The Way Weekly Recap I Friday 7 August 2020

I wanted to bring an update on the wellbeing of all Junior students at Thomas Hassall Anglican College.

While we are continuing to adjust to what a new normal is and I must give credit to the students and their amazing ability to adapt to a new set of circumstances.  We have split K-2 playgrounds and 3-6 playgrounds and that has a significant change but a helpful one.

One aspect of the changes that we have made is that unfortunately we have had to cancel many excursions and events. The College is now looking at how we can plan activities that are safe while maintaining social distancing. Some of these events include a chess tournament and author visits where children could explore poetry and write their own examples.

We want to give students a sense of fun and provide activities that are outside what the normal day to day experience of the College will be.  

Mr Luke Sale
Junior School Director of Operations and Welfare

After mowing the lawn in the heat of summer all I can think about is how nice a drink would go down.

I long for some water to satisfy my thirst.  Below is an amazing prayer from David, Psalm 63. Here we see that David had a ‘thirst for God’. Before you get into it let me provide some context.

After David had been anointed king by the prophet Samuel he had to wait a long time before he was able to actually be the King of Israel.  At that time Saul was King, Saul was getting increasingly jealous of David’s rise in popularity that he spent many years trying to hunt David down to kill him.

David wrote this Psalm while he was fleeing from King Saul and his men. He spent a lot of his time hiding in the desert hoping he would not be found and killed.

In a time like this, when David was fleeing for his very life, it would be expected that his prayers would be full of cries for help (and many of his prayers were) but David never ceased to remember Gods goodness even in the hardest and darkest times.

Have a read of Psalm 63 and see how beautiful David’s prayer is. See how David ‘thirsts for God’ even when times were tough.

I hope this prayer can be an encouragement to us all.

Psalm 63
A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.

¹ You, God, are my God,
    earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
    my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
    where there is no water.

² I have seen you in the sanctuary
    and beheld your power and your glory.
³ Because your love is better than life,
    my lips will glorify you.
⁴ I will praise you as long as I live,
    and in your name I will lift up my hands.
⁵ I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
    with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

⁶ On my bed I remember you;
    I think of you through the watches of the night.
⁷ Because you are my help,
    I sing in the shadow of your wings.
⁸ I cling to you;
    your right hand upholds me.

God Bless

Prep have been reading and exploring the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

It was written and illustrated by Eric Carle. The students have been learning how to sequence the days of the week in the correct order. They have also shown their ability to retell the story in their own words using a felt board and story stones. They have enjoyed counting all of the foods the caterpillar ate until he got a stomach ache! Prep students have had lots of fun using their fine motor skills to make their own hungry caterpillar necklaces. We have been making patterns on caterpillars and painting caterpillars.

The students will explore other books written and illustrated by Eric Carle throughout the rest of the term.

Mrs Erin Johnson
Prep Red

Anyone who is sick with cold or flu-like symptoms, even with mild symptoms should not attend College.

Keep the College notified of any non-attendance which is COVID-19 related such as self-isolation or waiting for test results. Use the attendance form or call 9608 0033.