Principal's Report

It’s been put to me recently that 2020 must be an awful year to be a Principal. 

I’ve reflected on this for some time since the statement was made and just couldn’t reconcile it with my experiences of leading our school community over the past 7 months. This year is the most challenging that I’ve experienced, in school, in work, in life. But there are so many facets of this year that I will remember more vividly than any other year of my life, and I want to remember them fondly rather than with a sense of despair or regret. I hope you too are actively working on finding positives and opportunities in the different way of living and learning that COVID has thrown our way.

Yesterday our staff engaged in a full day of personal learning around how we can improve our teaching practices in the context of remote learning and how we engage in constructive conversations with one another to achieve great learning outcomes for our students. Much as our students are finding it challenging and different to engage in learning via online platforms, we too found it different to interact with our learning via video conference sessions. During the day, I reflected with our staff on how we can see the next 5 weeks of remote learning as a time when we can personally thrive, rather than just survive and get through to the school holidays. Obviously we want this same experience of thriving for our students as often as possible during remote learning, despite all the complications that online environments create. I am hopeful that many of our staff and students are seeing the opportunities that come with remote learning, rather than focusing on what we can’t do. Two weeks into version 2.0 of remote learning, I am delighted to hear many positive stories of creative engagement happening in staff and student’s homes.

On Wednesday evening this week, we ran our subject expo as we always do at this time of the year to support students to make informed subject selections into 2021. Of course this time around, we had to do this all online – a task that I initially thought was too difficult to even conceive of let alone pull off.  However, for the two hours of the expo we had over 20 simultaneous Google Meet video conferences operating with staff enthusiastically talking about the subjects and pathways on offer at our school next year. It was incredible to witness the adaptability of our staff and the technological wizardry in being able to pull it all together. Students need to submit their subject selections by Monday in EdVal – please make sure you discuss this with your child over the weekend to make sure that their selections are entered online, otherwise we may need to make subject selections on their behalf (which of course we want to avoid).

As for last term’s experience of remote learning, I thank you all for partnering with the school to support your child’s learning at home. Our staff take seriously their responsibility to continue the teaching and learning journey for all our students – we don’t want you to feel as if you need to shoulder an unnecessary burden of responsibility in this regard.  But we are extremely appreciative of all the support you continue to offer your child to allow their learning to continue.

I hope you’re able to enjoy a restful weekend.  Stay safe.

Kind Regards,

Dave Clift - Principal