Focus verse: ‘Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.’ John 15: 13
I am confident that all members of our school community will remember this past fortnight for many years to come. It is a very unusual event to close a school completely in mid-term and, of course, this is the decision that was made on Tuesday of this past week as a result of the fire rating level in the Shoalhaven district reaching ‘catastrophic’. We can more fully understand the scope of the bushfire threat facing our state when we realise that NCS was just one of more than 600 schools and TAFE centres who made the significant decision to close on this day.
I would wish to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all parents and carers for your understanding and cooperation throughout this challenging day. Thank you also to those who faithfully prayed for safety for our firefighters and emergency service personnel. Although it was a very confronting time for many people living in the fire zones, prayers were certainly answered in that there was no further loss of life on this day.
Amidst all the tension and drama associated with these fires, many other important events and programs have occurred at our school during the past two weeks. On Monday 11 November at 11am, all Primary students were assembled outside in front of the flagpoles to mark the 100th anniversary of Remembrance Day. This is a solemn occasion that specifically recognises the moment when the guns fell silent on the Western Front after more than four years of fighting. This was the moment when World War One officially ceased. At exactly 11am the ‘Ode of Remembrance’ was read out and all Primary students and Secondary students, who were in their classrooms, stood in silence for one minute as a sign of respect to honour those who had given their lives in the cause of freedom.
On this same Monday, we marked another quite different but very significant event in the life of our school. This was the day when our Stage 1 Building Program officially commenced after many, many months of careful planning and preparation. In order to officially recognise this occasion, a small ceremony was held on the site where our Technological and Applied Studies (TAS) and Visual Arts Centre will be built. We gathered with key representatives of our architectural and building companies to symbolically ‘turn the first sod’ in this major building program. We used a shiny silver spade wrapped in ribbon but very soon large machines will dig up the site, preparing to lay the foundations for the building program that will follow. We are looking forward to providing you with regular building updates in future editions of the BYTES as we closely follow the progress of this exciting new stage in the journey of our school.