Acting Principal’s Report

Yesterday we received the news we were all waiting for - that every one of our wonderful staff and students will be returning to face-to-face classes on Friday!

Classes will return to a normal timetable with our usual expectations of students in regards to uniform, attendance, and appropriate wearing of masks, and Year 10 and 11 exams will be able to continue, giving these students the exam practice they missed out on in 2020.

Importantly though, this return is another chance for us all to reinforce our resilience-building strategies.

Yesterday I was browsing The Resilience Project website and found an article on resilience building through gratitude, empathy, and mindfulness that parents and students alike might find worth a read. The Resilience Project provides programs that provide practical, evidence-based mental health strategies to build resilience and happiness, and their message compliments the work we have done at MGC on Visible Wellbeing and Positive Psychology.

My approach to dealing with the uncertainty of COVID and the lockdowns - outside of eating prodigious amounts of chocolate - has been to privilege time each day to be grateful. In our house, two teachers juggling working from home with two kids (aged 8 and 10) on their own 'google meets' and learning schedule was trying at times, but I will forever be grateful for the time I have been able to spend with them during the lockdowns. It allowed us to not only gain great insight into how our children learn, but also to be there to celebrate the educational wins in real-time, and that is something we will be forever thankful for.

I would like to thank our entire community for your kindness and flexibility through this, and all of the lockdowns we have endured. I hope that our next newsletter can be filled to the brim once again with the success stories of our students, showing yet again that they can "Lead and Achieve" under even the most difficult circumstances.

Have a great week!

Andrew