Monday 7 March 2016

Beavers

March 2016
Mon 7th
 Year 1 Assembly
 4-5pm MSND rehearsals
Tue 8th
 ISA U9 Rugby Stafford
Wed 9th
 
Thu 10th
 
Fri 11th
 U11 Football
 Pre-prep and Year 1 Patchings art centre
Sat 12th
 Open Day 11 am - 2pm
 2-5pm Midsummers Night Dream rehearsals
Sun 13th
 ISA Drama Festival Chester


Year One assembly this week was about the beaver.  You may have heard the  saying "As busy as a beaver".  This may be the reason there is a beaver on the school badge.

Here is a story from a Canadian family about the beaver and the lessons we can learn from it.

The Beaver And His Goals

It started last autumn when we had a beaver move in the small stream beside our house. He immediately began taking down small trees, and within a couple of weeks our small stream turned into a small pond. Everyday he added more to his damn and to his house. We're sure you've all heard the saying, "busy as a beaver", well now we appreciate this saying as we saw the work that this beaver did over a very short period of time.

With the stream now damned and his house built, we thought that would be the last of the beaver's busy activity as winter set in. But, to our amazement, he started chewing on a very large maple tree. And, we mean large. The tree is over 60 feet tall and is approximately five feet in diameter at the base. We were amazed at the challenge this beaver was attempting. Over the winter, he would come out and chew a bit more. He had setbacks as we faced major winter storms and freezing weather. We thought that he will never chew through this tree. But sure enough, when the weather allowed, he kept coming back and would chew a bit more.

With spring finally arriving, we went down to see the beaver's progress and sure enough the tree is going to come down soon!! Our beaver has now almost completely chewed around and through the entire tree.

The beaver's original goal was survival - to build a home for the winter. Working every day with that particular focus in mind, he achieved that goal. But the large maple tree he started chewing on last fall was a future goal - he wanted the large tree for the spring, to provide new food and branches to continue damning in anticipation of the spring thaw. And, even with the setbacks he faced over the winter, he never gave up.

Our point in sharing our beaver experience with you is to remind you that sometimes we have a goal to just survive, but we also need to set goals for tomorrow. And sometimes, just surviving seems to occupy all of our time - working everyday, looking after our family, going to school, and so forth. But, if you do just a little bit when times allows, and keep focused on your future goal, you will achieve it.