at NCS for a number of years.

Whilst this has been the first week back for our students, NCS staff have already been very busy preparing for the new school year during our Conference Week. This week provided rich opportunities for both professional development and personal preparation time. The first two days of Conference Week were spent on the strategically important task of initial training for the implementation of the AVID program. ‘AVID’ stands for ‘Advancement Via Individual Determination’ and this is a program that will eventually spread throughout all levels of our school. We were very fortunate to have both the National Director and State Coordinator of AVID Australia available to present these training sessions.

The week has been a busy one, full of a variety of activities, culminating in most of our secondary students enjoying a ‘Beach Afternoon’ at Callala Beach. I said ‘most’ because another sizable group of students remained back at school as they rehearsed and planned for our upcoming school production of ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ which will be presented in the final week of May. During this week our Kindergarten staff have also been kept very busy carrying out one-on-one interview sessions with our 39 new Kindergarten children and this Saturday morning there will be a ‘Picnic in the Park’ opportunity for all our Kinder families to meet together in readiness for the commencement of the Kindergarten program on Wednesday of next week.

Not only have our staff and students been productively occupied throughout this week but our Grounds and Maintenance staff have been busily preparing for the arrival of three new teaching classrooms. These were delivered by two ‘convoys’ of trucks on Monday and Wednesday of this week and they have now been positioned at the rear of the Multi-Purpose Centre. Fitting out and landscaping activities are underway and it is anticipated that these brand new facilities will be fully operational by the commencement of Week 3 of this term. They will provide valuable teaching spaces for our secondary students and we are thankful to God for the provision of these wonderful new facilities.

Planning is already underway for events that will occur in the very near future. These include our NCS contribution to the Commonwealth Games Baton Relay next Monday afternoon. All NCS families are invited to attend and you can read more about this event elsewhere in this edition of NCS Bytes. We have also held a planning meeting for our NCS Family Twilight Picnic that is now just two weeks away and which promises to be a delightfully relaxed opportunity to share a meal and friendly conversations with other NCS families. These are just some of the many exciting events that are included on this year’s NCS calendar. I look forward to sharing further details with you in future editions of NCS Bytes.