Catch up on reports from past events and news items.
Mental Fitness - Mindfulness and Prayerfulness
Today, I woke up at 4:30am. My mind thought about work… I was up. I was trying to talk to my son about his day, I looked at my phone and got distracted…. I had to ask him to repeat what he said. I was busy working away at my desk when I was sent an unpleasant email… I couldn’t focus. I had to make an important decision around how to care for someone… I got stressed. These are real examples of my life and some of them might feel familiar for you too. God calls us to “Be still, and know that I am…
Partnership is Key
Parent partnership has always been and will always be a core value of our school. We believe the Bible makes it clear that children are a gift from God, entrusted into families to be loved, nurtured, and trained in righteousness, to live for God’s glory. Your involvement as a parent is key in maintaining this Christ-centred, thriving educational community, and it is our privilege to partner with you in this task. Christ at the centre of our partnership As we strive to keep Christ at the centre…
Japan Service Tour
The 2023 Japan Service Tour was an incredible opportunity for our students to grow in Christian discipleship, mission-mindedness, as well as Japanese language acquisition. Tour organiser and Japanese teacher, Mrs Louise George, believes there is no better way to love our neighbour as Jesus commanded than to go to their country, not just as a tourist, but as someone who is invited into their home and school.
Fostering strong social connections
In 2013, the Wall Street Journal wrote an article called “It Takes Planning, Caution to Avoid Being ‘It’”. It spoke about a group of men who have played the game of tag for 23 years. Why would they do this? Because they saw the joy and benefits in still connecting with one another, even after all these years. At Covenant, we are focusing as a whole school on social connections. This is the relationships and friendships you have with the people around you and includes anyone who plays an…
A culture of curiosity
On a highway in Silicon Valley, a cryptic billboard posed a mathematical puzzle: “{first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com.” The answer, 7427466391.com took curious onlookers to another equation. Those who answered correctly were then invited to submit their resume to Google. Why? Because curiosity is a valuable commodity. As the CEO stated: We run this company on questions, not answers. This year, we have started one-to-one peer coaching amongst the staff. The goal is not to…
Biblical Education
I read an article recently that quoted a 2007 Australian educational forum and its goals for 2020. A statement made within the forum made quite an impression, “Essentially, education is about increasing our national productivity”. Such was my concern, that the statement has remained prominent in my mind. Implicit in this statement is a concerning world view asserting that the primary purpose of education is to prepare individuals to contribute to national economic productivity. While…
Partnership in Practice
Last week I reflected on Paul's prayers for the Philippian church, "I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." Philippians 1:5. In the spirit of that partnership, I would like to start a series that covers some the of the key ideas we look at in the Knowing God program. From the rich depths of the scriptures, we have decided to focus upon a selection of texts and ideas in order to help your children grow in their faith, or to repent and…
So what does culturally engaging mean?
Recently, I have been struck by the concept of 'Culturally Engaging'. This is a phrase that is embedded in our school’s Mission statement. It begs the question, do we want our students to be engaged with culture? The answer may be “well yes – but not all parts”. In student enrolment interviews the question of “What makes Covenant different from other schools?” comes up regularly. The concepts of parent partnership and a Christ-centred, biblically grounded and academically vigorous education are…
How modelling failure can build resilience
Learning can be frustrating! Don’t get me wrong – gaining knowledge is empowering, liberating and essential for personal growth. However, the process of learning can be very frustrating because it often involves making lots of mistakes along the way. Students are surrounded by adults from whom they are constantly learning – parents, teachers, coaches, kids church leaders, youth leaders, etc. As adults, we often feel the weight of responsibility that sits upon our shoulders. We want to model…
