I was at home working on my car the other day and reflecting on our year so far. Something hit me: it feels like we've had a whole year's worth of excitement, pain, gratitude, fun and problems, and we're only 6 months in! Students are tired, teachers are exhausted and I'm 100% certain that parents are both tired and exhausted. Although this can be a bad thing, I think we can use it to our benefit. 

Having people to support you, people to depend on is vital. I think to my immediate group of support people- this year has been the same for them. Challenging is an understatement but we are still standing and smiling (most of the time). Without the help of people around us in these crazy times, we would certainly fall and it would be extremely hard to stand back up and carry on. I think there is a real strength in numbers and having people around you that you trust is very empowering. 

We have seen so many changes this year and I am so proud of our teaching and support staff here at PPN. Everyone has stepped up and just got the job done with minimal fuss. Miss Bernoth spoke of gratitude last week, this is what I am grateful for. Staff that can come together to keep a school running, even when pandemics are thrown at us! When we came to the staff with ideas in discussions we had, everyone was so supportive and for this, I am very thankful to be surrounded by such amazing people to work with. 

This week, I challenge you to look back at your 2020 journey so far. We are only halfway through, what will the rest of your year look like? Will you depend on your support people or will you be a support person for someone else? I trust that together, we can continue to be here for our kids and that we have a great and productive remainder of the term.

Jason Davis

Restoration or Replacement?

It’s Broken Again!

Does this sound familiar? Have you ever spent time or money fixing something, only for it to break again?

Our washing machine started to die over the weekend and the first thing my wife said to me was “We should have just bought a new one instead of fixing the old one!” I acknowledged that this machine had brought us no end of trouble. She was probably correct.

We had only just spent $250 on the machine a few months ago, getting the spinner working effectively, and now the pump had stopped pumping the dirty water out of the machine. We had had enough! We were ready to give up on the washing machine and replace it with a newer model.

I am glad God does not view us like we viewed the washing machine. We regularly make mistakes, but He keeps restoring us over and over again. In John Chapter 3, the Bible tells us that God chose to send His son to die for our mistakes. He didn’t give up on us or decide to start again with a new human race.

God is in the business of restoration, not replacement.

Chaplain Phil

Book of the Week

This week we are highlighting another book from the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) shortlist for 2020. ‘We’re Stuck’ written by Sue deGennaro is a wonderful story that reminds us to slow down and look for opportunities to bring cheer to those around us. It has been shortlisted in the Book of the Year: Early Childhood category.

When Turtle races into the lift of Building 24, there is a nod and a blink and a step to the side. A grunt and a sigh and a lean to the right.

But what happens when the lift in Building 24 stops moving?

Borrowing limits

In the Library, we are following the advice and guidelines of the Australian School Libraries Association (ASLA) in regards to school library safety measures as a response to Covid-19.

The current guidelines advise for books to be cleaned upon return to the library and left in ‘quarantine’ for 24 hours. Due to the amount of cleaning that we are doing and the limited space we have to store books to dry while they are in quarantine we have temporarily reduced the amount of books that students can borrow to two each.

Prescott College