Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Wow what an astonishing couple of days we have just had. I am sure that everyone's head is in a bit of spin trying to work out what just happened! The great news is that school is open on Monday, just as it was last Monday, with some restrictions from SA Health. They may well be the same as last week or they may be slightly different. We will have to wait and see what the revised requirements are. However over the past couple of days I have made a couple of decisions and today's news does not change them.
Firstly, we will continue to have children dropped off at the Car Park gate (Bickford Street) each morning. They will be collected at either that gate or the Redin Street gate at the end of each day. I am asking parents to remain outside of the school grounds until further notice and please follow the SA Health requirements regarding physical distancing.
The second decision is to not go ahead with the Carols / Picnic Evening. The children will still be involved in preparing and we will most likely have our own Carols session during school time. If we do then we will make a recording of it. I am hopeful that we can continue with other usual end of year celebrations, such as Graduation, although they may well be in modified form. We will advise on these things as we are able but as you know from the past couple of days the goalposts keep on moving!
This Newsletter was set to go this morning … but we have had to modify it based on today's news. However I have left some things unmodified to give context and so I thank you for your understanding that some of this information may now be not quite correct or relevant.
These recent events made me think of the various quotes about change, including the original attributed to ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus: 'The only constant in life is change'. How quickly things have changed. Just a short while ago South Australia was doing so well in terms of Covid-19 and Victoria was in lockdown.
In a matter of days things have been turned upside down for us.
The other quote I wish to refer to is from Charles Darwin who said "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change". This virus can lead to catastrophic results as we have seen in other parts of the world. It is important that we are adaptable and flexible enough to adjust at a moment's notice to follow the requirements as laid out by the Premier and the Chief Public Medical Officer. While this is such a difficult time for everyone, the science behind Professor Nicola Spurrier's decision certainly seems sound to me. I wish to thank you from the outset, not just for supporting these restrictions, but for your understanding around the specific closure of our school, the sudden move to online learning and the impact that all of this may have on our end of year activities.
Timing can sometimes be everything and we were extremely lucky to have been able to send our Year 6 students on camp in Week 4 and then celebrate Woods Week last week. We were able to hold a whole school Mass with a focus on Julian Tenison Woods, a music workshop and concert with Andrew Chinn, a Remembrance Day Liturgy and of course our Sports Day on Friday, with the weather being very kind to us. Then this week our children were able to play in our new Nature Play Space for the first time. Sometimes we simply need to count our blessings while we can. Thank you to all our students, parents and staff for their participation in this week. A special thank you to Tom Atyeo, our PE Teacher, for coordinating Sports Day, held here at school for the first time in a number of years. Congratulations to the MacKillop Team for winning the Perpetual Shield and to Aloysius for winning the Spirit Cup. Every child should be extremely proud of their efforts on the day.
Congratulations to Abby, Anna, Evelyn, Gabriela, Lulu, Marissa, Matilda and Noah, on being Confirmed and receiving the Sacrament of Eucharist for the first time last week. May the Holy Spirit be upon you at this special time in your lives. Remember that this is not the 'final' step on your journey with Jesus and our community … this is only the beginning. Each one of you is very important and special within our church, a real VIP!
I would like to thank Simon Hutchinson and his team from Climbing Tree for the development of our Nature Play Space. This playground provides some real challenges for children. There are some parts that they can manage easily and other parts that might take a while to develop confidence and skill before they can manage them. Feedback from our students has been very positive. Thank you to Sarah Constructions and the Parents and Friends for their generous donations towards this play space.
Last week each one of our students participated in Catholic Education SA's "Classroom Pulse Check In Survey". These online surveys are helping us gauge how we are doing in the area of well being.
Teachers have been working on finalising the Class lists for 2021 and are currently writing the end of year Student Reports. These will be given out on the Monday of Week 9. We will post reports to families for any students who are absent from school in that last week.
On Thursday and Friday of this week teachers have been working on developing resources for the delivery of online learning from Monday of next week. This whole scenario has now changed and teachers will be using face to face teaching when children return. However they may be creative in making use of the resources they have been developing within the classroom. It would be a shame to waste that time and energy.
I would like to wish Thien Do and his wife Jasmine all the best on the imminent arrival of their twin boys in a few days time. You are in our prayers and we wish you every blessing at this very special time.
What the past few days has told us is that we need to be prepared for anything. We may discover that after this time South Australia is well on track to getting back to normal and restrictions might be reduced. Or may things might not be going so well and we might need to continue or even tighten restrictions. I ask you to be patient, be safe and do your best to remain calm and kind to all those you engage with. This is tough for everyone and we all need to help each other through to the other side. Mary MacKillop gave us many quotes and this one seems appropriate today: "Be calm and full of hope".
I ask that you please check your email regularly and facebook posts, just in case I need to provide you with more updates.
Kind regards
Peter Mercer
Principal
