Announcements

Covenant Christian School is a member of Christian Education National (CEN). The recent bushfires in Victoria have seen a dramatic outpouring of generousity around the nation. Covenant's response was donating money raised by selling of flowers for Valentines Day. Many of the schools in CEN have found creative ways to raise funds.  We hope you find these reports encouraging.

LAUNCESTON CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
Launceston Christian School responded by sending Plenty Valley Christian College $8,000 as a result of a fundraising day.  We also collected half a room full of new and near new clothing and partnered with a local removal company who offered to courier this to Plenty Valley Christian College free of charge. More funds are coming in through donations and we continue to pray for the communities affected by the fires.

BAYSIDE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE
Bayside Christian College students held a Free Dress Day last Thursday and raised over $3000 to go towards the bushfire victims.

BLUE MOUNTAINS CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
At Blue Mountains Christian School our kids had a mufti day last Friday - 120 kids raised $800

KUYPER CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
The students at Kuyper were showing what Christian leadership is really about by sending the principal a letter identifying the need and a desire to respond in a loving way to help improve the situation of the fires in Victoria. The end result was that we did hold a non-school uniform day and raised $1000, not bad for a small school.

DUBBO CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
Today Dubbo Christian School had a 'Mufti' day to raise money for the appeal.  We have raised appoximately $1600 today.  Buscuits have been baked to go on a truck leaving Dubbo to go down to Victoria. Our intention is to be involved with some other ideas driven by a student committee.

ORANGE AND BATHURST CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
Orange and Bathurst Christian Schools responded in several ways. We invited students and families to donate new or good clean items of clothing or household goods and we gave them to a local trucking firm, Tynan Transport, that took them south free of charge. We encouraged people to donate, and lots did. The Student Service Committee raised $173.00 and donated that to the appeal. Primary students were asked to think about and pray for the people affected by the fire, and then to write letters to the children whose schools were burned down. We will then find an address to mail those letters. We were particularly impressed by the generosity of families that basically went through parts of their house and bought a duplicate of everything, for example, what do you need for a family bathroom – towels, toiletries etc.

ANNANDALE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
Annandale Christian School held a Coloured Clothes (Free Dress) Day on Friday 13th February and students each donated a gold coin to assist those who have suffered loss through the bush fire tragedy.  This event was part of a Townsville-wide school-based appeal which encouraged all schools (from State, Catholic, Christian and Independent sectors) to give generously towards the Red Cross Bush Fire Appeal. Annandale gave over $900.  We are also keen to specifically help Plenty Valley Christian School in a practical way and our staff and students have been praying reguarly for them.

BEECHBORO CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
Beechboro Christian School. Last Friday we had a “Wear Red for Red Cross” day and raised close to $2000.For the next two weeks our school is having an afternoon “Car Wash” and already we have had to turn away willing customers.People are very willing to support activities that will help the Victorian Bush Fire Victims so I think that by the end of two weeks we will have raised considerably more.

HOPE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
A Plenty Valley Christian School Bushfire Appeal has been set up for our school community to contribute to. To date we have raised $1800.

This is just a snapshot of what some CEN schools are doing. To read more examples from other school, plus updates click here.

Covenant Christian School students received excellent results in the 2008 School Certificate. There were many outstanding individual performances as well as a number of excellent results in a variety of subject areas.

The following students received a mark of 90 or higher in the subjects listed, placing them in Band 6, the top performance band in the State for the SC.
Joseph Bell – Mathematics, Science
Matthew Betts – Geography
James Blumer  – English
Joshua Chee – Mathematics, Science, Geography
Andrew Chen – Mathematics
Luke Curnow – Mathematics
Elisa Dykman – English, Science, History
Mitchell Everingham – English
Grace Fitz-Gerald – English, Science, History
Daniel Malik – Mathematics
Blair Mottau – Mathematics
Daniel Robinson – Mathematics, Science, Geography
Bethany Sullivan – English, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography
Max Tapper – Geography
Daichi Watanabe – Mathematics
Mitchell Zalai – Mathematics

The Computing Skills results were also excellent. The vast majority of students at CCS received the top ranking of Highly Competent in the Computing Skills Test (84.61 % when compared to the state average of 57.27%). The remaining 15.39% of CCS students received the second top ranking of “Competent.”

General Comments
In a vast majority of subjects taken at Covenant, students performed at a level well above the State average. Covenant students were significantly under-represented in Bands 3, 2 and 1, the lower Performance Bands.

Covenant students were significantly over–represented in Bands 6 and 5 collectively, the top two performance bands in all subjects taken at Covenant. Subjects include, English, Mathematics, Science, Australian History, Australian Geography and Computing Skills.

Miss Sharon Sopher, SC Coordinator

At Covenant our mission clearly states we "assist parents in the nurture of their children by providing a Christ-centred, biblically grounded, culturally engaging and academically rigorous education which equips children to live for God's glory.  To help this the school has created a new position Curriculum Coordinator (Perspectives) (Coordinator 3). This role will be part of the leadership team that serves the school community. As such it requires a deep understanding of Christian Schooling.

The Coordinator will be of a reformed evangelical faith and ought to be willing and able to articulate this well in the school setting. The successful candidate will ideally have had experience in a Christian School setting and demonstrate that they are able to teach in their area of expertise from a rigorously considered Christian perspective.

They ought to have post graduate qualifications that enable them to do this task and are able to show evidence of doing so in the past. The position is open to teachers from K to 12 and will entail some face to face teaching.

As the job entails them working closely with other senior staff, they will have very strong relationship skills whilst helping them in their task to ensure that a biblical worldview permeates the school’s teaching programs.

They will also help induct new staff and be involved in the school’s teacher appraisal program as well as promoting biblically grounded thinking by the staff in the area of teaching and learning.

Job Description
The Curriculum Coordinator (Perspectives) will have the responsibility to initiate, coordinate and oversee the development of staff and curriculum K12 in accordance with the school's Vision and Mission.

Responsible to
The Curriculum Coordinator (Perspectives) will:

• directly be responsible to the Principal and will work together with the Head of Junior School and Deputy Principal in order to ensure that our curriculum is thoroughly Christ centred,biblically grounded, culturally engaging and academically rigorous.
• work closely with subject coordinators in the High School and the Curriculum Coordinator in

the Junior School. The Curriculum Coordinator (Perspectives) will generally work in the following areas:
Administrative and Pedagogical
The Curriculum Coordinator (Perspectives) will:

• meet regularly with the Principal, Head of School and Deputy Principal in order to advise them in areas of curriculum and staff development.
• initiate and lead pedagogical and curriculum review and improvement in the school.
• arrange and monitor practice teaching sessions for trainee teachers in consultation with subject coordinators, Head of Junior School and Deputy Principal.
• be involved in the appraisal process of coordinators and teaching staff.
• may have a parttime teaching role

Curriculum
The Curriculum Coordinator (Perspectives) will:

• provide leadership and guidance to staff in curriculum and staff development and in the proposal and initiation of specific curriculum projects
• keep abreast of educational developments and government requirements and ensure that relevant staff are informed of these.
• foster the development of programs K12and ensure that all programs and documents reflect the Christian worldview of the school.
• promote an integral curriculum where appropriate.

Staff Development
The Curriculum Coordinator (Perspectives) will:

• publicise & recommend staff development programs, both inschool and those run by outside agencies
• develop and recommend annual priorities in staff development and review these from time to time
• help coordinate the planning of staff conference programs and presentations by visiting speakers
• circulate material about the latest research in curriculum areas and teaching styles
• assist the Head Librarian in the development and promotion of resources in the Teacher

Reference Area

• promote reading and other media that will encourage teachers to think biblically about their task
• undertake inservice training for personal growth in leadership and pedagogy
• provide guidance and encouragement to staff as a whole regarding programming and teaching to meet the different needs of students with different abilities, interests or special needs

Other
From time to time the Curriculum Coordinator (Perspectives) will be required to undertake other
tasks by the Principal.