Thank you for your perseverance and commitment during this extended lockdown. We are well aware of the pressure that home learning creates for many of you, and I want to say thank you for continuing to work with us in this unusual situation. It is important that you do feed back to us ideas about how we can improve what we are doing, remembering that every child is different and what works well for one will not necessarily work for another.

I want to assure you that you can make some adjustments to your child’s program if you believe they need it. When you sense they need a break, feel free to take them off-line – just make sure their teachers know this. The important thing is to look after their well-being, but to also make sure they are continuing to move forward in their learning. As I have written previously, they will catch up, so don’t worry about that. Past experiences such as in the Christchurch earthquake when schools were completely closed for three months or more, showed that students were able to catch up quickly on lost time.

We still have 100 students a day on site who engage in the same program as those at home. It has been encouraging to see people making an effort to find ways within the COVID restrictions to help those children at home get some social time with others – keep it up. With the spike in numbers of infections across the State this week, the Government may impose even tighter restrictions on schools so we will keep you informed if that happens.

Year 12 students are sitting their modified Trial HSC Examinations now so keep them in your prayers. Most of our Year 12s are doing well, but some are feeling the strain of the lockdown. Remember that our school counsellors are still working so if you believe your child needs some extra support, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

A reminder that if you are dropping your child off or picking them up from school, please use our newest Kiss and Drop zone which is accessed via the new entrance just before the service station. We do not have staff on duty prior to 8:15am each morning and none on duty in the main carpark.

Whatever your view of the performance of the NSW and Federal Governments during this pandemic, the Bible calls us to pray for our leaders and those in authority over us. Join me in praying for wisdom for them to know what is right, courage to make hard decisions and a willingness to listen to advice. In this way we can help them to help us.

Phillip Nash

Principal