A report from the Leaders of God's Girls.
God’s Girls – Report
to End of 2018
God’s Girls began after the Christian Schools Conference
last July when God prompted me to begin a lunchtime group with our Senior Girls
(Year 6,7 and 8) and talk about issues relevant to them. The focus is on being
secure in who they are in Christ and being “Gritty Girls” – girls with purpose,
diligence and passion. Sandra Clark and I began meeting with the girls weekly
over their lunch break.
I have used some resources from Vanessa Gatman from Kingsway
School in Orewa who runs an organisation called “You-are”. Their aim is to equip teenage girls to be the
best version of themselves through conferences held in Auckland and Hamilton.
To date we have discussed issues such as influences of
social media, characteristics of Gritty Girls that we would like to develop,
looked at Biblical and modern day women displaying these characteristics.
Personal matters such as resilience, positive self-talk, anxiety, modesty,
friendship, forgiveness, gratitude, power of our words have been discussed;
along with physical health – sleep, exercise, healthy eating etc.
Once or twice a term I email the Mums to let them know what
we are chatting about, and have had numerous positive messages back from them,
and the occasional suggestion of things we could cover in our time.
Most of the girls commented in their recent report
reflections on how much they have enjoyed our group, and gave specific things
they have learned. I was surprised by some of the comments as it showed that
God is doing beyond what I think we are setting out to achieve – isn’t that so
like our God?!
What a privilege it has been to meet with these girls and share
life with them. Sandra and I look forward to next year with a new bunch of Year
6 girls joining us.
Thinking: Professional Development Outcomes.
The drive and emphasis of our school is not restricted to what the Education Department requires, nor is it what we (staff, proprietors, BOT) seek. This is an example of Professional Development of our Spiritual selves, including all staff, to go beyond what we see as an outcome.
Next Steps: Ensure we (I) provide opportunities for each of us to grow in our Spiritual walk, noticeably PLD among other Christian Teachers.
This is the result of an enquiry led by support staff. Never undervalue the resources we have.
This report from Mel and Sandra brought me to tears, just to hear the wonderful things that are happening at Gods Girls. As a parent and a teacher of these girls its just amazing to see the impression that is being made on them through this group, things that you aim for as teacher but feel you somehow fall short of because of time and the need to be teaching "academics". These things such as discussing social media,friendships, doing our best etc are all touched on but not discussed as in depth as hoped sometimes and Mels words that the Holy Spirit does much more than we realise, more than we can do ourselves helps us to remember we only need to plant the seeds and give it a chance to grow. I can see this in the way the girls talk and comments from Kaia that Gods Girls is having a very positive impact. This is what I love about this school - that we can focus so much more on the spiritual growth of the children and we are so lucky to have the staff to be able to do this. Professional development in this area is something I am very much interested in as we ourselves need to keep growing if we hope to grow our kids.
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