From the Executive Principal
A video message from Andrew Linke, Executive Principal: Building works update and encouragement for the Term.
Transcript of video:
Welcome back to Term 2.
My prayer is that you had a great holiday and a restful recharging time.
Staff PD Day update
And, we're back into it again into Term 2. It was a real blessing for our staff on Monday,to have been involved in a PD day, all of our teaching staff got involved in a science of learning, professional development day, and that really allowed them to delve deep into research based, evidence based ways of educating your young people. So it was a real blessing.
A lot of our admin and support staff got involved in a PD day of mental health, first aid training so that we can take care of the physical needs, as well as the educational needs of your children.
So it's a really wonderful day, where we could also get together, at Brooklyn Park, collectively as a whole staff ELC, Brooklyn Park School and South Plympton School, collectively, all together for a time of praise and worship together, where we could also, do a time of devotion. So one of those really unique opportunities.
Monday was a real highlight both spiritually but also, professionally developed our staff in so many wonderful ways.
Building Update
For those of you that may have seen what's been going on here over the holidays as well, you'll notice some changes, especially towards the west of the site. For the first 3 or 4 months of this year, there's been a lot of work with our stage one building going on below the surface. We've been digging up and putting in new electrical cables, new fire mains, and water, all of the services that are needed not just for stage one, but stage three, which would come, not too in the not too distant future either.
All the digging excavations for footings, all the reinforcing steel is all going in, and all of that stuff happened below the surface last Term.
Whereas on the last day of last term we had about 30 concrete trucks, more than that actually, come in a series throughout the whole day and filled up the whole footing. So we only reached ground level at the last day of last term.
But over the holidays, we've now started to see the two top panels happening and we can certainly see the growth above ground level now happening. If any of you that have done the building at home yourself, you'd know that you spend a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of work going on before you even get out the ground. It's exciting when you get to that ground point.
Below you'll find there's a link to a time lapse camera set up where’ll you be able to see the whole concrete pour day, where we put 30 trucks full of concrete into the ground around all the reinforcing mesh condensed into, 20, 30 seconds. We've got that same time lapse camera set up during the whole of the build process, so later in the year, when the whole thing in all of its glory is done up, you'll be able to see it.
Devotional - Focus on the Soil
But the point I want to make today to encourage you into Term 2 is it's the work that goes on at ground level, often below ground level at soil level, where the most important work is actually done. Jesus talks about that in three of the gospels the parable of the sower, in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and in Luke 8, where Jesus tells a parable of the sower, and that is all focused on soil.
And you might be familiar with the Scripture, Jesus talks about, if you sow seeds and if you're a gardener, you'll be able to identify with this as well. If you sow seeds on hard soil, on hard surfaces, the birds can snatch the seeds away. Or if there's rocks present, the roots can't penetrate properly. or if there's, weeds or other plants around, they'll out compete the seeds that you're actually planting.
And Jesus interprets this parable in all those scriptures, about the word of God and the way in which that falls on different people's hearts when that’s shared. However, as a school, we take that as a metaphor, the same as the building metaphor that the work that happens at ground level or below ground level is just as important, if not more important, for all the wonderful stuff that may come above.
And in the gardening metaphor, that's often the fruit. So we're not a fruit focused school. We are a soil focused school because we know, as Jesus taught, that's where most of that important work happens.
So what does the soil here at Emmaus look like? It's a whole large staff of passionate Christians, without exception here to serve your young people, love your young people, to share with them the most fertile soil and news possible. And that is:
- They are unconditionally loved by the Lord in heaven.
- There's nothing they can do that can separate them from God's love.
That's powerful, nutrient rich soil. And that's what we focus on here at Emmaus.
We get the conditions right, the soil conditions right. And if you’re a gardener focusing on fruit production it’s the wrong end of the growth cycle, you really need to be focusing on good soil preparation. And from that growth happens. Flowering happens, fruits form, fruits grow, and fruit comes in abundance by not focusing on the fruit but by focusing on the soil.
So my encouragement to you this term is to join with us here at Emmaus as we collectively grow your young people and focus on the soil. And that is the foundation that we've poured for stage one that you can see below, where we get the soil conditions right. And then as we put God first and foremost in all that we do, we reinforce to young people by the love and the grace that we show them throughout the process.
And we know in turn, as we'll see over the coming months, what happens with stage one? You'll see the incremental photos of all the blossoming and flowering and fruiting happening with stage one the same as what our prayer is with your children.
We lay the foundations, we nurture the soil. We have that Christian community, and in turn we see the fruit in all of its abundance.And, you know, our young people here at Emmaus, as they journey their way through, excel, excel academically, through sport, singing, music, drama, debating all of those wonderful fruits. They come in abundance, but not because we worship the fruit. We actually worship God. We a soil focused school.
And our prayer is that all those fruit that our young people bear in abundance, they don’t so use it to glorify themselves, or build their own kingdoms, but they give honour to God, and they use it to serve him in his kingdom, as we all do that together.
My prayer into Term 2 is that metaphor of our building that’s going up at the moment. For Stage one is the exact same metaphor as how we grow our young people here. We do that together in God’s love and in Gods’ grace with Jesus’ teachings at the heart of all we do.
I pray for a wonderful Term 2.
God bless you all.
Andrew Linke
Executive Principal