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.