Each morning, our students spend 20 minutes in their homerooms. Over the course of a school year, this amounts to around 60 hours of time together. Why do we place such a high value at Heathdale on our time in morning homerooms? And how is it building the culture and character of our students?
Homeroom time includes marking the roll, reading the daily notices and class devotions. Our teachers open God’s Word every day, talk about God’s presence and love for each person and work through what it means to walk closely with Jesus as our Saviour and friend.
Additionally, our homeroom teachers provide pastoral care and oversight for each group of students, supporting them with administration, uniform, welfare concerns and general student needs each day.
Over the course of this year, we have launched a significant overhaul of our morning devotions across Secondary, with the goal of bringing greater cohesion and a clear journey of engagement in God’s Word over the time each student spends in homeroom from Years 7-12.
Through our new devotions program, if a student is with us from Years 7-12, they will read through 27 books of the Bible and explore 18 themes from God’s Word by the time they finish high school. This term, we have started with all classes looking at key gospel themes of Creation, Fall, Redemption and Restoration.
As we move on during the year, different year levels will be looking at their own relevant and specific themes, which have been developed through discussions with our Year Level Coordinator team. We’ve also partnered with some of our local pastors, who have generously donated their expertise to help write some of our devotional material, particularly around our College Theological Statements, because they want to be part of encouraging our students to grow in their faith.
It is our deep hope that our students will know they are deeply loved by God, understand how they can have a relationship with God, and grow in expressing and embracing their faith as they grow into young adults. We value your prayers for our homeroom teachers as they lead our students and seek to encourage them each day.