‘Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.’ — Isaiah 43:18-19
As a school, we are always striving to thrive as a Christian community. However, achieving this is not always easy due to living in an everchanging, fast paced world that persists on throwing curve balls when we least expect.
The above Bible verses from Isaiah, remind us that God is a God of new things. He wants to make all things new. God wants to realign our hearts with His. He is calling us, through this Scripture, to look to Him, not at our circumstances, and to focus on our freedom in Christ, not on our perceived “confinement” to worldly events. He is a God of continuous improvement!
I think it is fair to say that there are more competing factors for our time and energy today than there was in the past. I’m hesitant to place dates on this as I am sure we all would have differing perspectives of what growing up in our own place and time entailed.
At Emmanuel, we do not want to hold on to ‘things’ of the past. As a school, we want to be progressive, growing and thriving whilst having Christ at the centre of all that we do. We want to bring glory to and grow God’s kingdom here at Emmanuel and within our extended community. To enable this, we see strengthening the connections between home and school imperative for our students to flourish and grow in Christ.
Last week we launched a series of sessions for our parents to connect with and see firsthand the benefits of SEQTA Engage. SEQTA Engage is a Learning Management System that will allow the school to move to a model of continuous reporting for Years 3 – 10. This new system of reporting will allow teachers to provide meaningful feedback after every assessment task that contributes towards each student’s final grade. Regular feedback in real-time will provide students with the opportunity for continuous improvement. This real time feedback also allows parents to see where students are achieving or requiring additional support throughout the semester. The feedback will state what the goals for the task are, what progress the student made towards the goals, and what action the student needs to take to improve in the subject. Each term a minimum of two assessment items will be assessed and a continuous report comment per subject.
At Emmanuel Christian School we believe that there should be no reporting season that students become anxious about. Continuous reporting will allow our students to reflect on their progress and work towards the path that God has laid out before them for their lives.
I strongly encourage you to download the SEQTA Engage app as we partner with you to see your child reach their potential.
You can download the SEQTA Engage Application from the Apple App Store for iOS users and for Android users the Google Play Store. If you have not accessed this app before, please contact the school administration team to request a welcome email that will allow you to access SEQTA Engage for the first time.
If you need any assistance in getting setup, please do not hesitate in contacting me directly.
Drew Roberts — Head of Secondary