Principal's report

This is always a very trying time of the year as winter has set in, the days are short, students are completing significant assessments and struggling to see the end in sight for the term. I am very aware that the pivot to remote learning and the lockdown in Melbourne has had a significant impact on our community. I know many of you are struggling with your own views about the lockdown, disappointment at missed events and the strain of managing your own families, relationships and wellbeing, as well as managing to stay positive and upbeat for your children. Over the weekend, Professor Sutton issued a message to all schools, thanking students, staff, teachers, parents, and carers for cooperation during the current COVID-19 restrictions.

Our Wellbeing team are available to parents and students during this time – consisting of our Director of Student Wellbeing, Counsellors, Heads of Junior School, Middle Years Coordinator, Year Level Coordinators, Chaplain and International Student Coordinator. Please reach out if you are ever concerned. In addition to the wellbeing services available through Shelford, Beyond Blue’s Coronavirus Mental Wellbeing Support Service is available to support families through the latest Victorian lockdown.   

We are in the home stretch of the term and have a long break to look forward to in which we can refresh and revive. Our staff are the role models of resilience and positivity that our students and families need, now more than ever. We are leading our students through new territory and a time in their lives that they will always remember. Together, our parents, staff and students are all leaders in the challenge that these times present. As a community, we are strong, capable and supportive in the face of ongoing uncertainty around the current COVID-19 lockdowns. I thank everyone for the support they provide each other at this time. It is this community that makes Shelford such a beautiful place.

Reconciliation Week

The 2021 National Reconciliation Week theme, More than a word. Reconciliation takes action, urges the reconciliation movement towards braver and more impactful action. Reconciliation is about strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous people, for the benefit of all Australians. 

Reconciliation Australia has identified five integral and interrelated dimensions to measure reconciliation: race relations; equality and equity; institutional integrity; unity; and historical acceptance. These five dimensions do not exist in isolation; they are interrelated and Australia can only achieve full reconciliation if we progress in all five.

In the past year, with the Black Lives Matter protests and huge numbers at Invasion Day rallies across the country, we are seeing people are understanding the truth and speaking up on issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Young people are particularly passionate about this area of inequity in our society and many of the students of Shelford wish to educate themselves more fully about the history of our nation and the ongoing barriers to reconciliation.

More than a word. Reconciliation takes action asks people to take this awareness and knowledge, and use it as springboard to more substantive, brave action. For reconciliation to be effective, it must involve truth-telling, and actively address issues of inequality, systemic racism and instances where the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are ignored, denied or reduced.

The 2021 report The State of Reconciliation in Australia finds that support for reconciliation is growing and that more Australians now understand the impact of colonialism and the modern Australian state on First Nations families and communities. While we see greater support for reconciliation from the Australian people than ever before, we must be more determined than ever if we are to achieve the goals of the movement – a just, equitable, reconciled Australia.

As history tells us, this will only happen through continued and concerted action from those who are already part of the reconciliation movement to those who are yet to join. Moving towards a braver reconciliation requires a vision for what a just equitable and reconciled Australia looks like. The evidence in the report suggests that the reconciliation movement in Australia is at a tipping point, and that we as a nation need to move from a space of ‘safe’ to ‘brave’ on issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

We are seeing more people speaking up, speaking the truth, asking the hard questions, seeing the hard facts, and informing themselves about issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The 2021 theme calls on others to follow their lead by reflecting on their own contributions and striving to do more.

Later this year, Shelford will be progressing with its own Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) which will create an opportunity for involvement from all members of the community; staff, students and parents. This will enable us to work together to ensure that we, as a School and organisation, are aware of the five pillars of reconciliation and are willing to take brave action toward a reconciled nation.

Katrina Brennan

Principal

In Conversation series

Watch the next video in our series introducing our newer staff members, featuring Julia Martin, English, Humanities and History Teacher.