This year Helderberg Primary School is celebrating 95 years of the Lord’s leading in our school, as well as making a difference in the lives of learners and their families. The vision of Helderberg Adventist Primary School is to excel in helping learners to develop well-rounded Christian characters through quality education, equipping them for this life and the life to come.
One of the important ways of sharing God’s character of love with the learners and helping them to develop Christian characters is by teaching the Bible in the classroom. The class teachers have the primary responsibility and opportunity for teaching the Bible period to the learners in their grade. Currently, the chaplain of the school is also assisting with teaching Bible classes once a week to the Grade 6 and 7 classes and has recently started using Voice of Prophecy (VOP) Bible lessons with them. Over time, a learner who completes their entire Primary School career at Helderberg Primary School will receive an understanding of the story of the Bible and God’s wonderful plan of salvation through Jesus Christ.
Another way of sharing God’s love and helping the learners to develop Christ-like characters is by our weeks of Spiritual Emphasis at certain times during the year. Our week of Spiritual Emphasis this term had the theme “To be like Jesus” and was led by our school chaplain, Pastor Grigg. We learnt about compassion, forgiveness and living a successful life based on heavenly values.
As teachers, we believe that the biggest challenge we have is to demonstrate God’s character of love to our learners through our own example. EG White writes in her book, The Ministry of Healing, that “the strongest argument in favour of the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian” (p470).
As a school, we believe in the importance of sharing and demonstrating God’s love through service to others. Our School Motto is “We learn to serve.” In harmony with this motto, every year, each grade at Helderberg Primary school is granted the opportunity to select a community service project.
This year, 2023, the Grade 2’s decided to support the Tops and Tags for wheelchairs. However, it has turned into a communal school project. The children need to collect bottle tops and fill 5L bottles. For every filled 5L bottle the class receives a reward of a 5 minute extended break period. This has resulted in a fun-filled competition to see which class can fill the most bottles. At the end of Term 1, the Grade 2’s enjoyed a practical measurement lesson where each bottle was weighed. We discovered that most bottles weighed 85 grams. The total weight of all bottle tops collected so far is 26,4kg - still a far way to go as we need 450 kg to contribute towards one wheelchair. So the challenge is on and we are determined to collect as much as possible this year to make a difference in the lives of others.
In February this year our Grade 7’s were inspired to make a difference at their class leadership and team-building camp. We all shared devotional time and learnt the importance of respecting each other and using each person’s strengths to the advantage of the team. We were challenged to think outside the box and to come up with solutions to challenges which seemed impossible to conquer. We returned to school looking forward to making a positive difference this year.
Educating for this life and the life to come is a very serious responsibility. Please keep our Adventist schools, staff and learners in your prayers as we endeavour to become more like Jesus and to be ready to meet Him when He comes. Please pray with us that the Lord will help each of us to keep our eyes firmly fixed on Him so that we can reflect His character.
