
Cruise ships
Fast haircuts
Face masks
Panic buying
Toilet paper
Lockdowns
Bondi Beach
State leaders
Federal leaders
Border closures
ARL/AFL/ Olympics gone or postponed
Small funerals and smaller weddings
Printers running out of ink
Sudden homeschooling
Centrelink queues
Personal Distance
Pasta & Rice
Fear
?

The messages we are getting
should be simple.
Instead they seem
to look like
this

And that tends to feel like…
Let’s Think → The New Normal (Robert Glazer)
The biggest difference I’ve seen between those who are staying even-keeled during this crisis and those really struggling is a willingness to accept the new normal and a determination to focus on what they can control at this point. These are the business leaders pivoting quickly, the parents building homeschool schedules and the healthy people social distancing because they feel a responsibility to protect others.
By contrast, those who are holding on to the past and acting from a place of fear and scarcity are struggling the most. Their limited energy is focused inward and backwards, and not on looking outward toward what others need both now and in the future.
So, let’s have a little SCAS certainty!
We are:
- Open for our students (until they make us shut the gates);
- Officially COVID-19 infection free;
- Teaching face-to-face and online;
- Getting better and better at online education;
- Acknowledging that as well as providing learning materials, we need to maintain our pastoral care for all our community members;
- Keeping the canteen open (and the Iona Cafe on reduced hours);
- Planning to make next term different but well-planned for all;
- Aware that students, parents and staff are stressed but determined to get through this.

And the small silver linings:
- Traffic is much better around the School and around town;
- Iona Cafe muffins
- Our seniors are getting a taste of what many university courses now look like – mixed on-line and face-to-face learning;
- Plenty of space on the handball courts;
- Seat choices on the school buses;
- Year 10 and their teachers are out of isolation.
![]() | Mr Terry Muldoon Principal, St Columba Anglican School |
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Vladimir Lenin
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