Faith News 2023 | Term 3, Week 10

Video Transcript

We are in Week 10 of Term 3. Week 10 of Term 3 is also Week 10 of Semester 2, and so we’re halfway through the Semester! The kids have done some amazing work! I’ve got some stats I want to share with you. Did you know that with Learning@Faith we’re able to record kids handing in work and having work returned to them? So, up until the 1st of August, your kids handed in 38,550 pieces of work to their teachers, which were returned and marked and sent back to you. Now, that’s a lot of work that our kids have done, and I’m incredibly proud of that, and it’s showing in their results, and the kids are getting great marks, and for the work that they’re doing, they’re showing that they’re able to use our systems at Learning@Faith very, very well!

There are some upgrades coming as we’ve learned how to use Learning@ Faith and improve that, but the general feedback I’m getting is that the loading and uploading of work is getting simpler, more straightforward, and easier to manage. If there’s anything we can do to help with that means that there’s less stress and more time the kids and families can put into doing their schoolwork. So, well done, everyone! Almost 40,000 pieces of work!

Graduation Events

Student Graduation is coming up! Our Grade 12s are coming close to the end of their formal Secondary education, and there’s a Grade 12 Graduation dinner coming up, as well as a Grade 6 Graduation evening. These events are a time to celebrate all the good things that students have done. Make sure that you get involved so we can congratulate the kids on what they’ve done, and probably just as importantly, congratulate our Home Educators on getting them through all those school years, and all the work they’ve done along the way!

Student News

Two of our Faith students were competing at the Queensland State Youth Bouldering Titles recently. Bouldering is rock climbing without ropes and harnesses and just using climbing shoes and a bag of chalk over safety mats. WOW! Congratulations to our two Faith students Nikau M. and Morgan S.

Student Joke Submissions

Year 3 Joke

Now, I’ve been asking kids to send in jokes, so I’ve got a couple of jokes I’d like to share with you. The first one is from Aria in Year 3, and her joke is  What is a snake’s favourite subject?  I thought it would have been the Garden of Eden, but no, it’s  hissstory! 

Year 6 Joke

The next one is from our Year 6, we’ve got some kids here who’ve got some jokes to tell. 

“I heard in Assembly that if you have a joke, you can tell Mr. Johnston, you can try and make him laugh, so these are the ones I put in:” I’m close friends with only 25 letters of the alphabet, and I don’t know Y! and “Why is the Maths textbook so unhappy?   Well, it’s just full of problems!”   “Why did the student eat his homework?   Because his teacher told him that homework is a piece of cake!”

Student Mission Trip Photos

A couple of News items ago, we told you about the change of Mission Trip and our kids went somewhere different this year, this Semester, instead of Boggabilla, and they went into town to an Inner-City Mission, and we’ve got some photos to share with you about that. But it’s wonderful to see our Senior students heading off and doing things for other people who are in need, so well done to our Senior students who went on a Mission Trip to the city this year!

2023 Yearbook

The other thing I wanted to mention is that every year we send out a Yearbook. This year,we’re doing an electronic one, so we can send it out to you very, very easily. You can have a printed copy if you d like to buy that, but if you have an article you’d like to send in to the School for the Yearbook for 2023, something special you did in class or something special you did in Co-Curricular, send that through to the School, and we can include that in the Yearbook if it’s something suitable that we can use. It’s good to keep a record of all the good things that are done, and I know that people enjoy getting the Yearbook, and we will be able to produce another good one for you this year!

Term 4 Resources

This is Week 10 of Term 3, and right now, while I’m preparing this video, up in the Warehouse all of our Packs for Primary School are being put together. They will be ready to post out by this Friday, which is only a few days away! You should get them in the first week of the September holiday break, and you’ll be ready to go with the start of the new holidays. These are really good, these workbooks, they’re very colourful, and easy to follow, so you’ll have to resist the temptation of starting your Term early during the holidays! As a Principal, of course, I would never get in the way of doing work early!

Devotions

This is the last week of the Term, and we’ve got a couple of weeks holidays coming up, where everybody can catch their breath, our students, our families, and our teachers, so I thought I’d share a little devotions with you on that topic. My wife and I are going up to the Sunshine Coast for a few days, just to sit around and have a cup of coffee and enjoy God’s creation. And God explains to us that the best rest that we can get is in Him. Interestingly, according to Scripture, rest isn’t just about doing nothing. Rest is about making a choice, being active. In Matthew, Chapter 11, Verses 28, 29, it says, Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke with you, learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. See, we don’t have to earn our Salvation, it’s a free Gift. But as a result of Salvation, there are things that we can do, we can be empowered to do them. So, here are a couple of things that I would like to suggest that you do as you rest over the holidays:

1. The first one is really simple: Prayer. Now, prayer looks different for different people. One of the things I do when I’m praying on holidays is I just walk down to the beach and I think about all the things that have been happening, and I literally have a conversation with God about that, so, about the things that went well, and celebrate that, things that worry me and how I’d like some help with that, and practise just actually talking to God, in a conversational way, and reacquainting myself with my Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s one thing that you could do.
2. Another one you could do is fasting. Now, traditionally, fasting is fasting from food, and that’s perfectly valid, and you can look that up and understand that, but fasting from other things, fasting from technology- this little phone stays with me all the time, and I’m going to fast from that for a few days and put it aside so that I can perhaps hear the things that God would like me to hear. Maybe fasting from coffee, or other things, which is a habit that you’re used to, and you’d like to just put that aside for a little while, while you spend some time with God and come back.
3. Now, all of us in our school have probably been to church, and many of us are going to church regularly, but if you’ve taken a break from Church for whatever reason, maybe this holiday is a chance to go back to church, sit in church, praise God during the worship, listen to the sermon provided by the pastor or the minister. Reacquaint yourself with that wonderful habit of being part of God’s people, somewhere, somehow, so that you can feed your soul and be of use to others.
4. Over this holiday break, get into scripture, look up things, reacquaint yourself with things you need to do. One of the beautiful things about living in this modern era is that you can type in the word “devotions” into Google and put any word after that and you’ll find a devotions on that topic. If you’re stressed, you can type in “devotions stress,” and you’ll find the devotions, and look it up and pray about that, and think about that.

So, I just wanted to share that with you, because I know that I can’t do this job as your Principal unless my relationship with Jesus is where it should be, and even as Principal, sometimes that can slip. Holidays are a chance for me to refresh that. This September, I’ll be walking down the beach with my wife and we’ll be talking to each other, and we’ll be talking with our Lord, and we’ll come back refreshed, and finish off the year, and enjoy the season of celebration that we have in Term 4!

God bless, we’ll see you next Term, enjoy your holiday, and don’t forget to ask somebody this week, R U OK?