Principal Team Report
First Week Back!
This week has been one of the most memorable in my entire career! Never in living memory, has anyone experienced a forced shutdown of school sites where staff and students have been forced to work differently from home for a period of close to three months. Thank god that it is over, and hopefully we don’t ever have to experience that again. As exceptional as our school staff and students were in remote learning, it doesn’t beat having living, breathing classrooms back in action with the sounds of students learning and teachers teaching, the yard full of the usual joyous noises and the buzz of students and staff reconnecting after a significant period away. It’s a great reminder that schools are about more than just learning. They’re about the people within them and that’s what makes schools what they are. The interactions and experiences that people in our school have every hour of every day, combine to provide an environment that enriches lives regardless of the learning. The relationships that are built, maintained and enhanced within our school were the biggest loss during the remote learning phase and it is great to have the people back to make them flourish again.
Activism
There have been a lot of major news stories this year. Whilst most of us would have thought that Coronavirus was going to maintain our undivided attention for the remainder of the year, that all changed with the horrifying events in Minneapolis involving the death of George Floyd. The footage of his death was particularly distressing and it lit a fuse of activism for change in the US and all around the world. Many Australians, including some of our students believe that it is time for change, time to shine a light on intolerance, inequity and injustice. This behaviour upholds the values of our school and I am encouraged when young people take to a just cause with passion and conviction. It is the action of young people that will set the direction of our future and it is important for all of our students to be global citizens and engaged with what is happening in the world, to be curious, to seek out the truth and to want something better. I know many of our students are already engaged in conversations about how recent events can be the impetus for us to make our school and world even better. I applaud them and encourage them to continue the fight. However, whilst being active for change, it is important to make sure that we don’t jeopardise our recent progress at stopping the Covid-19 spread, and that we heed the advice of the Chief Health Officer.
What does the rest of the year look like?
As we progress through term 3 and 4, I expect things to gradually return to normal. Hopefully at some point in the not too distant future excursions and camps will return, parents can meet with teachers on site, assemblies can again happen in person and other events like interschool sport and the production will return. It has been a disappointing year so far for some year levels more than others and we are looking at providing opportunities to students who have missed out on so much in the first half of the year. 2020 is definitely going to look a lot different, lets hope that in 2021 we can get back to what we hopefully be a year without interruption and upheaval.
Kevin Murphy
Principal
Assistant Principals
Catherine Ford
Andrew Lewis
Shane Kruger
Carrie Wallis