Prinicpal's Message
Dear Parents/Guardians and students,
Welcome back to Term 4 in what is clearly the most disturbed teaching year there has been for both staff and students. It would normally be the case that Year 12 would have commenced their HSC exams this week. Sadly, that is now delayed by a month and we hope that they are able to prepare themselves to be able to demonstrate their true ability. The date for these exams has changed on several occasions and that has made motivation and preparation extremely difficult. However, our students are resilient and have been supported by the staff and their families as best as possible.
The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus said that …”change is the only constant in life”. This is so very true. So, I wonder what the future holds for us as we come out of this very damaging period of social change.
When we return to face-to-face teaching with all students and staff back onsite we will need to respect that some things will be different and some things the same. We will return to our normal routines, generate the respect and trust that we can quickly recover the lost learning time and progress in our learning journey. Masks will be mandatory for ALL when inside and for adults when outside (subject to change with public health orders). This will be different.
During the lockdown and commencement of the pandemic in 2020 one of the significant effects that I ‘felt’ was the realisation of how often I shook hands with people in greeting them. Suddenly that was not allowed. The awkwardness of the greeting became a suggested fist pump or elbow touch. This time around, there is no such awkwardness, we have adapted to the new greeting style of none of the above.
Likewise with masks. The capacity to communicate through facial features has been limited by wearing a mask. The capacity to read a person is diminished. So an impact on developing and progressing friendships has occurred like never before and some students will struggle with this. We will be resilient and move through this and rebuild and strengthen friendships.
Many parents are asking what the future holds. We are unsure. But as Catholics we are people of hope and we recognise that as difficult as this year has been we are so fortunate compared to the rest of the world.
As a Marist College we also keep a Marist perspective about the blessings that we have and the good things, and the goodness, in our lives. We also receive prayers and other news items from the Brothers. I felt the need to share the one below. It talks about the special gift that we all possess, and how it can impact others – the gift of a smile and the power of it. Please read and perhaps discuss with your child when you next see this commercial on TV.
