WCS Blog

Beauty in our surroundings

Monday, January 29, 2018

I love beautiful things. An unusual line of poetry, the brilliant colours of the sunset on my way home from school or the palest pinks of the sunrise that turn into bold ambers. The most beautiful of all are voices of children and their joyful radiance in song. As you look out of your window wherever that may be, look for the beauty and the colours of joy!

Elizabeth Martin, Music

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Grow in Faith

Monday, January 22, 2018

Growing in Faith

One of our guiding documents at Woodstock Christian School is the Student Character Profile. This document was developed a few years ago with considerable input from the teaching staff and information from the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools, as well as partner schools in the OACS family. Our desire was to articulate more full the words in our tagline - FAITH, LEARNING, COMMUNITY. Currently, as we are engaged in developing a strategic plan for Woodstock Christian School, we are reviewing some of our essential documents. Here is the first part of the Student Character Profile. In future weeks, look for the rest of the document - the “grow in learning” and “grow in community” components. As we partner with you in your child’s education, join us in praying for and cultivating these key characteristics and skills.

-Carol Verbeek, Principal

WCS strives to prepare students who:

Grow in

faith

• live their lives in thankfulness to God, praising and serving him

• possess a deep understanding of God’s grace and a sense of humility about self

• can articulate that God created them uniquely as his image-bearers, that God loves them, and has called them serve in this world

• think critically, test the spirits of this age, and show thoughtful discernment

• share their conviction that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world and that God the Father is the creator and keeper of all

• have a sense of wonder for the fallen but beautiful creation

• show basic Biblical literacy, cultivate a Christian worldview that combines intellectual understanding of God’s call on their life with the awareness of the need for action through the prompting of the Holy Spirit

Posted by @ 12:50 pm

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The Impact of our Words

Monday, January 15, 2018

The impact of our words…

It is recruitment time at Woodstock Christian School! This is a time in our year where we seek to draw in new families for next year, whether with children starting Kindergarten or seeking alternative solutions to their current school situation. So how do we get our name and message out into our community? Well there are your typical marketing strategies such as newspaper ads, Facebook posts, billboards, pamphlets, bulletin announcement and such. But, did you know that a great deal of research finds that word of mouth is more effective than other types of marketing. Compared to traditional advertising, media options, or promotional events, word of mouth is more useful in creating new recruitment.

So how can you use your words to impact Woodstock Christian School? Share your stories with others. Tell your friends, neighbours, coworkers or families in your church. Invite others to come and take the tour. Invite a family to our Kindergarten Information Evening on Feb 1. Sharing your stories and love for the school is the best (and most cost effective!) way of advertising our school. To take it one step further; what about offering to join them as they tour or attend the information evening? Sometimes having the comfort of one familiar face can make all the difference.

So let’s get talking and sharing our love for WCS! Let’s also pray for potential new families and that God would fill our classrooms and hallways!

Posted by @ 12:00 am

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FOG DAY

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

FOG DAY Due to fog & black ice, morning buses will not run. School is open. Please bring children to school when it is safe. PM bus will run. Wednesday January 10.

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Wednesday, January 10, 2018

FOG DAY Due to fog & black ice, morning buses will not run. School is open. Please bring children to school when it is safe. PM buses will run as usual.

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It's A New Year

Tuesday, January 09, 2018

It's A New Year

It's a brand new year! Wishing you God's blessings, strength and grace as you journey through this year. Whether you are about to walk through the greatest year of your life, or the most challenging, God's word and promises hold true. Read these words from Romans 12 from 'the Message'. This is what Faith in Action looks like:

Take your everyday, ordinary life your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you….Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him…. keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; … Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply.

Faith in Action: Be a hero for God this year.

C. Verbeek

Posted by admin @ 12:00 am

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SNOW DAY

Monday, January 08, 2018

SNOW DAY. BUSES CANCELLED JAN 8. Due to road conditions & forecast for more snow, buses are cancelled for today. WCS is closed.

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Joy

Monday, December 18, 2017

JOY

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."

During the Christmas season one of our favourite songs to sing in SK is "Joy to the World". We all know the words well, "Joy to the World the Lord has come…" But what exactly is the joy of Christmas all about? Many people confuse joy and happiness. Happiness is based on your circumstances, but joy is a deeper emotion that lasts through good and bad times.

Sometimes joy can feel like an explosion of hope and excitement and at other times it is a strong sense of peace and a feeling that all is as it should be. During advent, we remember with joy the gift of Jesus, we enjoy His blessings now and we delight in the promise of His coming again.

Galatians 5:22-25 tells us that joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit. This means that God is the source of joy, but the Holy Spirit helps us to see it, practice it and give it away. The Spirit draws our attention to beautiful things and helps us remember God's faithfulness in the stories of the Bible and in our lives.

In our Social Justice Leadership Team, we have had discussions on how we as Christians at WCS can promote joy and peace. We decided that we must always be praying for opportunities to "have our eyes opened" to those in need in our families, school, greater community and beyond.

The Spirit also helps us see people who are in need of God's joy, so that we can share it with them. When we are filled with joy, we know how to give it away. Christmas is a perfect time to remind others of good times and stories of God's faithfulness. We can show them examples of God's goodness and beauty all around us. We can share God's promises from the Bible and we can also bring joy to others doing simple acts of kindness and service. What a JOY to share God's good gifts! We pray that all of the WCS community will experience this joy this Christmas and into 2018!

(pieces taken from http://kidscorner.reframemedia.com/media/pdf/KC-Advent-Calendar-2017-1_%284%29.pdf)

Linda Westerveld and Jesse Duizer ( Social Justice LT)

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Joy

Monday, December 18, 2017

JOY

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."

During the Christmas season one of our favourite songs to sing in SK is "Joy to the World". We all know the words well, "Joy to the World the Lord has come…" But what exactly is the joy of Christmas all about? Many people confuse joy and happiness. Happiness is based on your circumstances, but joy is a deeper emotion that lasts through good and bad times.

Sometimes joy can feel like an explosion of hope and excitement and at other times it is a strong sense of peace and a feeling that all is as it should be. During advent, we remember with joy the gift of Jesus, we enjoy His blessings now and we delight in the promise of His coming again.

Galatians 5:22-25 tells us that joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit. This means that God is the source of joy, but the Holy Spirit helps us to see it, practice it and give it away. The Spirit draws our attention to beautiful things and helps us remember God's faithfulness in the stories of the Bible and in our lives.

In our Social Justice Leadership Team, we have had discussions on how we as Christians at WCS can promote joy and peace. We decided that we must always be praying for opportunities to "have our eyes opened" to those in need in our families, school, greater community and beyond.

The Spirit also helps us see people who are in need of God's joy, so that we can share it with them. When we are filled with joy, we know how to give it away. Christmas is a perfect time to remind others of good times and stories of God's faithfulness. We can show them examples of God's goodness and beauty all around us. We can share God's promises from the Bible and we can also bring joy to others doing simple acts of kindness and service. What a JOY to share God's good gifts! We pray that all of the WCS community will experience this joy this Christmas and into 2018!

(pieces taken from http://kidscorner.reframemedia.com/media/pdf/KC-Advent-Calendar-2017-1_%284%29.pdf)

Linda Westerveld and Jesse Duizer ( Social Justice LT)

Posted by admin @ 12:00 am

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ADVENT

Thursday, December 14, 2017

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SNOW DAY

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

SNOW DAY FOR WOODSTOCK CHRISTIAN SCHOOL. Due to the forecast for snow squalls and high winds today, buses are cancelled for the day and the school is closed.

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Waiting in Joyful Hope

Monday, December 11, 2017

Waiting in Joyful Hope

How good are you at waiting? Waiting at traffic lights? In lines at the grocery store, ATMs or Service Ontario? There are amazing statistics about how much of our lives we spend waiting. Inevitably, we all need to wait.

Is waiting an empty waste of time? If we believe it is, how can we reframe it to think otherwise? Each of us has experienced times we wait in dread and fear. Sometimes we wait in boredom. And there are times when we wait with excitement and joy.

Advent is a time of waiting - a time between the 'now' and the 'not yet'. We will soon celebrate Christmas and the knowledge that Jesus has come as Emmanuel - God with us - as promised.

As Christ followers, we wait during Advent and look forward to celebrating the fact that God loves us so much that he sent his Son into the world to save us. This waiting is far from empty; rather, it is full of the hope that God promises us as we prepare for Christ.

While we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus that has occurred, we also use the season of Advent to anticipate Christ's second coming. When Jesus comes again, the Kingdom of God will appear in its fullness. The just will reign with Christ forever and the earth will be transformed. During Advent, we wait in joy, in hope, and in anticipation for the wonderful event we are about to experience-the coming of Christ into our lives in new ways, the return of Christ in glory at the end of time.

Consider using an Advent Calendar to help your family wait in joyful hope. Here is a link to 'not your usual Advent calendar' but one which challenges families to extend Gifts of Kindness.

Sources: www.loyolapress.com and kidscorner.reframemedia.com/media/pdf/KC-Advent-Calendar