Dear Parents

It is good to be back following some personal leave. I would like to thank Mrs Henderson and Mr Turnbull who managed the school in my absence.

We were all shocked and sickened by the horrific events in New Zealand recently, the outpouring of grief and love, the soul searching of various political leaders and the spontaneous Hakas taking place in the streets of Christchurch. The funerals begin today.

We need to remind ourselves of what beauty looks like. In most times and places it’s the young who are beautiful. Yet we can all think of the beautiful old face of a beloved grand-parent. Beauty is all about who the person is. Beauty is what shines through those wrinkled faces and bodies.

There’s the ideal beauty of youth and health, which never really changes, and is always true. There’s the ideal beauty of movie stars and models which changes its' rules all the time and is never entirely true.

And there’s an ideal beauty that is harder to define or understand, because it occurs not just in the body but in the soul and spirit.

As we get older we learn to worry less about what we look like or what the rules are and concentrate on the kind of people we are.

We learn that beauty is not skin-deep but life-deep and the life we live will shape the way we look.

Please pray for our slain Kiwi cousins and their families.

Kind regards to you all.