Devotion, From the Principal, Prayer Families & Birthdays

DEVOTION

Last week I enjoyed attending the year 1/2 Camp at Simpson’s Gap and Desert Park. The students surprised me with their enthusiasm for being outdoors, hiking, exploring, learning, building and painting the local landscape. They were very tired by the end of it! 

On the first morning I shared a devotion based on the life of Albert Namatjira, whose water colour paintings of the central Australia landscape are famous throughout the world. Albert was born on July 28th, 1902 at Hermannsburg. He was baptised with other members of his family on Christmas Eve 1905.

For a time, Albert trained as an Evangelist in the Lutheran Church. He was a good student and was interested in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. Later he found another way of using his God-given gifts and inspiring people through art. He once wrote that he used to always ‘look down’ at tracks on the ground, hunting and searching for food. But later in his life he began to ‘look up’ and see the beautiful country and creation around him. This is what inspired him.  

There is a great book by Ken McGregor about Albert’s life. The first and last chapter have the same title: ‘By the grace of God, I am what I am.’ This is a reference to the words of St Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:10. Paul, like Albert, had his share of problems in life, but ultimately both learned to rely on the grace God had given them and utilise the gifts God had given them in his service. 

My prayer for our students is that they too will continue to grow in their knowledge of God’s grace, their enjoyment of God’s creation and their use of their God-given gifts.

Pastor Ben

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Werte

As we journey through another vibrant term here at Living Waters Lutheran School, I am filled with gratitude and a deep sense of pride in the remarkable growth and achievements of our students and staff. As we complete our literacy assessments for the term, I have loved seeing the virtual lightbulb moments for students as their data shows the growth from last term. This growth is no accident and is a result of our individualised approach to literacy and the expertise of our lead literacy educators Miss Sharreena, Miss Jenny and Miss Strawbridge along with our dedicated classroom educators. Did you know that most literacy groups have around 8-10 children in them allowing us to target the teaching at the point of need. I have loved talking to individual students about their growth and letting them know how proud of them I am. Thanks to the families who attended the student led conferences over the past two weeks, your partnership is important to our success and the children enjoyed sharing their learning with you and setting new goals where applicable.

Our Value focus for the last few weeks has been “Agree upon and play by the rules”. A crew of children, along with Mr Ramzy and Mr Charlie have agreed on a set of Living Waters handball rules to increase the harmony at play times. Our classes have brushed up on their protocols making sure they agree on the what, where, when and how their classrooms operate. 

The Village camp was a huge success. Thanks to the team and parent helpers for going above and beyond to make it happen. One of the dads was kind enough to send through some great feedback: “Thanks for letting me help with the day trip to Simpsons Gap yesterday. I think the kids will remember it for ever. It was good to see the kids concentrating at the different stations with team work at the humpy shelter building. Being able to explore at the Gap with Charlie and sitting in the river bed reading the booklet and drawing plants and animals. The Albert Namatjira art information and landscape painting was cool to see the kids interpret the instructions from Miss Strawbridge. Some of the kids are quite artistic!  Please pass on my thanks to everyone.”

Interschool Hockey was held last Friday, and the children had a blast. One of the reasons we participate in school sport and gala days is to expose our students to a variety of sports and enhance their physical literacy. Several students have spiked an interest in playing hockey competitively for the local clubs and this pathway into sport is a great outcome from school sport. We also sent a strong team to the regional cross country with children challenging themselves on a new course and against a competitive field. Well done to the runners. Coming up is our school sports day. Feel free to dress up and come along and support the houses. Let's see if Flynn or Albrecht can beat Larapinta! POTS are looking for baked goods for the day to sell at their bake sale. Please drop the items off on the morning and provide a list of ingredients with the item. Thanks in advance for your support. 

I recently attended the AGM of Australian Independent Schools NT (AISNT) meeting in Darwin and during this time had an audience with the new NT Education Minister Mark Monaghan. The minister stated he is the minister for all schools and expressed his concern that the NT independent schools will be the only schools not 100% funded under the current government model. He stated he would work with independent schools to rectify this. You may not be aware that the school fees we collect are a small part of how we are funded with a chunk of money coming from the federal government via the NT government who take a cut for their operational expenses. Something to think about as we move into an election. Happy to provide additional reading in this space for people who would like to know more.

Blessings,

Mrs Lisa Goldsworthy

PRAYER FAMILIES

for the coming fortnight: 

Kiratu, Kodgire, Kumar, Lawton, Lin, Linsley, Losee, Mader, Makouc, Marcelline

And staff:

Charlie Lowson, Siobhan Meagher, Narelle Moloney, Tahlia Paton

BIRTHDAYS

Happy Birthday to the following students for the coming fortnight:

Damien Shunje