From the Principal

Werte

Welcome to our new families and welcome back to old faces. I hope you are well rested and ready for a jam packed term. We also welcome some new members of staff: Mr A is working in Year 1, he comes to us from Adelaide and has already hit the ground running volunteering to organise choir and bonding quickly with his class. Mr Ahmadi will be working in the upper school helping in classes, with camps and sport, he is looking forward to joining our team on Monday. Mrs Ewin has also come on board to work in the Year 6 classroom, she comes with a wealth of experience in working with young people. If you see them around please welcome them to our community. 

A big shout out to the staff and families who spent some time manning our Living Waters stall at the show. It was great to show the wider community what our school is about and we also have gained some enrolments and members of our Stay ,Play, Learn group. Thanks for supporting our school. If you are looking to support our school we need help in classrooms, the library and canteen. Please email living.waters@ntschools.net and we can organise the relevant volunteer paperwork. 

Miss Nertney, Mrs Zierch - Chair of School Council, Mrs Berry and myself were lucky to represent Living Waters at Australia Conference of Lutheran Education in Melbourne during the holidays. We had a few days of presentations and workshops which really affirmed the direction we ae taking at school and provided us with additional resources for our current projects. 

One of our school wide focuses is clarifying what do students need for their future as an active and productive member of society? There is a breadth of research that shows the skills we value now will not necessarily be required in the future. The research talks about the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce. In his research Michael McQueen talks about how we need to re-imagine the role of the educator and for children focus on capabilities not content. He speaks of careers though that will never be succeeded by artificial intelligence and some of those are aged care, teaching and hairdressing. The common element in all these careers is the human element and the idea of service. At Living Waters we have a focus on the child at the centre of all we do. We focus on our core values of Love, Service, Courage and Endeavour. Nev Grieger, a Lutheran leader says ”Lutheran schools (should) be places where we are automatically inspired to serve those around us, without even knowing that we are doing it, simply because the  spirit is at work in us, moving us to a response kindled and fired by the amazing nature of what God has done for us”. With this in mind being a Living Waters student means having a heart for service and being equipped for a future proof career. 

Lastly this week we have acknowledged NAIDOC Week and have enjoyed learning about Arrernte culture and language. Students have participated in activities and interacted with the team from King's Narrative, a local company whose passion is sharing culture and the wellbeing of our local people. Staff began work on our Reconciliation Action Plan and  our Culture Team looked at writing an Acknowledgement of Country that is unique to Living Waters and expresses our thanks for being able to live, work and play on Arrernte country. 

See you at the Bunnings BBQ on Saturday.

Mrs Lisa Goldsworthy