Principal Report
Principal Message Week 1 Term 2 2020
Welcome back to a very different Term two.
At the beginning of the year I must admit I had a very different picture of how things were going to pan out for 2020. Our school year was very neatly mapped out and we had so many plans for the year ahead. Since my appointment six year ago we have seen and experienced a great many changes at our school but I don’t think anyone could have predicted that we would be living through an experience such as this.
After a very challenging ‘holiday’ for everyone, staff and students have begun Phase one of remote/ online learning. The whole concept of remote is so very different to what we know and love about being at school. Whilst the online forum is a very exciting frontier so much of what we do and create at school, especially relationships and connections, is harder to mimic online. I know for one that I miss terribly, after two days, the constant smiles, laughter, wonder and joy that we had the pleasure of experiencing and being a part of each day at school.
This pandemic has asked us to accept a new ‘normal’. Our reality today is certainly not what we would have ever thought we would be experiencing during 2020. However, times such as these, always seem to inspire and produce amazing innovation and ingenuity. We have had little over a month to prepare for learning online and within that time period we have had access to an enormous amount of technology and online resources that we perhaps would not even have considered had this not been our new reality. This will change the nature of education as we know it.
Week one has had its bumps and challenges but I am confident that we are as prepared as we possibly can be under the circumstances. The important thing for us to remind ourselves of, as we continue to implement remote/online learning, is that it is going to and will need to constantly evolve. This is without a doubt an opportunity for our learning community to demonstrate and embrace the key 21st century skills: adaptability, flexibility, creativity, communication, technology literacy, critical thinking and resilience as we forge into this new foray.
It would be silly to say that there are not going to be challenging times ahead. We need to continue to approach this with an open-mind, some risk-taking and balance. It is an opportunity to inquire into new and different learning, whilst staying true to our beliefs about education. It will require us to continually reflect on best practice; what's working and what's not. And it will place an emphasis and importance on communicating and the need to care for one another. I am certain we will come out the other side richer for the experience.
As we head into week two I would like to thank you for your support and understanding during this very difficult period for all within our community. To our staff and children, I would like to say congratulations on navigating your way through an enormous amount of change. It takes courage, resilience and perseverance when it comes to change and in a record short time span you have adapted incredibly to a whole new way of engaging in education which is by no means a small feat in my book.
COVID-19 has and will continue to affect us all in myriad ways. Our thoughts and prayers are with Rossi, Kirsty and Abigail, on the loss of Rossi’s father in the UK on Good Friday.
This is a time like no other. So, as we head as a community into Term 2, may we proceed with confidence and courage for whatever lies ahead.
Daniella