Exploring our heritage...

I took some time away from my studies to travel when I was in my early 20s.

A bit like the modern ‘gap year,’ it was an attempt to learn about myself as a person by exploring my heritage.  I travelled to Red Deer, the town in Canada where I was born. I saw the church in which I was baptised, the home that my parents built and the school where my father had taught mathematics.  I also spent time in the Netherlands, the birthplace of my parents.  I got to know the uncles, aunties and cousins who had not migrated to Tasmania and to experience the culture that my parents had left behind many years earlier.

As I travelled around both of these countries, I had a strong sense of my heritage.  In visiting significant places and talking to people who had known me as a child or had grown up with my parents, I came to understand much of what makes me ‘tick’ as the person that I am today. 

“By celebrating Heritage Day each year, we hope that all members of the Calvin community will come to understand more of what makes us ‘tick’ as the school that we are today. ”

Next week we will celebrate Heritage Day at Calvin Christian School. We will look at photos from the archives and hear stories from those who were part of the Calvin community long before I became part of it. By celebrating Heritage Day each year, we hope that all members of the Calvin community will come to understand more of what makes us ‘tick’ as the school that we are today. 

In 2022, we celebrated the 60th anniversary of Calvin. As part of the celebratory events, I had the privilege of interviewing a number of the founding association members and early educators.  It was an intensely rewarding experience for me - personally and professionally. The conversations gave me great insight into the vision that the founders held for Christian Education in the Kingborough area. The photos and stories provided me with a lasting impression of the dedication and hard work of the founding families over many decades. 

I have been able to share many of these stories at events over the past few years, the most recent being at the induction of new teachers to the organisation in late January.  After the presentation, a new Calvin teacher came to thank me for helping her to understand the school. While she had lived in the Kingborough area for a long time, she had not fully understood the reason the school was established, nor the significance of the Oliebollen Festival in raising much needed funds. By looking back to the heritage of the school, she had developed a better grasp of her role as a teacher at Calvin. 

What a joy to be part of a community that values its history and remains faithful to the Christian heritage upon which it was established.

Bonny Moroni - Head of Secondary

Planning for Peace!

This year we are excited to be implementing a new program in the Primary Campus called PeaceWiseKids.

This is a Christian program that equips young people to deal with challenging relationships and conflict in healthy, constructive and life-changing ways. In this program we will be teaching students key skills and strategies to having peaceful relationships and how to deal with difficult situations that arise in their day to day lives.  Students in Prep to Year 6 will have fortnightly lessons learning the principles, unpacking difficult situations and learning a shared vocabulary to use in the classroom, playground and even at home!

As we move through the program, students will see posters and flowcharts in the classroom and playground to help them remember the skills and strategies as they are learning to become peacemakers. This includes concepts such as the ‘5 A’s of Apology,’ ‘4 Choices of Forgiving’ and ‘Staying on Top of Conflict.’ 

Over the course of the year, students will work through the following three modules.

• Module 1: Understanding Conflict

• Module 2: Responding the Conflict

• Module 3: Peacemakers for Life

We started Module 1 last Thursday afternoon, looking at the question ‘What is conflict?’ During the course of this term we will unpack the following questions: Where does conflict come from? What is God’s peace plan for us? How can conflict be an opportunity? How do we become peacemakers?

We look forward to the journey of developing and improving peacemaking skills with our students this year. Please ask your children about their experiences and talk to class teachers if you would like more information about this program.

Andrew Nash - Deputy Principal, Head of Primary

First Day...

What are your memories of school?

Do you remember places - classrooms, corridors or yards? Do you remember people - teachers, friends and classmates? Perhaps you remember subjects and lessons? Or do you simply remember emotions – how you felt and responded to situations? 

As we get older some of our memories become more distant. We might remember fewer names, less about the lessons we enjoyed or endured, and a lot more about the feelings engendered by particular moments or places or relationships.

“Trying to do the best for our children when we can’t be there with them through every moment of their day, can be tough.”

Sometimes, when our own children begin their schooling or face challenges, it can be our emotional memory that guides our thinking. Let’s face it, it’s hard being a parent! Trying to do the best for our children when we can’t be there with them through every moment of their day, can be tough. Add on a layer of our own emotional memory of school and it can become a process of navigating our own as well as our child’s responses.

First days can be a particularly focussed time for those emotions. I have had to grapple with these myself at times. At the end of the day, I had to resolve the tension in my mind by realising that I can’t live their lives for them and there are many challenges that, if I remove the opportunity, I remove the chance for them to grow. Of course, there are many occasions when it is important for us to ask questions and to be involved in partnership with the School, but equally, there are times to perhaps just sit and listen without doing, a skill that I am still learning.

“Let’s face it, it’s hard being a parent!”

The Apostle Paul writes in the book of Romans, an incredible description of personal and spiritual growth. He begins with a statement that sounds strange to our ears, “…we also rejoice in our sufferings” and then goes on to explain “because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope”. For those seeking to following Jesus, the next verse should fill us with hope as Paul writes, “and hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:3-5).

I have had the pleasure of hearing many positive stories from our first few days this week. My favourite student reflection has been “good but tiring”. It has been exciting to welcome so many new and returning students to Calvin Christian School. Please pray for our students (and ourselves as parents) that there might be opportunity to take delight in new challenges. Our children, like us, are growing and maturing, being prepared for futures of hope and purpose in God.

Scott Ambrose - Principal