Hello Genesis Community!

Can you believe we are almost three quarters of the way through the year?!

It has been an eventful year so far and full of opportunities for our students to grow, learn and flourish. In our Secondary School this term, one of our Pastoral themes has been “Social Justice” derived from the scripture in Isaiah 1:17 that says, Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.

In each of our Chapel services we have been learning about how we can help others in our community and around the world along with providing students the opportunity to put this into practice. One recent was our “See you at the Pole” event. This is a global student prayer initiative where students can choose to come and pray for their school, community, nation and the world. Students had the opportunity to meet at our flagpole in the forecourt and write a social justice issue that was close to their heart on our prayer banner. Together, we then prayed for these issues as a group. This was a really powerful time of thinking about others and their needs and taking time out of our days to consider their plight and pray for these people. We’ve also had another MAD (Make a Difference) project where students cooked meals for members of our community who may be in need. This project is very dear to our hearts and something that has become a very special part of our Genesis community, as way to show care and love during some difficult times.

Current mental health research consistently shows that when we are engaged with the world around us, have positive connections and relationships and help others in time of need, then we are more likely to build resilience and mental wellness in our own lives.

Dr. Jodi Richardson from Parenting Ideas says, “The strongest finding in positive psychology is that our relationships with other people have the greatest impact on our happiness and mental health. This principle is true for children and teenagers as well as adults”.

Though at times there will be challenges, the College community is a wonderful way for students to learn the skills to build positive relationships and to experience a sense of belonging. Our Pastoral Care team has many before school, lunch time and after school activities available to help assist students to foster this and flourish across all aspects of their life. If you are interested in this for your child please do not hesitate to contact our Pastoral Care team for more details.

Our prayer is that you and your family will have a blessed end of term as we head towards the holiday break.

Kind regards,

Louise Klar
Head of Pastoral Care and Growth / College Counsellor

Primary Pastoral Care

Our children at Genesis LOVE singing and worship!

This is evident daily, as one moves around our school and hears the variety of enthusiastic songs pouring out of our classrooms and Chapel services.

One of their favourite Christian artists is Sean W Smith and we were delighted to welcome him back to our school a few weeks ago. Sean is an extremely talented children’s entertainer and great at communicating the gospel in a fun and motivational manner. It was a blast! The auditorium rocked as our children sang along to his greatest hits, which are well known and loved. They bopped to Boom, flipped in Free and cheered in The Coca Cola Song’ It was a wonderful afternoon!

Another singing sensation that our children love, is the Watoto Children’s Choir. They recently joined us for amazing performances across both Primary and Secondary schools. “Watoto” means “Children” in Swahili , and the choir is made up of children from Uganda who have lost one or both of their parents. Their performances are a blend of native African rhythms, contemporary gospel and creative dance. Watoto have toured all over the world, and our children are always enthralled by them and the joy that radiates from their beautiful faces. We are so blessed to be able to enrich our children’s lives by participating in these amazing worship experiences!

Pam Nadler
Primary School Chaplain