From the Principal

Confusion or Clarity?

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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