The Armor of God 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Ephesians 6: 10-18 (NIV)
It is hard to believe that this Bytes article sees me welcoming all school families back to the beginning of Term 3. Of course, this means that we are now more than half way through our school year! I have no doubt that none of us are likely to forget the 2020 year as it has clearly proven to be a challenging one due to the impacts of the COVID-19 virus. However, I would again wish to commend all members of our school community for the wonderfully positive way in which you have all responded to the many changed health protocols that have been introduced.
Even though our lives have been subject to many changes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, I do trust that all school families did find some opportunities for rest and relaxation during the three week holiday break. Obviously there were some limitations on travel but it can be very refreshing to go for a walk with the family along the beach or for a bike ride in the country.
I am pleased to state that we have had a very smooth start to Term 3 and both students and staff have quickly settled back into an effective working routine. (The photographs below show some of our Year 8 Technology class students busily planting vegetables in the school garden.) We have also been delighted to welcome eight new students to our NCS ‘family’. I have had the pleasure of meeting with these students towards the end of this week and it has been most encouraging to hear their very positive comments about how well they have settled into our school community. Overall, they have indicated that students have warmly welcomed them and that they have already begun to develop strong friendships.
I mentioned before that our students have all had a three week break. However, this has not been the case for our staff who returned to school on Monday, 13 July to participate in our Staff Conference Week. Once again, the conference week provided our staff with an excellent opportunity to engage in valuable professional development activities. They were also provided with some personal preparation time, designed to ensure that everything was in readiness for the return of our students.
The Staff Conference Week Program provided a wonderful variety of professional learning activities. Just some of these included a focus on the important area of designing curriculum from a Biblical perspective, a time to reflect on knowledge gained as a result of our recent NCS online learning delivery experiences, as well as further sessions focussing on our AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) programs. There were other sessions that explored assessment practice and moderation at the Secondary level, whilst our Primary teachers engaged in a close focus on the vital area of student writing.
One highlight of our conference week was the opportunity for all staff to participate in a guided tour of our new TAS/Visual Arts building site. Staff were greatly encouraged to view these developments and there were many very positive comments made in relation to how these facilities will enhance key learning programs for our students. It is anticipated that major external concreting works will be completed next week, depending on the weather, and this will then allow for some landscaping of the surrounds to commence. We are now very much looking forward to seeing this project reach completion at some stage during Term 3.