I distinctly remember starting to count down to my departure from Ethiopia. It began with more than 20 weeks to go – still over four months from our departure date. Whilst the people were as extraordinary as ever, I was increasingly fed up with many aspects of living there.

The sweaty overcrowded daily minibus trips, usually sitting jammed on the wheel arch occasionally cradling someone’s chicken or bag of flour.

Having no hot water in the kitchen and needing to boil it before we could use it to drink or cook or clean.

I had had enough of the food – the rice, injera and vegetables - all of which had begun as a healthy novelty, but I was craving for dairy and for meat I could keep down.

I was fed up with the dust and the noise and the dirt and animal parts and the smell that littered most streets.

I was fed up with going to a hotel to get internet, losing power or water or both every third day and so on... the Whinge of Privilege!

And I can remember fantasising about eating an eggs benedict and having a hot bath, drinking clean water and visiting treed parks with actual grass…

This is feeling a lot like that. Grinding it out, counting the days – trying to feel fortunate for all the good things I have but letting gratitude be swamped by (in my case) a temporal grizzle. For many of you, of course, it is far more than that and your business, life events and perhaps even relationships are increasingly hinging on a daily case average.

Regarding distance learning – you have all done extremely well to make it thus far. Despite all my experience as a teacher we have had our battles at home and there have been times when my own work or my daughter’s state of mind has meant the daily learning plan was just jettisoned (Sorry Mrs Mellow). To provide some perspective, I have found teaching 25 Year 10 students in a class at school generally easier than teaching my Year 3 child at home (as wonderful as she can be!)

Precise linear planning is currently not particularly useful. We have revamped the Thanksgiving service and Year 12 celebration options many times and have had to tear up each version as the situation shifts. This is the season of impromptu creativity - having the capacity (and the staff) to be flexible and adaptive, whilst staying focused on the key ingredients of Christian Education.

Here are some things that have been happening:

We are appreciative of the efforts and talents of the students, under the leadership of their Arts and House captains, for the adaptation of Creative Arts Week into an online production. To finish the term with something different, creative, and fun is a God-send!

The Year 9s have just completed their Ignite Experience; a high energy program of online workshops around innovation, entrepreneurship and problem-solving using new ways of thinking. Coming off the back of Create to Advocate, students identified their passions and experiences that lead to them forming small teams to tackle problems they see in the world. These ranged from large-scale global issues like pollution and exploitation to local problems like body image and mental health. The week was facilitated by an external provider ‘Future Anything’ and included Q&A panels from different organisations including:

Sticky Pronk (Noah Pronk) – a surfboard wax company started by a 14-year-old
Peter Ball – founder and mentor of Impact Academy (entrepreneur and startup mentoring)
Shielded socks (Tanieka Booth - won Shark Tank in 2018), making school socks that are white on top but colourful below the shoe line.

In their small groups the Year 9s learnt methods in problem identification, idea development and product pitching, as they developed business models to address these problems. This all culminated in them pitching their ideas and solutions to a panel of judges. After this exciting and challenging week, the students have developed new skills to help them become budding entrepreneurs who are equipped to make a difference in the world.

An online Arts Soiree is currently under development, scheduled for a mid-Term 4 launch with its own web portal to showcase performances and installations from our senior arts students.

An Elective Week for Year 7-9 is being assembled. This is born out of a recognition that students have missed a great deal of hands-on learning this year, particularly in their elective subjects. An elective intensive will help compensate for some experiences lost.

The German Faculty have launched their ‘Online Exchange’. We know it falls far short of what the year had promised but a monthly online exchange has been set up between our Year 9 students and their counterparts from St Michaels in Paderborn. They will meet as a group each weekend around planned activities and an opportunity to make connections and strengthen their language and cultural awareness.

The music department and the music students of the concert band are working on an online collaboration for a Term 4 launch.

Captains’ Challenge: Hat Day