The school was established to provide an education based on a truly Christian worldview.  It was a partnership between school, church and home. After an extensive study and review by the original education committee lead by Graham Corney, it was decided to affiliate with the Christian Community Schools movement. From this decision, Northside Christian Community School was opened in 1985 with the Motto: “Committed to Excellence”.

The growth in the following years has brought inevitable changes but the core values (Faith, Excellence, Learning, Community and Character) remain the same. This article looks at Community. 

Community

NCC is a school which regularly has had parents, grandparents and alumni volunteering. It has staff who coach sport and lead drama, dance and instrumental lessons before and after school. It has staff who make positive connections with students as they speak into their education and development. There have been countless events that have drawn large numbers of parents, staff and students together. The effects of Covid have caused interruptions to some traditions but we continue to navigate the Government requirements as we can and believe for an end to the interruptions.

The Junior School Cross-Country carnival was held recently. In the midst of all the Covid and storm affected happenings of the term, the carnival was a great day of community. It was so good to have parents as both spectators and volunteers, there were secondary students happy to be guide runners (or cyclists) and there were alumni who gave of their time to volunteer.

This year, Booth won but the students in all four houses gave their best and thus earned points for their team. Family members were there to cheer them on and it was a thoroughly enjoyable carnival. 

One of the volunteers who made it a good day was Chelsea Bryers who graduated from NCC in 2015. She happily arranged her schedule to come along to the carnival as a guide runner.  

This “giving back” by past students is not an isolated incident. The graduates use their talents in a wide variety of occupations and have returned in many capacities.  There have been ‘artists in residence’, ANZAC Day speakers, pastors, authors, filmmakers, leaders in business and charitable works and a long list of people with a range of life skills.

Since the school began, there have been parents giving their time and their talents to support the staff and students. In the very early days of the school, we did swimming lessons in the backyard pool of a parent who was a swimming instructor and a group of parents sewed uniforms. Parents who volunteer to help have always played a vital role in working with individual students, small groups, in the café, sewing costumes for musicals, coming to working bees in the grounds, sports coaching and in a multitude of other roles.

Last year marked the end of a record 32 years of involvement for David and Chris Pilt and they typify the commitment shown by so many parents. If you haven’t read their story yet, it is here on the College website. Read the story here.

In their ‘retirement’ letter to Mr Kuss, the Pilts mentioned the longevity of staff being a positive feature of the college. That is so true. There has been an uncommonly low rate of staff turnover in comparison to the average workplace and this has produced a very real sense of solidity. In this 37^th year of the college, there are still three of the fourteen who started in the Eighties and seventeen from the Nineties. 

The future of Northside Christian College is bright and we look forward to many more years of Christian Community.