The final week of our term has rolled around, and it is a timely break for our kids and staff. I would like to take the opportunity to say thank you to all of our families, students and staff.

Thank you to our families for all the extra effort you have put in to take children with symptoms for testing. Thank you for being extra careful and keeping children home when they have even mild symptoms, and for rearranging your work and family schedules when children have needed to isolate or learn from home. Please know that the extra burdens and efforts are very much noticed and appreciated.

Thank you to our students who have continued to learn, either at home or at school, with various restrictions that don’t allow the “together” experiences we love so much.

I would also like to thank our staff for all the extra hours and effort they have put in to keep our kids learning and growing. There have been tremendous additional pressures put on our Front Office and Student Services staff, SSOs, bus drivers, maintenance staff, IT staff, Uniform Shop staff, Library staff, teachers, and MyOSHC team. The way that people have stepped in to help cover one another when staff are away, makes me so proud and feel so blessed to be a part of a team dedicated to our kids.

I would also like to say a huge thank you to our school leaders - our Assistant Deputies, Level Leaders, Deputy Principals, and particularly Miss Bernoth, who was Acting Principal in my absence earlier in the term. These are not easy times to lead staff and students, but they have been rock solid for our school in changing times. I am honoured to be a part of such a wonderful school family.

We are heading into one of the most important seasons in the Christian Faith. Easter is a time when Christians celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a time when we remember the tremendous sacrifice that the all-powerful, life-giving, immortal God of the universe represented in human form, made as He tasted one of the most challenging of human experiences – death.

The story continues with the good news that the grave could not hold Him, and He was resurrected to new life. One of my favourite facets of Easter is that it so accurately reflects the experiences we all face in our lives.

We all encounter challenges, some of them seemingly insurmountable, and there are times we can’t really see a way forward, or the odds seem firmly stacked against us. Then, there is the Sunday morning part of the Easter story. The part where God steps in, and the impossible becomes not just possible, but a reality in our everyday lives, and comes with the promise and hope of a better place to come.

It is my wish that this Easter, we all take some time to reflect on the life changing power God offers to us that makes a difference in the everyday-ness of life - in both the challenges and the joys.

Have a great Easter and safe holidays with your kids,

Mark B