“NSW independent school breaks coronavirus ranks to bring back the entire campus early.”
ABC Mid North Coast, Kirstie Wellauer, 27 April 2020
May 6: Year 11 and 12 return to “normal” classes at St Columba.
May 11: K-12 face-to-face classes resume at St Columba.
How does that make you feel?
Safe?
Happy?
Excited?
Worried?
Relieved?
Grateful?
Confused?
Concerned?
We hope you are happy and to ensure that the return is as positive as possible, by the time our students return your School will have:
- Taken the best medical advice possible;
- Reviewed cleaning and safe learning practices;
- Taken the time to allow staff to plan for a smooth transition back to the physical classroom;
- Started a review of what aspects of our online teaching to keep;
- Reviewed our assessment and reporting processes and schedules due to the “gap” caused by the pandemic.
We hope that our students and their families are as excited as our staff are at the prospect of resuming a “normal” education.
From what we hear from the media, students are looking forward to returning to school.
Excerpts from: Students share their thoughts on returning to school by Natassia Chrysanthos May 3 Sydney Morning Herald.
- It has allowed me to recognise the hard work of our teachers and education officers. If you’re a teacher or school staff who’s reading this, WE LOVE YOU! Australia’s education system is something I’m sure I will no longer take for granted!
- To all the teachers around the world who have helped us to learn through this, thank you. You still made our final years of school memorable, from making us laugh at virtual backgrounds or allowing us to eat breakfast in period one
- Thank you to what I like to call the class of Covid 2020. You are resilient, you are bold, and you are warriors. This is a strange final year, but we will go down in the books of history, not only for simply existing through this pandemic, but because of the way we’ve survived it.
- I’m looking forward to seeing all my friends, my lovely, kind teachers, being able to run around and just be with more people. Oh, and please remind me of this in another 10 weeks’ time when I’m complaining about going to school again.
- I’ve always found school pretty fun and enjoyable, but I do think going back to school in comparison to this it would be like going to Disneyland.
- I like the way teachers encourage me to do things. My parents (especially my mum) can never encourage me as good as my teachers.
- Thank you remote learning, you’ve been nice. A different style of learning, a temporary change of scenery, a different lifestyle. You’ve made us become more grateful for things we usually take for granted, particularly being at school.
There were some great and imaginative outcomes from education in isolation but the social media conversation seems to imply that many parents will be more than happy to leave the role of teachers’ aide and hand most of the educational process back to the schools and their teachers.
Whatever your attitude to school going back to “normal”, all we can say is:
“Welcome back!”
And for those of a particular age……
