Over the course of the last week, we have had opportunity to celebrate the incredible success of members of our student body.
Across a range of diverse fields, from the Arts to Athletics to Academics, Calvin Christian School students have experienced the type of success that comes through diligence of effort and the honing of their God-given skills and talents.
It was a delight to see the large number of awards that our students received in the Arts at the Royal Hobart Show recently, including the Best Youth Art in Show, awarded to Sophia Zimmerman. Calvin Christian School students were also present at the Tasmanian All Schools Athletics Championships where Matilda Lange claimed 5 gold medals in the U14 Hammer, Shot Put, Discus, 80m Hurdles and Long Jump and, incredibly, competing up an age level and gaining Silver in the U16 200m Hurdles. Oliver McAdie and Georgia Lange also received bronze medals.
“We celebrate our students achieving State and National recognition through the expression of their gifts and talents, we also celebrate those who, facing adversities of many kinds, make daily decisions to be present and to give of their best. ”
In the Academic fields, I was delighted to receive a letter from the organisers of the National History Challenge, notifying me that Niamh Blachford was a National Winner, receiving the award of Tasmanaian Young Historian and flying to Canberra at the end of the month to receive her prize from the Minister of Education. In this year’s Australian Mathematics Competition Phillip and Lukas Joubert and Yebei Li achieved High Distinctions and a number of students received Distinctions and Credits.
Success comes in many forms. We celebrate our students achieving State and National recognition through the expression of their gifts and talents, we also celebrate those who, facing adversities of many kinds, make daily decisions to be present and to give of their best. Many of our students are daily and diligently doing just this as they grow in their strength and abilities, doggedly pursuing success that is meaningful to them.
Our prayer for our young people, as parents and educators, is that they might seek to give their best and to grow, whatever the circumstances. With this frame of understanding, success does indeed come in many forms. At the end of the day, it is the heart that matters and we rejoice in the celebration that comes when we have given of our best.
Paul exhorts his readers in his letter to the church in Colossae that ‘…whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him’. However, this encouragement comes at the end of a series statements that remind us that it is the transformative power of God in our lives that will ultimately sustain us, that success is built on a foundation of practices that allow God to use, shape and mould us. ‘Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…’ he writes, ‘let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…’
As we ask God to continue his transforming work in our lives we look forward to the successes to come in ways both public and private. Well done to our students who are continuing to succeed, we rejoice with you and, with our Year 11 and 12 students completing their final classes yesterday. Who are now looking towards their upcoming examinations, we pray that the peace of God will rule in your hearts and His Word will dwell richly in you as you prepare to show all that you have learnt in the examinations.
Scott Ambrose — Principal