Principal's Report
I am very proud of every member of our school community’s efforts over the last fortnight to deliver and support teaching and learning remotely. Students have continued to be engaged in education during the COVID-19 disruption. The workload associated with the change to remote learning has been significant and staff have spent many hours over the school holidays and outside the regular work day to make our transition to remote learning so successful. Whilst the transition wasn’t “perfect”, we have been able to resolve issues as they arose. I expect that whilst we have worked through some early problems, some new ones may arise. I really appreciate your patience with this process.
I can assure you that our commitment to students is unwavering. We will always do our best to ensure that their education program can continue, they are safe and have accesses to the resources they need to be successful learners. Parent/carer support of remote learning is also a key factor in our success. I fully appreciate the extra demands that this mode of learning has placed on many families. I congratulate you on your efforts to ensure your children have a routine in place, a suitable space in which to learn and for checking-in with them as they adapt to this new way of learning. Thank you for partnering with us in such a positive and effective manner.
Marking Anzac Day at Home
Usually at this time of the year, I write about our Anzac Day assembly and the great work of our student leaders in their roles in commemorations held both in school and out in the local community. Like most things at the moment, Anzac Day will be somewhat different this year.
Anzac Day is a significant day for all Australians and is often a time for private reflection.
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs encourages all Australians to pause and reflect on the service and sacrifice of the more than 102,000 Australians who have died in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations.
While commemorations have been cancelled overseas and across the nation, Australians are encouraged to continue to mark this important date by holding their own private commemorations. On behalf of our College, DSC school captains Sarah V (pictured), Charlotte W, Mark H and Sophie D will take part in the RSL "Light up the Dawn" vigil. We are also encouraged to watch a televised national service from the Australian War Memorial. This service is scheduled to commence with the pre-service program at 5am and the national service at 5.30am – check your local guides.
However Australians choose to mark Anzac Day, they should do so in-line with the latest health advice and in a way that is solemn and dignified.
Lest we forget.
Éva McMaster
Principal
Anzac Requiem
On this day above all days we recall those who served in war and who did not return to receive the grateful thanks of the nation.
We remember those who still sleep where they were left - amid the holly scrub in the valleys and the ridges of Gallipoli - on the rocky and terraced hills of Palestine - and in the fields of Flanders and France.
We remember those who lie asleep in ground beneath the shimmering haze of the Libyan Desert - at Bardia, Derna, Tobruk - and amid the mountain passes and olive groves of Greece and Crete, and the rugged, snow-capped hills of Lebanon and Syria.
We remember those who lie buried in the rank jungle of Malaya and Burma - in New Guinea - and the Pacific.
We remember those who lie buried amid loving friends in our Motherland and in our own far North.
We remember those who lie in unknown resting places in almost every land, and those gallant men whose grave is the unending sea. Especially do we remember those who died as prisoners of war, remote from their homeland, and from the comforting presence of their next of kin.
We think of those of our women’s services who gave their lives in our own foreign lands and at sea, and of those who proved to be, in much more than name, the sisters of our fighting men.
We recall, too, the staunch friends who fought beside our men on the first ANZAC Day - men of New Zealand who helped to create the name of ANZAC.
We recall of those who gave their lives in the Royal Navy, the British Army, the Royal Air Force, the Merchant Service and in other British and Dominion Forces.
We think of those British men and women who fell, when, for the second time in history, their nation and its kindred stood alone against the overwhelming might of an oppressor.
We think of every man and woman who in those crucial hours died so that the lights of freedom and humanity might continue to shine.
We think of those gallant men and women who died in Korea, Malaya, Borneo, Vietnam, East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan and in Peacekeeping Forces assisting to defend the Commonwealth and other countries of the Free World, against a common enemy.