Cranbourne Campus News

COVID 2020 St Peter's Story Collection

Our story… A moment in time.

At the very heart of what makes us unique is that each of us has our very own story. This story is made up of all the little things that have happened in our life and how we reacted to that event, that person, that place or that feeling. All stories contain chapters of growing up, learning new things, experiencing times of great joy and energy, of sadness and heartache, of confusion and of clarity. Not many times in our collective history does an event come along that imprints so heavily on the story of everyone in the world at the same time. The pandemic of 2020 - COVID 19 or Coronavirus is one such event that I suspect will have a chapter in each of our stories.

This week in Pastoral lessons, we launched "The Shared COVID Stories of 2020". A school wide project where we are each invited to document our experience of this year in prose, poetry, drawing, or any way that might be able to be added to a collection and form an historical account of the student experience of this moment in time. While I am not wishing to pre-empt what will be contained in this reflection for each story, I can well imagine that stories of loss and struggle may well be interspersed with factual accounts of masks and 5km travel zones, of stories of ingenuity, resistance and resilience and maybe even of a change in perspective of what is important in our lives. There will be many lessons and learnings that we hope will come through this project of self reflection and these may well inform how St. Peter’s College looks to emerge from this moment in time but to begin this is just about telling. At the dinner table of a night, on a lazy Sunday morning or while walking the dog as a family, I encourage you to chat with the young people in your life, about their experience of 2020 and maybe even ask to read their drafting of their COVID story. 

Return of Students

This week I was a little startled, although maybe I should not have been surprised, when my daughters got to Friday morning and they spoke of not being excited for the weekend and that they ‘couldn’t wait for Monday’. The buzz and enthusiasm of the return of half of our students body and of staff at St. Peter's College has been electric. Smiling faces of students in class and around the yard gave a sense of the start of the school year. And we cannot wait for the return of the rest of our family, our Year 8, 9 and 10 students - then we will be complete. As the entire community returns it is important to note that we all still have a duty to be aware of the habits and behaviours we do to help ensure that if a positive COVID case was to be detected on campus we have ensured that each of us through our actions have not contributed to spreading that virus any further. In a real sense this means hand sanitising regularly, wearing properly fitted face masks, students physically distancing themselves from staff at all times and ‘where possible’ students attempting to reduce unnecessary physical contact with each other. These behaviours are about being aware and not alarmed. Our greatest defence against campus transmission of this virus has been and will always be, ensuring any student or staff member who is unwell stays home until they are fully recovered - Staying home when sick is in fact not a new concept, however it is one that is ever so important in this moment in time.

Mr Jeremy Wright

Deputy Principal - Head of Cranbourne Campus