From the Principal
Transitions
Half way through the final term of 2020 and we are in a state of transition in so many aspects of our lives, at Preshil and, of course, in the wider community.
Transitioning from Melbourne’s tight lockdown to new freedoms sounds like a wonderful moment in our lives, and certainly it is with an enormous sense of relief as we welcome a fifth day of no new cases and no new deaths in Victoria, amid the sobering spectacle of so many other countries in dire circumstances.
The recent good weather has beckoned us out and the opportunity to reconnect with those we have so missed is joyful.
However, with such a sense of dread and caution hanging over everything we have done for months, it is difficult to feel real confidence in the safety and wisdom of reverting to old habits and pursuits we felt no need to question in the past.
For our students, this is made more confusing and worrying by the endless differences and conflict they see and hear amongst the adults they are told to trust to look after their welfare. It is not surprising to realise that there is a wave of anxiety among children and young adults as they work out who to trust and what trusting their own agency and independence might lead to.
At Blackhall Kalimna we trust all parents to support our ongoing, serious commitment to upholding the Covid restrictions and safety advice still in place. Please make sure you help us by keeping your son or daughter at home if they are at all unwell, making sure they are wearing a mask when they leave home, and encouraging them to regularly use soap or hand sanitiser as they move from space to space.
Our Year 10 students, only recently returned from online classes, are about to begin their own transition to their Diploma studies. This is a significant starting point that we hope will be an exciting and satisfying journey for them all. The absolute intention of this Early Commencement Program is to build their confidence and allow them to identify those areas where months of isolation, and faltering connections to their classes, have left them with gaps and incomplete understanding in some of their subjects.
Please encourage them to recognise that everyone will experience some degree of needing to catch up. Unfinished tasks and assignments can be left behind at this point, rather than impede their progress in moving to their Diploma studies. Please contact teachers, or Kate Ellis, their wonderfully understanding Coordinator, if you need to smooth this transition for them.
With my time as Principal coming to a close, the School Council has taken great care to set in place a transition designed to make this as smooth as possible. I am delighted to welcome Natalie Jensen back to Preshil from today to work beside me until she takes over the role as interim Principal from the start of 2021. Natalie has worked across both campuses over a period of more than seven years; she has achieved an outstanding level of expertise in all of the three IB programmes and is fully conversant with the myriad day to day issues that keep us all busy.
Hopefully, there will be opportunities in the near future to personally welcome Natalie in this significant period of transition for the whole school.
Finally, as I write this piece, the whole world is transfixed in watching the US election unfold, heralding in a transition of some sort, regardless of the outcome. For our students this offers a spectacle of the world they are inheriting, of power, of conflict and of what it means to live in a democracy in the twenty-first century. Whatever future the US transitions towards, it will shape their reality in ways we cannot possibly anticipate.
I hope all our families look ahead with hope and optimism from whatever point of transition they find themselves in.
Marilyn Smith
Principal