Announcements

This week we are running World Maths Day. This is a worldwide event run through Mathletics. It begins when Wednesday March 4 starts at the International Date Line to our East, and continues until it is no longer March 4 anywhere in the world (so for us it starts 10pm Tuesday night March 3 – and goes until 10pm Thursday night March 5).

World Maths Day is about having fun developing your Mathematical skills. You might have a chance to play in class, or you can go to www.worldmathsday.com to log in with your Mathletics login (students in JS can also go to the website and generate a login and start playing)!

So play as often as you like – but only until Thursday night!

Mathematics Department.

For many private schools in Sydney the current economic climate is providing some anxiety over enrolments. Covenant Christian School at Belrose, however, is making room for a significant increase in student enrolments. On the first day of school in February there are going to be many new faces. They had hoped to grow overall by 20 extra students. Instead it looks likely they could be welcoming an extra 50 students. This would take the school up to 800 from Preschool to Year 12. Covenant’s recent HSC results once again placed it in the Top 200 schools in NSW and 5th on the Northern Beaches. Neil Pierson, who helps with the school’s marketing, says “When parents start doing the sums they are realising Covenant offers very good value. While the consistently strong academics are always encouraging it is the Christian community and atmosphere which most families talk about."

Part of the school’s recent growth can be attributed to their Free School Tour on DVD, new web and blogsites and group tours. Since September, 1,700 copies of the DVD have been distributed. Even over the holiday periods, the requests for the DVD have been continuing. Neil imagines parents are still considering their options even for this year. Last year 165 families took part in school tours. The new web and blogsites were averaging 1,800 visitors a week.
 

With all of the new marketing initiatives Neil still believes it comes down to old fashioned word of mouth. “If parents and students have a positive experience they are more likely to encourage others to consider the school. This is obviously happening at Covenant.” Having worked at the school for six months Neil had heard lots of stories from both students and parents. In an unexpected twist he was so impressed he decided to transfer his own three children there for 2009.

While most staff have been on holidays Neil has been making plans for 2009. “In some ways it feels like a construction site at school right now with so many tradesmen working away on a variety of projects to continually improve the school. It is exciting to see a 30 year old school growing, changing and trying new things while remaining true to the founder’s vision.” One of the most obvious projects is an outdoor amphitheatre. Two new demountables have also been installed to help ease the pressure before six new classrooms can be built.

Felicity Johnston one our our much loved Infants Teachers presented the vision and plans for our new Kindy to year 2 building at the Fundraising Dinner. This innovative building is scheduled for construction next year. Here is a copy of her presentation...

When Andrew Lowry asked me to speak to you about the passion I have for Early Childhood education, and the vision we, as a school, have for the new Infants Block, I thought I would be speaking to a room of 50 or so people - never did I expect that I would be standing before 3 times as many people until Janine told me the final numbers for tonight! I decided that I could choose to be daunted about standing in front all 135 people, OR I could embrace the opportunity to communicate my passion for teaching – guiding children with their love of learning, their love of God and as well as imparting the exciting direction Covenant Christian School is planning to undertake for the Infants Department throughout 2009 to 2010 and beyond.

A number of people here tonight might still perceive the Infants years as those where their child played with trains all day, made castles in the sandpit and did a bit of finger painting on the side. Early Childhood Education is far more than this. These are the years where your child learns to read and write, add, subtract, divide and multiply. At Covenant they develop their knowledge of Christ and what He has done for them – what better way to equip your child! Each child will learn to speak confidently in front of their peers, interact socially with others and develop both their self confidence and self esteem. To provide children with these tools is to equip each one of them with the stepping stones needed to cope with the demands of later schooling.

We are all here tonight to see and hear about the vision of the new Infants Block. This block will not only provide us, as a school, with a fabulous environment to educate the children in all the ways I have previously mentioned, but it will also impact our greater school community. This new Infants area will help to boost enrolments, in turn improving the opportunities available for senior students as well.

I have been privileged to be involved with some of the decision making regarding this building and, I can assure you, that it is going to be a teacher’s dream! There will be a common area which will be able to contain all K – 2 or 3-6 students for Infants or Primary Assemblies. Other communal activities such as incursions and visiting speakers will also be able to present in this area, allieviating the pressure to accommodate the K - 6 students in other areas of the school. The classrooms are large with lots of windows to let in natural light and we are presently looking at the vast opportunities for technological advancement within each classroom.

The attached pdf gives you an idea of the development which is going to take place.

K-2 Building Plans (754 KB)

SLIDE 1 – This is an aerial view of our school and you can see exactly where the new building will be situated.
SLIDE 2 – Once again, here is an aerial view of the school as it presently is.
SLIDE 3 – Here is the external view of the new building. You can see that there is plenty of shaded area for the children to play under and the modern exterior makes the building not only attractive but also innovative in its design.
SLIDE 4 – This slide shows the ground plan for the building. Here, all 6 classrooms can be seen along with the wonderful common area that will be keenly used by us all. The next slide shows the internal view of the common area (SLIDE 5) and you can see the small stage area that will be positioned at the front. The adjoining classrooms will have a sliding glass door which will enable the teachers to supervise this area safely from their classrooms.

Please join with me in embracing this new stage of development for Covenant Christian School. We are so very blessed to be part of such a community where the needs of the students and vision of the school is continually addressed and advanced. 

Felicity Johnston