Learning to be content in
all situations

In Philippians 4, Paul writes about contentment, telling the church in Philippi that he has “learned to be content regardless of his circumstances.”

I’ve been a Christian now for over 20 years and if I’m honest, contentment is something I’m still working on! (Maybe I’m a slow learner? )

Paul teaches us that contentment isn’t something that just happens by accident nor is it something God gives us as a gift. Contentment is something we need to learn. We learn it through times of lack and times of plenty; through the good times and the bad; so that we, like Paul, can say that we are content no matter what’s going on in our lives. And that means learning to be content with where we are and who we are today, even if where we are today isn’t where we might want to be.

One of my favourite movies is a movie called Click, starring Adam Sandler. In the movie, Sandler plays Michael Newman, an overworked architect who neglects his family. When he acquires a magical universal remote from Morty, an eccentric stranger, that enables him to "fast forward" through unpleasant or outright dull parts of his life, he soon learns that those seemingly bad moments that he skips over contained valuable time with his family and important life lessons. This movie is all about the importance of being content in the “now’”. Whenever I watch it, it’s always a bit of a wake-up call to me about how important it is for me to be content and to find joy in today (in the “now”) and to not want to “fast forward” my life through the “boring” stuff or to some point in the future that I might be hoping to get to or to something that I’m wanting to achieve. I’m sure if we’re honest, we’ve all had times in our lives where we’ve wished we did have a magic remote control to fast forward our lives! (Or perhaps a remote control to rewind our lives to redo something we got wrong!) 

The truth is that it is easy to wish our lives away and to be focussing on tomorrow, especially when we have our eyes set on something we’re hoping for or wanting in the future. It might be like in the movie Click that we’re focusing on our career and the next promotion. Or if we’re a parent, maybe we’re wishing we had a remote control to fast forward through our child’s life past the new born stage – past the stage of sleep deprivation as a result of having to wake up through the night to feed them; past the stage of nappy changes; past the stage of teething; past the stage where we are unable to reason with them…the list goes on! We can be so focussed on getting to that next “stage” or that next “point” in life, that one day we wake up and realise our child is all grown up and we’d do anything to go back in time to when they were little again.

You see the problem with focussing too much on the future and not being content and finding joy in today, is that we miss out on the present. We can miss out on enjoying all the things that are going on in our lives right now, things that God wants us to enjoy. Things that will be gone all too soon, in the blink of an eye. I love that old saying, “Yesterday’s history; tomorrow’s a mystery; but today’s a gift – that’s why they call it the present”! 

So how does this apply to the COVID-19 situation? I’m sure most of us would be more than happy to get our hands on a magic remote control to fast forward to 2021 or at least to a year when things are back to normal! But what would we miss out on if we could actually do that? One thing we’d miss out on is the precious and valuable time we get to spend right now with our loved ones, loved ones who may not be with us in the future. Maybe we’d miss out on important life lessons that God is wanting to teach us? 

For some, disappointment may have come this year by not being able to go on that overseas holiday you were planning and I’m certain many of you (myself included) are disappointed that we can’t visit family on the mainland right now. But I’d encourage all of us to look at what we are able to do (and to celebrate and to find joy and contentment in these things) during this season, even if it’s only the little things, the simple things. Maybe God is telling us, like Paul did, to learn to be content in this season and to not want to “fast forward” it. Because it is a season, and like all seasons, it too shall pass.

I am very pleased to announce to Members that following a nationwide recruitment search, the Board of Christian Schools Tasmania has appointed Scott Ambrose to the role of Principal at Calvin Christian School.

Scott’s name would be familiar to many of our Members in the Calvin and Channel communities, with Scott having served as the Deputy Principal at Southern Christian College (formerly Kingston Christian Community School) for the past 13 years.

Scott holds a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours, a Bachelor of Teaching, a Graduate Certificate and Diploma in Indonesian and is currently undertaking a Masters’ Degree through Monash University.

During his time at Southern, Scott has held the following roles: Acting Principal, Deputy Principal, TASC Liaison Officer, Head of Faculty, Languages and IB Diploma Programme Coordinator and History and Languages Teacher. Prior to his appointment at Southern, Scott was an Asian Studies Tutor at the University of Tasmania.

Scott is a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society, Modern Language Teachers Association of Tasmania and the History Teachers Association of Victoria and has previously served as the Tasmanian State Delegate for the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Association (AFMLTA).

Scott is married to Sonya and they have five children. Scott has been an active member of Hobart Baptist Church for over twenty years where he currently serves on the Church’s Leadership Team.

Scott's passion for influencing young lives is evident not only in his role as an Educational Leader, but also through his previous service as a Youth Group Leader at his church and the current Leadership role he has with Hobart Boy’s Brigade.

Scott comes highly recommended, and we are truly blessed that he has accepted this very important role with Christian Schools Tasmania.

Scott will commence his new role as Calvin’s Principal on November 9, 2020.

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking Mrs Ineke Laning who has done a truly amazing job serving as the School’s Acting Principal since Iain Belôt’s departure at the end of 2019. Ineke will be providing Scott with a handover during November and then we are finally releasing her to take a very much deserved retirement!

Our staff have been inspirational!

Last term our staff put in a phenomenal effort delivering each of our schools’ Distance Learning Programs, ensuring that regardless of whether our students were in the classroom or at home, they continued to receive an excellent Christian education.

At the June Board Meeting the Board noted the quality of the on-line teaching and learning that was delivered during our distance learning. The Board were impressed with the way our schools were not only able to seamlessly transition into distance learning, but also how well schools were able to transition back to face to face teaching in the classroom. This is a credit to each of our staff – for their passion, dedication and commitment to our students and families, and to each other. So to our amazing staff, we say “Well done!”

We are still growing and thriving. Not only did we not lose students during our distance learning, but we actually gained some! In addition, our 2021 enrolment data is very strong with most Kinder classes at or near capacity, solid Year 7 interest and enrolment enquiries for 2021 reaching the same totals as last year with two terms to go!

Enrolments across all schools are 1,021. By school, the numbers stand at:

Calvin Christian School
End of Feb 2020 (pre COVID) : 506
July 2020 : 508
Census 2019 : 515
Change since Census : -1.4%

Emmanuel Christian School
End of Feb 2020 (pre COVID) : 225
July 2020 : 228
Census 2019: 218
Change since Census : +4.6%

Channel Christian School
End of Feb 2020 (pre COVID) : 112
July 2020 : 112
Census 2019: 95
Change since Census :+17.9%

Northern Christian School
End of Feb 2020 (pre COVID) : 171
July 2020 : 173
Census 2019: 180
Change since Census : -3.9%

TOTAL
End of Feb 2020 (pre COVID) : 1,014
July 2020 : 1,021
Census 2019: 1,007
Change since Census : +1.4%

Our capital works projects are continuing to progress, with preparation for Emmanuel’s courtyard redevelopment now complete and the project set to commence next week!

Last term, Channel’s new 5/6 classrooms were finished and Margaret and her team were excited to be open these new spaces up to students on the first day of third term.

We are currently tendering contracts for a new Kindergarten block and a new multipurpose hall at Northern and progressing a project to redevelop the Calvin Primary multipurpose hall and add a specialist music classroom.

Additional works that we are planning for later this year include upgrades to classrooms at Emmanuel as well as a refurbishment of Calvin’s Primary and Secondary Admin spaces.

There were so many highlights in Term 2 where teachers and support staff showed incredible innovation. From virtual cross-country runs, welcome back videos, online assemblies, mashed together choirs and virtual information nights.

The Marketing Team have also completed new Kinder videos for all schools (Calvin, Channel, Emmanuel, Northern) with our Kinder teachers and some of our parents playing a starring role.

A special pat-on-the-back goes to Calvin’s Deputy Principal – Bonny Moroni, and Head of Students – Stelle Carmichael, who with support from the Marketing Team put together our very first Facebook Live event to replace the Senior Secondary Information Night that is usually held in the Calvin multipurpose hall.

For a long time, our schools have had fantastic early learning programs run either by Kinder teachers or Aides or both. A decision was made recently by the Executive Leadership to bring the branding of these programs into alignment and develop a new logo and other promotional materials. All CST early learning programs are now called ‘Little Learners’ and you will notice some new promotional materials at each of the schools as we re-launch Little Learners during Term 3.

We have recently launched two new Alumni Facebook Groups, one each for Calvin Alumni and Emmanuel Alumni. Each Thursday we are posting a ‘Throwback Thursday’ picture from the archives.

These pages are getting a lot of traction and interest but we would love for you to get involved so that you can see and respond to comments!

It is a great way to stay connected and encourage connection from past students. Our Alumni strategy has many elements to it which we will talk about further in future editions of this newsletter.

Scott has served on the Christian Schools Tasmania Board for 6 years and was elected to the role of Association President and the Board Chair in 2017.

Scott is a Fellow of CPA Australia and has held senior financial management and governance roles successfully delivering sustainable outcomes in professional services, government businesses, primary production and property sectors for over twenty-five years. He is currently a Project Director within the Infrastructure division of the Department of Health Tasmania.

Scott and his wife Kristina have three children who all attended Calvin Christian School, with his youngest, Amy, currently in Year 12. They are members of the Christian Reformed Church of Kingston, where Scott serves as Chair of its Community Housing Committee, having previously served as an elder.