Dear Warrior Families,

On Monday, we had a guest speaker, Mr. Hin-Tai Ting, at our elementary professional development day. He also spoke to the secondary last Friday. Hin-Tai is a Hong Konger who grew up in the UK and currently lives in London. He has a first class degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford and is the founding headmaster of The Fountain Christian School, which will open in September in London. 

Hin-Tai shared about the importance of wisdom and virtue in Christian education. In his presentation there were three words that stood out in regard to wisdom: truth, goodness, and beauty. He elaborated about how the foundation of truth, goodness, and beauty leads our soul towards God as we grow in wisdom and virtue. This echoes the message that Reverend Nick Seward has been sharing with the faculty and staff. 

Truth, beauty, and goodness also connect to our mind, hands and feet, and heart. Truth links to our mind. Pursuit of truth helps our students to make sense of the world around us and have a thirst for knowledge. God as the source of truth, the Bible, and a knowledge-rich curriculum are key as we lead our students towards truth. Goodness can be compared to our hands and feet. We want our students to live godly lives, serving others and doing what is right, both now and after graduating from ICS. Beauty is coupled with our heart. Loving the right things, having good character, appreciating the beauty of God’s creation, and being attracted to what is worthy of our time, attention, wonder, and empathy come from beauty.

Hin-Tai used the word virtue to describe what we often call character. He referred to Proverbs 22:6 when speaking about virtue. Proverbs 22:6 (ESV) says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” We want our students to have the right habits and understand the importance and reason behind those habits. Virtue comes from having the right habits and the right reasoning about those habits. 

These messages resonated with teachers because we care about our students and their future. At ICS, we want our students to not only get good grades and be successful in a good job, but to also be virtuous (have good character), be wise, and have a strong faith and relationship with God. We appreciate your support and partnership as we prepare our students to become wise and virtuous.

A Reminder on School Outerwear

With the temperature fluctuating, we all want to make sure that our children are sufficiently warm.  Please be reminded that students must wear school uniform outerwear (sweatshirts, hoodies, fleece vests/jackets & and shells) at school.  

Please also be sure that your child’s name is written on their uniform outerwear so that it can be returned to them if left behind.

The Elementary School has a provision in the handbook for cold-weather days (12 degrees or below) where students may wear their cold-weather parkas from home.  In the classroom, however, students must wear the uniform and uniform outerwear.