Ruth Thompson

Mitch Cavens, Head of Secondary

As a Senior Leadership Team, we have been reading and reflecting on 12 Affirmations: Reformed Christian Schooling for the 21st Century, a resource that has been sharpening our vision and reaffirming our convictions about what Christian education is and must continue to be. Each affirmation offers a timely and biblical challenge to deepen the way in which we think about teaching, learning, and formation at Kuyper Christian School. This week, we want to share with you some thoughts based on the fifth affirmation, which focuses on recognising each student as uniquely created in the image of God.

At Kuyper, we hold a deep conviction that every child is created in the image of God and uniquely called to serve Him with the gifts and opportunities He provides.

This belief shapes our understanding of students, not merely as learners, but as whole persons who are to be nurtured in their God-given identity and purpose. We seek to honour the dignity of each student and cultivate a learning environment where every child is known, valued, and encouraged to grow into who God made them to be.

Translating this idea into educational practice isn’t always simple. One way we can honour this belief is by working hard to create a learning environment at Kuyper that is never one-size-fits-all. We desire not to simply produce students who conform to a standard, but to form individuals and a community who are called to glorify God in diverse and beautiful ways. Our approach to teaching and learning is rooted in the recognition that each student brings different strengths, struggles, and stories to the classroom. Our responsibility is to teach in ways that reflect this diversity while pointing every student to the unity they share in Christ.

Differentiated learning strategies, pastoral care, co-curricular and extra-curricular involvement are some ways we work at providing a place where all students can find a space to flourish. In doing so, it is our deep hope that our students will see that they have been given an important role to play in God’s Kingdom—a role that no one else can fill in quite the same way. It is our prayer that every Kuyper student grows not only in knowledge but in the confidence that they are fearfully and wonderfully made.

For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.

Psalm 139: 13-14

This vision also calls us to a distinct view of justice and compassion. We are called to be a school community that lifts up the vulnerable, welcomes the outsider, and challenges anything that would diminish the worth of another. We encourage our students to look beyond themselves, to seek out those who are lonely or struggling, and to practise the mercy and humility that Christ modelled in his ministry on earth.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul writes of the Church as a body with many parts, each essential and interdependent. We hope to partner with you in applying this same truth to our school and students: every student matters, every contribution is significant, and together we reflect something of God’s glory that we could never reflect alone. This belief energises our teaching, shapes our discipline, and works to grow life and grace in the community.

Thank you for trusting us to walk alongside your children as we seek to raise up a generation who know who they are in Christ and are equipped to serve Him faithfully.

Tim White, Interim Deputy Principal

Abraham Kuyper, after whom our school is named, believed that we live within the parameters of God’s kingdom. He famously said, 

“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Soverign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’”

This statement emphasises ownership and rule. It proclaims that this creation is God’s kingdom! 

In light of this, we do well to consider who we are and whose we are. What we as a community believe shapes the people we become. 

The ‘ethics’ of any environment will shape the people within it. Every group in every society has an idea of who or what people should be like. There is always a perfect ‘goal’ or ‘ideal’ in mind. Look at our Australian oath of allegiance and citizenship expectations, as just one example.

Sometimes, our example of the ‘ideal’ is someone specific like a political leader or national hero. Sometimes, it is more obscure, such as the ideal of ‘my truth’. However, everyone on this earth worships something they want to be like – something they esteem as ‘perfect’. 

To a Buddhist, it would be Buddha. To a fashion designer, it would be Pierre Cardin. 

To a Christian community, it is Jesus. 

We can choose to worship and honour God, or we will honour and follow another god. Our choice is not simply to serve God or to be neutral. Our choice is to serve our Creator-Saviour or serve any number of other gods to whom we choose to commit ourselves. 

Money, prestige, comfort, recognition, and power are just some of the gods who compete with Jesus’ place as King. We can devote our lives fully to God or serve an idol (or ideal) such as money, pleasure or self. 

There is no such thing as neutrality in God’s kingdom. For God knows that any area we see as neutral is in fact an area of life where we refuse to acknowledge that he is King. In that area of life, another king is ruling. If our commitment is not wholeheartedly to Jesus, it will be to something else. 

Our goal as a Christian school community is to truly acknowledge Jesus as King, and to achieve this, we must truly know Jesus.

God reveals Himself to us in His creation and in His Word, the Bible. In His Word, we read about God’s plan to free people from the guilt and shame of sin in the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. We read about God’s expectations for His people to live a life that seeks to spread healing in a hurting world. We understand that Jesus is God’s Word to us about how to be right with God and how to treat our neighbours. 

As a Christian community, it is our goal to know God as He has revealed Himself and let Jesus reign!

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for people … It is the Lord you are serving.”

Colossians 3: 23-24 

Bill Rusin, Interim Principal

Welcome to Term 2. It has been a busy school holiday with Easter, Anzac Day and Kuyper’s service learning adventure to Vanuatu for our senior students. There will be plenty of stories to tell, and we look forward to hearing them in the coming days.

The type of learning involved in our senior service learning trip is particularly impactful as we seek to develop students who understand what it means to be content, whilst having a compassionate heart towards those who have less. Developing these heart attitudes is something that we hope for all of our students.

As parents, you have a key role in helping your children develop these heart attitudes towards their school learning experience. When you talk with them at the end of each day, you might ask questions such as,

When we ask these sorts of questions, we show our students that generosity and kindness are important to us and that we would like them to value these qualities as well.

As students return to school and life gets back to normal, it is good to remind them that not all learning has to be fun. Sometimes it can be tough and even a little boring. That is not a bad thing. Learning may be stimulating and exciting, but we should not expect that to always be the case. How enjoyable we find something does not necessarily determine its value.

As a staff, we are thankful for the opportunity to grow and nurture your children, and we value the partnership we share with you in this process.

This term, we have some new families joining Kuyper. We look forward to welcoming them into our community. If you have the opportunity, please take a moment to say hello and introduce yourselves. Doing life together is one of the strengths of our school community.

There will be numerous opportunities for parents to strengthen community by engaging in the life of the school this term, starting with our school ANZAC Assembly, the Stage 6 Information Evening, the Federal Election Candidate Forum, our inaugural Mother’s Day Breakfast, the School Cross Country, and our Term 2 Working Bee just in the next two weeks! Check your Kuyper App or the school website Events page for details. We hope to see you soon.

Bill Rusin, Interim Principal

During the time when slavery was seen as acceptable in the United States, there was a story about how enslaved people would encourage each other amid their often dreadful experiences as workers on the cotton farms. Carrying out backbreaking work each day, toiling in the stifling heat without much rest, one would call out, “It’s Friday”, and the others would answer, “But Sunday’s a commin’.”

Very few of these people had any chance of improving their lives. They would live and die in servitude, owned by another. Yet, in the midst of a time when life felt unbearable, this simple refrain reflected a future hope. “It’s Friday….But Sunday’s a commin’.”

Their words were recalling the terrible time in history when Jesus, the rightful King of the Universe, willingly humbled himself to the dreadful process of crucifixion at the hands of the Roman Empire. This macabre and brutal public execution was used by the Romans to maintain law and order. A deterrent to others who might dare challenge their might.

On that fateful Friday when Jesus was arrested, some of His followers would have watched the event unfold in a way that rocked their core belief in the man they believed was the Messiah. After all, as Jews, they were also under oppressive Roman rule. They hoped for a rescuer, a saviour, who would free them and their descendants from this heavy burden.

But on that Friday, all seemed lost. The one they had pinned all their hope on was dead. 

Yet on the third day, Sunday, when some women went to anoint Jesus’ dead body, they were met by an empty tomb and an angelic being who said to them,

“Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. “

Matthew 28:5-6

Later, the risen resurrected Christ would make his presence known to those who followed him but had abandoned all hope.

The enslaved Americans knew this story well, and as they suffered, they reminded themselves that their Sunday was coming. Their oppression would end, and, as followers of the risen one, they would receive new resurrection bodies. Perfect, healthy, immune from the ravages of pain and suffering.

Was this a false hope? Multitudes of Christians throughout ages past and present would chorus a resounding “No!”

This is the great and sure hope. It is my hope.

It is the only sure hope we have. Suffering and pain are commonplace. This will continue until Jesus, the crucified and resurrected one, comes again. Those who place their faith in him can look forward to a world where everything is perfect—no more pain, suffering, or death!

May God bless you and your family this Easter as you reflect on and celebrate events that occurred so long ago and yet changed the world forever. May you look to Jesus for your hope and the hope of the world.

Join us on Tuesday, 8 April, for our Easter Celebration Assembly.

We are pleased to welcome the following new staff to the Kuyper team.