This time last week we had just finalised the newsletter and had it scheduled to be published online.  As we were about to start eating our lunch we started hearing media reports of the lock-down announcement - How quickly our lives can be changed and how instantly we can be challenged to be resilient.  If nothing else, COVID-19 has certainly given us the opportunity to learn about being flexible and deal with change.

As a school community I think collectively we were able to cope okay through this latest circuit breaker lock-down.  As a staff we spoke about setting realistic expectations for families, while acknowledging each different family would deal with the short period uniquely.  In fact different children within the same family would engage in remote learning differently.  We continue to refine our preparation for any future short closures, with one acknowledgement being the likely inability to distribute technology to families.

Finally on the topic of lock-down can I publicly thank Mrs.Catherine Campbell and Mrs.Helen Moss (Relief Teacher) who at extremely short notice were able to lead the supervision of those children who had to attend onsite.  Also it is worth noting the flexibility shown by the school leadership team and staff as we quickly developed plans to take advantage of the three days.  I can report to the parent community that we were able to complete some professional learning in an accelerated form which will not only provide excellent learning outcomes for students but also eliminate the need for a future student free day.  The work the staff did was around the teaching and learning of spelling.  We hope to be in a position to share some of our learning with parents especially as we explore this further in our classrooms from Foundation (Prep) to Year 6.

Disappointingly over the weekend we had some criminal activity in the school and church.  Even though the situation was extremely frustrating it was reassuring knowing that our neighbours are keeping their eyes on our site and are fast to call the Police to attend.  It also shows how quickly technology has moved along with CCTV vision available to the authorities from both the new school system as well as from various neighbours.  Over a weekend where school leadership were heavily engaged in out of hours work due to the lock-down, it was unnecessary for them to be wasting valuable time being called onsite by the Police and the following formalities at the local station. So hopefully we are able to see a quick reduction of these types of occurrences not only at our school but also in other local places.

So finally, I hope everyone has the opportunity to enjoy the freedom of the upcoming weekend and appreciate the beautiful weather.

Take care, Dave