Wise words with...

Integrity

At Nowra Christian School we value character. Character is something that Paul the Apostle described in his letter to the Romans as being the foundation for our hope in this world. In fact the Bible regularly talks about how Christians should be taking on the character of Christ. Unfortunately, character is sadly lacking in society today. This is why at NCS we intentionally teach our students about character. 

At the last assemblies I attended for both Primary and Secondary (several weeks ago now), we spoke about integrity. For those of us with a mathematics or linguistics bent, you would recognise integrity as having the same root word as integer, which means whole. Integrity is when you act as a whole. That is, what you think and the way you act are the same. To lack integrity would be to think something but to act another way. Most commonly, the lack of integrity would look like acting in a way that you know to be wrong.

When students act with integrity, they build trust between themselves and their peers and also between themselves, their parents and teachers. This leads to respect from their peers and adults, which leads to them being given positions of responsibility.

You can see that positive character traits are interrelated and that they will lead to the best possible outcomes for children in their lives. At NCS we have high standards for our students. We want all of our students to reach their full potential and we welcome the opportunity to partner with parents in developing the character of the children. I want to thank all of you parents who are working so hard with your children, growing them in their character as you have conversations and guide them through the situations they find themselves in, teaching them how to act with integrity. This is the ideal when parents and teachers are presenting the same worldview, reinforcing the values that we hold so dear and developing lifelong character in our young people.