Ruth Thompson, Author at Kuyper Christian School

Stay & Pray

4 Jul 2026 by Ruth Thompson

What an incredible privilege it is to bring all our requests before the living God.

Parents and friends of Kuyper Christian School are invited to Stay & Pray with us each Friday morning from 9 AM to 10 AM. Young children are welcome. We meet in our Prep room, providing a stimulating and safe place for young children to play while we pray.

Please join us in strengthening our school community by lifting this place and its people up to our good, generous God.

Term 3 Dates
Week 1: Friday, 31 July
Week 2: Friday, 07 August
Week 3: Friday, 14 August
Week 4: Friday, 21 August
Week 5: Friday, 28 August
Week 6: Friday, 04 September
Week 7: Friday, 11 September
Week 8: Friday, 18 September
Week 9: Graduation Assembly, no Stay & Pray

Term 4 Dates
Week 1: Friday, 16 October
Week 2: Friday, 23 October
Week 3: Friday, 30 October
Week 4: Friday, 06 November
Week 5: Friday, 13 November
Week 6: Friday, 20 November
Week 7: Friday, 27 November
Week 8: Friday, 04 December

Stay & Pray

27 Jun 2026 by Ruth Thompson

What an incredible privilege it is to bring all our requests before the living God.

Please join us in strengthening our school community by lifting this place and its people up to our good, generous God.

Term 2 Dates
Week 1: ANZAC Assembly, no Stay & Pray
Week 2: Friday, 01 May
Week 3: Friday, 08 May
Week 4: Friday, 15 May
Week 5: Friday, 22 May
Week 6: Friday, 29 May
Week 7: Friday, 05 June
Week 8: Friday, 12 June
Week 9: Whole School Athletics Carnival, no Stay & Pray
Week 10: Friday, 26 June
Week 11: Friday, 03 July

Stay & Pray

13 Jun 2026 by Ruth Thompson

What an incredible privilege it is to bring all our requests before the living God.

Please join us in strengthening our school community by lifting this place and its people up to our good, generous God.

Stay & Pray

6 Jun 2026 by Ruth Thompson

What an incredible privilege it is to bring all our requests before the living God.

Please join us in strengthening our school community by lifting this place and its people up to our good, generous God.

Stay & Pray

30 May 2026 by Ruth Thompson

What an incredible privilege it is to bring all our requests before the living God.

Please join us in strengthening our school community by lifting this place and its people up to our good, generous God.

Stay & Pray

23 May 2026 by Ruth Thompson

What an incredible privilege it is to bring all our requests before the living God.

Please join us in strengthening our school community by lifting this place and its people up to our good, generous God.

Learnings In Prep

22 May 2026 by Ruth Thompson

Cassie Dixon, Head of Teaching & Learning

At the start of each year, our Prep students enter their classroom and begin their formal learning journeys. Some of them have already been in childcare settings, but for others, this is the first time they have been regularly in the care of someone other than their mums and dads. This is a huge step in learning how to belong in a community!

As someone who works across our P-12 school, I get to work with students at all stages of their schooling. I am privileged to have lunch with the Prep class every week while their wonderful teacher, Mrs McAlpine, has her break. I must say that my lunch with Prep is one of the highlights of my week. Even in just half an hour, we cover a lot of ground.

There are great conversations being had while the children are eating. Their chatter and laughter bring me so much joy. They love sharing about their days so far – the things they have learned, the games they have played, the books they have read, the food they have eaten, the sparkly rocks they have found; these things are all so important when you are four or five years old. Conversation is a great way for children to learn about taking turns, and about being a good friend by listening to others.

When they finish eating, we talk about the jobs that we need to do before we can move on to play. It can be hard for little kids to have to do a job before they get to do something they’ve been waiting for. However, it’s important for them to learn that as community members, we all need to care for our space. We need to push our chairs in so others can move safely around the room. We put our rubbish in the bin (and hopefully pick up the food we dropped on the floor) so that our classroom is clean, and Kody the dog doesn’t eat something that might make him sick. We put our lunchboxes and drink bottles where they belong so that the desks can be used for other activities. These are all big things to learn as children become aware of those around them, and the fact that their actions impact others.

Playtime can be loud, but again, it is usually full of joy. It is heartwarming to see these young kids welcoming others into their games, and learning how to share. They can be incredibly gentle as they change and care for the (toy) babies, and are so creative in their imaginative play. They build towers and castles out of Duplo, train tracks with apparently spectacular views, and sometimes even spiders out of construction sticks!

Of course, while playtime is a lot of fun, it also provides the most opportunities for personal growth. There are many times when there is no choice but to practice patience, like waiting for our turn with a toy or waiting for the desks to be wiped down so they’re ready for colouring in. We have to learn to negotiate with others, because we can’t always have things exactly as we want. Sometimes there are tears and even anger because someone else has the toy we want, or they won’t play the game we want to play. We have to learn how to cope with disappointments, like the sadness that comes when someone else breaks our creations (either accidentally or on purpose). Even at this young age, children are learning how to apologise and how to forgive.

When we think about it, there’s a lot to be said about the learnings in Prep. This introduction to belonging to a community is setting our youngest students up for life. They are growing in kindness, patience and self-control. They are learning how to care for others, how to consider things from others’ perspectives, and even how to take responsibility for their actions.

These opportunities wouldn’t exist without belonging to a community. There’s no need to be kind, compassionate or caring if we’re not co-existing with others. We wouldn’t need to be considerate or to compromise if we existed in a bubble where everything could always be exactly as we like it. We wouldn’t truly understand the need to apologise and the blessing of forgiveness if we didn’t hurt others or experience the hurt that others can inflict.

Community is a blessing from the Lord. I believe that He has blessed us with this community, where we sometimes experience disappointments and frustrations, but we can also experience joy and belonging. There are numerous ways in which belonging to a community can help us understand more of the amazing love of our Lord and transform us (if we allow it) more and more into the likeness of Jesus.

How is God seeking to transform you through our community?

Kuyper Community Group

18 May 2026 by Ruth Thompson

The Kuyper Community Group (KCG) warmly invites Kuyper parents and carers to attend our regular monthly meetings.

The KCG plays an important role in supporting the life of our school through community events, fundraising initiatives, and opportunities for families to connect and serve together. The monthly meetings are a great way to hear about upcoming activities, contribute ideas, and help strengthen the Kuyper community.

Meeting Details
📅 Third Monday of each month (during school terms)
🕖 7:00 PM
📍 Kuyper Resource Centre / Library

Whether you would like to volunteer at events, contribute ideas, or simply learn more about how you can support the school, we would love to see you there. Come along, meet other parents, and be part of what makes our community special!

If you have any questions, please contact the Kuyper Community Group at:
✉️ kuypercommunity@kuyper.nsw.edu.au

2026 Meeting Dates
Term 2
Monday, 20 April
Monday, 18 May
Monday, 15 June
Term 3
Monday, 17 August
Monday, 21 September
Term 4
Monday, 19 October
Monday, 16 November

Why W.H.O.K?

17 May 2026 by Ruth Thompson

Kaelene McCaull, Head of Primary

If you have ever attended a Primary assembly, joined us for a special event, or spent time in our Primary classrooms, you may have come across the term WHOK. It is a phrase we regularly use with our students to remind them of the values and character traits we seek to nurture as they learn and grow in God’s world.

Interestingly, you will not find WHOK in the dictionary, and while a Google search may offer a few suggestions, none of them relates to the way we use the acronym. At Kuyper, W.H.O.K. stands for:

We even have a play space affectionately known as the WHOKery — a reminder that these values are important not only in the classroom, but also in play, friendships, and everyday interactions.

As we are blessed to welcome many new families into our community, I thought it would be helpful to revisit what each of these letters means to us here at Kuyper. This week, I would like to focus on the W — Wise.

As our children learn and grow, wisdom is essential for making good decisions and engaging with others in ways that are beneficial and life-giving. The Bible makes it clear that true wisdom comes from God, and that He gives it generously to those who ask Him.

A wise person seeks to understand God’s world from His perspective and learns to discern between what is wise and unwise, helpful and harmful, productive and unproductive. To grow in wisdom, we need to know what God says in His Word, the Bible, and consider how it applies to the situations before us. This is one of the reasons why reading the Bible with our students is a part of everyday school life at Kuyper.

However, wisdom is more than knowledge or understanding alone; it is reflected in our actions, attitudes, and relationships. Wisdom enables students to respond thoughtfully in challenging situations, rather than being easily unsettled by them. It also equips them to support and care for others well.

At both school and home, our children are given opportunities to develop and practise wisdom in safe and supportive environments. With guidance and care, they learn to celebrate successes, reflect on mistakes, and grow through the natural consequences that accompany decision-making.

Alongside this, at school, we also seek to develop wisdom by providing opportunities for students to plan, reflect, think ahead, and make thoughtful choices. These learning experiences encourage students to set goals, anticipate challenges, manage resources, and think strategically about the steps required to achieve an outcome.

Students are also encouraged to be forward-thinking and imaginative — using their God-given creativity to explore new possibilities and experiences. Wisdom shapes not only present decisions, but future ones as well.

While wisdom is far more than knowledge alone, we also value the development of understanding. We want our students to think deeply, draw meaning from what they learn, identify important ideas, and grow in their understanding of God’s world and their place in it.

It is this kind of wisdom that the W in W.H.O.K. points to.

I share these reflections with you as valued partners in your children’s education, with the hope that the conversations taking place at school will continue in your homes. Together, may we encourage our children to seek the wisdom that comes from God, remembering that “wisdom is indeed more precious than gold.” (Psalm 19:9-10)

WHOKery Wonderment 🙂

Stay & Pray

16 May 2026 by Ruth Thompson

What an incredible privilege it is to bring all our requests before the living God.

Please join us in strengthening our school community by lifting this place and its people up to our good, generous God.

Healthy Competition

10 May 2026 by Ruth Thompson

Bill Rusin, Interim Principal

Competition can be a very positive experience for children. The thrill of the chase and the satisfaction of crossing the finish line can bring a real sense of achievement. At the same time, for some children, events such as cross-country running can feel quite daunting.

This often becomes more pronounced as children grow older and begin to view success in relative terms — “I am good at something if I am better than others” — rather than through the more task-focused perspective younger children often have, in which effort, improvement, and participation are primarily focused on achieving the task itself.

As a school, we recognise that not all students are naturally gifted athletically. Some students are simply not built for particular physical activities, while others may not have had significant exposure to organised sport or fitness activities outside of school.

However, for those who are able to participate, we encourage them to give their best — not simply to ‘win the prize’, but more importantly, to honour those they compete alongside by striving wholeheartedly themselves.

This week, we held our Cross Country event for students across the school. It was a fabulous sunny day, but still cool, making for excellent running conditions. We were encouraged by the way in which our students participated. It was wonderful to watch older buddies run with our youngest competitors and to see our students cheering one another on from the sidelines. We also enjoyed the house spirit that our senior Secondary students brought to the event, not only through their competition, but in the many ways they served on the day.

We are especially grateful to the Kuyper Community Group for supporting the event with a sausage sizzle. Thank you to Jennifer Pennings, Sue Tonkin, Kerryn Johnson and their wonderful volunteer team for organising this event!

There were some strong performances on the track, and I acknowledge those who won their races. However, I would particularly like to commend those students who honoured their fellow competitors by giving their very best.

Stay & Pray

9 May 2026 by Ruth Thompson

What an incredible privilege it is to bring all our requests before the living God.

Please join us in strengthening our school community by lifting this place and its people up to our good, generous God.