The recent weeks have seen even more developments and complications for our school, and many of our families when it comes to COVID, and working to control its spread. I recently read something attributed to former First Lady Hilary Clinton, that made me stop and think.

She said, “Caring for others is an expression of what it means to be fully human.”

That statement has a lot of depth to it and one that is particularly relevant in world events, as well as our local situation. I would like to say a big thank you to all of our school family for the love and care you have shown to your children, and your patience and understanding with us as we endeavour to balance protecting students, families and staff, with continuing to provide education to our children, and trying to be sensitive to the impact testing, isolating and doing “circuit breaker” stay at home interventions has on those involved.

We are currently really struggling to get enough staff to continue to provide all of the services we normally do at school. There have been a couple of times where we have not been able to run a bus service once in the day, we have had to use quite a number of relief teachers, we are currently facing a shortage of Front Office and SSO staff, and even our grounds and maintenance team have been understaffed. These situations have come about because of the impact of COVID on our staff.

Please know that we are doing all we possibly can to cover the staff shortages, that we are making no compromises at all in regards to the safety of our children, and that by far and away the learning program for our children continues at our expected high level. It may mean, however, that your requests may take a little longer to chase up, your children might come home and say they had a new person helping out in their classroom, and our leadership team may not be quite as available to help with your enquires as we are helping to cover elsewhere.

I guess, what I am really saying is thank you for your support and patience with each other and our school so far, and please continue to do this as we face further challenges in the coming days and weeks.

I also want you to know that we are doing all we can to minimise the impact of these difficulties on our families, and that any decisions we make concerning our school program are not made flippantly, but with care and concern for our students, staff, and families.

Many thanks again. I am so blessed to belong to such an amazing community.

Have a great week with your kids,

Mark B