Kuyper, Author at Kuyper Christian School

Music for Learning

31 May 202317 Apr 2023 by Kuyper

Rob Weule, Head of Creative & Performing Arts and Year 4 Teacher

God created music to aid us in our praise, honour and worship of Him and to bring others and ourselves joy and fulfilment. The learning of a musical instrument involves specific skill development that can bring lifelong pleasure. It is a tool for developing a sense of personal identity, it is a T.E.A.M. activity as much as a personal activity, and it enhances all other layers of learning. Music is a vital part of everyday life and school life.

Learning music provides children with the cognitive foundations for effective learning, which ultimately helps them become confident learners, ready to make the most of their education.
Dr Anita Collins (Bigger Better Brains)

Music is one of the few activities which engage the entire brain. Learning music can help students’ self-confidence, self-discipline and teamwork. Music helps students progress in other important learning areas such as Maths and English. Indeed, countries with a strong focus on music education tend to have higher scores in literacy and numeracy. Engaging music programs have been shown to help with attendance and can be particularly beneficial for students who are not achieving well in school. All of this evidence for music’s extrinsic benefits make a strong case for music education but should not overshadow the sheer joy people experience making music, nor the value of the art form itself. Music is one of the few activities which engage the entire brain. You might want to check out: BiggerBetterBrains

Music education can help spark a child’s imagination or ignite a lifetime of passion. When you provide a child with new worlds to explore and challenges to tackle, the possibilities are endless. Music education should not be a privilege for a lucky few, it should be a part of every child’s world of possibility.
Hillary Clinton

Seven Facts About School Music… (yep these are supported by research)

Music makes a contribution to kids’ development that no other subject can match.
Music students are more likely to be good citizens.
Learning music helps under-performing students improve.
Musical training can enhance brain function.
Incorporating music learning into other curriculum areas helps kids learn.
Playing music improves concentration, memory and ability to express feelings.
Australia lags behind other countries in the provision of music in school.

With these thoughts in mind, it is most exciting to be part of the Year 4 Band Program that began seven years ago at Kuyper Christian School.

All students in Year 4 are part of the Year 4 Band. They participate in an instrumental tutorial and whole band session each week as well as being involved in regular individual rehearsal at home (thanks Band Families). It is always an exciting musical adventure with our Year 4 Band. Stay tuned for their first ‘public’ performance.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Psalm 100:1-3

Looking Back, Moving Forward

30 May 20236 Dec 2022 by Kuyper

Ian Shaw, Principal

As we come to the end of 2022, we give thanks to God for His blessing and provision throughout our 40^th year. 2022 has not been without its struggles as our community dealt with the pain of sickness, floods, and tragedy. We know that life brings us times of joy and sorrow, but there is great comfort in knowing the Creator God and His son, the Lord Jesus, who keep the universe in motion. We can trust God in all circumstances.

We commenced the year with some excellent HSC results from our 2021 Year 12 group. These students are pursuing a range of post-school activities, including university, further study, and employment. Another huge joy this year was the opportunity to reconnect with our Kuyper pioneering families and friends who joined us to give thanks to God and celebrate 40 years of Learning in God’s World. Former parents, students and staff gathered with the current community to pray once more around the original table where Kuyper Christian School began. We thank God for His enabling of the past and the future.

This year, students and staff have also been thrilled that camps and excursions returned after a lengthy hiatus due to COVID. Then there was Seussical! What joy it brought to our community. It was marvellous! Tonight, once again, we celebrate Limelight – in person! I am looking forward to this gathering of the Kuyperian community and the show that will unfold.

One way God has blessed us over 40 years is by providing wonderful staff, students and parents to form the school and knit it together. Each person is an important part of our school and contributes to the mission of nurturing children in the Lord.

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.
Romans 12:4-6

Each person plays their part in the body by helping this Christian school to function. We are blessed by each other, and I am thrilled to announce several new staff members for 2023. We welcome Brett Mills, Jerusha Thompson and Guy Boughey as new teachers in the Primary School. In addition, Karina Chambers and Lyndall Gluskie have been appointed to the Secondary School.

Kae McCaull and Alexis Clarke will take on senior roles in 2023 as Head of Primary and Head of Secondary, respectively. Jason Shadie will step down from his current leadership role and continue teaching at Kuyper in the Secondary School. We are deeply thankful for Mr Shadie’s leadership over the past 8 years. Alan McCartin will continue as our Business Manager in 2023, however, the position will now be full-time. Caz Lauter will also continue in Reception for four days per week instead of two, and Ruth Thompson will focus on a new full-time Enrolment & Communications management role.

Sadly, we say farewell to Anna McQueen and Ashleigh Plane, who are moving on to new challenges. We thank them both for their faithful service to our community and pray that God will continue to use them in the next chapter of service.

There are also a number of other educational roles and changes that will be finalised over the holidays and communicated early next year.

I take this opportunity to wish all the Kuyper community a joyful and blessed Christmas. We look forward to seeing you all at the Meet the Kuyper Team evening on Tuesday, 14 February 2023. Happy Christmas!

Maintaining a Culture of Peace

2 Feb 20221 Feb 2022 by Kuyper

Ian Shaw, Principal

When Jesus prayed in John 17:20-23, He was seeking to encourage His followers to live as a united community, maintaining a culture of peace. Recently, all Kuyper staff completed PeaceWise training with a view to rolling out an ongoing learning program across the school that fosters peace in relationships.

We are not doing this because we have noticed any extraordinary unrest or disharmony, but rather because we want to further a faithful response to the biblical mandate of peace with God and peace with each other.

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
John 17:20-23

Building and maintaining a culture of peace is important and worthy of our time and energy. There are reasons why Jesus made this a focus of His prayer.

Jesus knew that the community of people would be made up of natural enemies. Jesus prays for unity because he knows that one of the greatest threats to the community is that people take their eyes off the gospel that unites, and look back to ethnic and cultural differences. Or in our case differences in; non-core belief, baptism, vaccination, perceived understanding, interests, financial wellbeing, where we live… By being unified, we show the power and priority of the gospel in our lives.
Jesus prays for unity, because in unity, we reflect the nature of God. Through our relationship with each other we reflect the nature of who God is: three in one.
Through unity we make Christ known.
D.A. Carson (paraphrased)

For these excellent reasons we will continue to foster peace in our community. We plan to embark on a PeaceWise learning journey throughout the coming year. My prayer at the first School Assembly for the year went like this:

Our gracious Father. Thank you for sustaining us over the past 40 years as a school. Thank you for what you have done in students’ lives who have come to Kuyper. We ask you to bless the people of this community this year with understanding and wisdom. Lord may we understand more deeply your grace and mercy and your sovereign rule over the universe. May it help us respond to each other with kindness, respect and peace. We ask for protection over coming weeks especially confronting COVID. We know that nothing surprises You. Lord we put our trust in You again this year. We pray these things in the mighty name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.

I trust you will pray with us this year, seeking to put Jesus in His rightful place as King. He is the One who can make true peace possible between God and mankind and peace among all people.

New Staff at Kuyper

2 Feb 20221 Feb 2022 by Kuyper

Celebrating 40 Years

2 Feb 202225 Jan 2022 by Kuyper

The Last Word from Mrs Huxley

8 Dec 2021 by Kuyper

Learning in God’s World

26 Nov 202123 Nov 2021 by Kuyper

True Identity

10 Nov 20219 Nov 2021 by Kuyper

Jason Shadie, Assistant Principal, Secondary

I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
Revelation 2:17

I have always loved this statement by Jesus in the Book of Revelation. Jesus promises to give us a new name; our true identity.

Today is the beginning of the HSC Exam period for 2021. It has been delayed due to the impact of COVID-19, but it marks the culmination of two years of senior study for our current Year 12 students. Our Year 11 cohort will also be involved in some of these exams. This is the first time that we have hosted the HSC Exams on-site at Kuyper since we began our senior school journey in 2016. It’s a big week for students, teachers and the school community!

The HSC is just one important event in the life of our students. It is definitely not a ‘defining’ moment. Our students – your children – are infinitely more valuable than the results of their exams. It is important, however, for our Year 12 students to strive for excellence and seek to honour God with their efforts. However, they are not to be defined, as individuals, by the outcome.

We live in a world that places great emphasis on the results students attain through study, or the job they have. In our culture, when we meet someone for the first time, we might ask, “So, what do you do?” Our initial assessment of the person is often shaped by their answer. It can prompt preconceived ideas about ‘who’ the person is. This can also lead to awkwardness when someone is uncomfortable revealing what they do for work because of the way they might be judged. Our culture values people based on their achievements or performance. By contrast, Jesus had a very different way of seeing people and inviting them to follow Him. He didn’t seek out those most qualified, or those with the keenest intellect. A wide range of people found their purpose with Jesus, from those gifted in finance (tax collectors) to local tradies (fishermen).

So why does our culture place such importance on what people do for work? Why is a person’s identity so often tied to their job?

With a focus on these final exams, we should remember that this is the beginning of life beyond Kuyper for our senior students. They are now stepping into the life that God is calling them to, beyond their ‘childhood’ at school. There will be significant challenges ahead; decisions that these young adults will face in deciding where they find their identity. Will they be defined by the secular culture that is relentlessly trying to shape them, or will they know that their true identity is found in Christ?

Our Year 12 students of 2021 are all wonderfully gifted in different and unique ways. Each of them has a responsibility to use their strengths and weaknesses – the entirety of who they are – to serve and honour God in all aspects of their lives. This includes further study and careers.

Leonard Sweet, in his foreword to The Vertical Self by Mark Sayers, says “Christianity asks you to be who you are and who you aren’t at the same time.” While this sounds paradoxical, he means that God knows our true identity even while we are distracted through our own sinfulness and the culture of the world around us. We need to be honest about who we are, and hopeful about who we are becoming.

I am praying that our Year 12 students have a clear understanding of who they are when they leave Kuyper. I want them to know this truth: God knows who they are. They are created in His image. This will be a journey for all of them. As Sayer puts it, “We must seek to understand how we have moved away from basing our identities in our God-given image and toward simply adopting identities from the culture around us.”

Year 12, don’t let the world tell you who you are. Leave behind the false identities offered by our culture, and receive the white stone, the new name, from Jesus Himself.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10

Growing Patience

3 Nov 20212 Nov 2021 by Kuyper

Leila Thomson, Secondary Teacher

I still recall driving home the evening before lockdown. We had been at my family’s house, and the kids and I were driving back. I had mentioned that we were going into lockdown and that we would have lots of time together as a family and that it was to keep us safe. The boys seemed very excited by the whole thing and as we pulled into the driveway the youngest said, “We made it! When are they putting the barricades up?” Clearly he was picturing a scene from Paw Patrol.

As we all know, not even Paw Patrol could save us from a long period of stay-at-home orders and school online. As much as I valued and loved the extra time I had to spend with my two young boys I found that patience, and then some more patience, was required every day. They have energy levels that make an Olympic hurdler look lazy, and their latest interest is all things ninja.

Helping my son with his online lessons, and teaching through my own Google Classroom was tricky. Overwhelmingly, I felt supported by all my students, your lovely children! Although they did approach Google Meets hesitantly and, at times, viewed the mic like the big bad wolf, they were very patient. They patiently listened, they patiently participated, they patiently grew in confidence and they patiently learned. The experience was a unique one for each student but I really think we all got to practice patience. I received some lovely emails from students and as much as I value students achieving their individual best, I also value the development of their character. I saw many students develop character through this time.

I don’t think patience is something that we value very much in today’s context. As a history teacher, I would observe that our past decades operated at a slower pace. We had more time to think, more time to process, and as much as technology has transformed our world in positive ways, I think it is also transforming our patience into impatience.

Our history syllabus encourages students to be empathetic. To reflect on another perspective and attempt to understand, we must choose to spend time, to be patient. The Civil Rights Movement took great patience, soldiers on either side of the trenches waited patiently before “going over the top” (of a trench). Today we all still struggle to show love to our neighbour. You will have likely heard of the famous definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13. It first describes love as patient.

Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Ephesians 4:2

We have returned to school, which is wonderful. It has been great to see your children in person again and watch them connect with friends. There is a lovely buzz at the moment, but friendships, teaching and parenting will always require patience. The Lord calls us to be patient with one another, but he also asks us to wait patiently for him. As Christians, we patiently put faith in his will for our lives, and we patiently wait for his promised return.

Hope

27 Oct 202126 Oct 2021 by Kuyper

Gareth Thompson, Secondary Teacher

Excitement was bubbling in the Thompson household last week as we inched closer and closer to moving out of lockdown and again being able to do some of our favourite things. Personally, I’ll probably have to wait a month or two until Bunnings’ sausage sandwiches are on the menu again. However, my youngest daughter had been saving up and making plans to go to her favourite doughnut shop in Penrith. We told her that the type of doughnut she wanted was readily available at local petrol stations, but she insisted that it had to be from Krispy Kreme. It had to be made fresh, or it wasn’t the same.

The date and time were set, and off she went. After 17 weeks of only “essential” shopping, her hopes were high for the sweet taste of a freshly-made glazed doughnut. Unfortunately, she soon discovered that there were many others with similar hopes. By the time she got to Krispy Kreme, they were SOLD OUT. Not one left. What a disappointment! She tried to find an alternative, but nothing was going to be as good as what she was hoping for.

Hope is a funny thing. Sometimes we hope for little things; sometimes big. Sometimes our hopes are for others and sometimes for ourselves. After the strange times we have recently experienced, we will all be carrying a variety of hopes for the future. Whether it be economic stability, good health, reduced stress or a new puppy, we all have something we are hoping for. Some of those hopes will be realised. Others will not. Sometimes the outcome will be as good as we hoped for. Other times it will be disappointing.

As Christians, we can know a certain hope that does not disappoint. If you have been enjoying these newsletter articles each week, you will have read it. If you’ve been listening to Mr Hottinger’s Lockdown Friday devotions, you will have heard it. Our sure and solid hope is God’s love for us in Jesus.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but wealso glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who he has given to us.
Romans 5:1-5

I wonder what you are hoping for as we move out of lockdown. I hope that you will want to know the One who does not disappoint.

Taking Time to Reflect

19 Oct 202119 Oct 2021 by Kuyper

Friday 16 June 2023

8:45 AM – 3:00 PM