A new school year. A very different year.

We started the new school year with a bounce in our step, extremely excited to see the students again on campus after our time apart in addition to welcoming our 180 new students. That excitement and enthusiasm for the year hasn’t waned and it has been great to hear laughter, seeing students collaborating and playing on the patio and playground, hearing music in the Head’s garden and so much more…

Sadly, we have now had our first COVID-19 cases at school. These have been our first cases, but we know they won’t, unfortunately, be our last. And even though we have been preparing for this reality for months, it was very sad to see this become our new reality for the last two weeks. We are, however, committed to coming back stronger and even more prepared to tackle the challenges of this virus head-on to ensure that we not only keep our community safe but keep our community learning safely in school.

We have learnt much over the last two weeks; from receiving the call about the first positive case to immediately contacting our contingency plan team, putting our contingency plan in place and working with our local health delegate to map our contacts of the positive cases. 

The concept of contact tracing is complex and demands a huge undertaking particularly as rules and guidelines are not always easily accessible or particularly objective. And suddenly details as the exact distance between students/teachers in classrooms, where the individuals sat, to whom they spoke without a mask on the playground, or outside campus, with whom they had lunch,... all became a reality and a complex process.  Thankfully, we have a great team and we received support from our local health authorities not only on how to proceed but also through their visit to our school grounds to confirm the safety measures in place.

We are committed to ensuring that this very different school year will be as good a school year as any other - even with the safety and social distancing recommendations in place. We are committed to making sure that we use this as a huge learning opportunity for all students and staff. I am convinced that we will get through this and continue to be the very special school that I fell in love with when I first came for an interview 4 years ago (4 years! Where does time fly?!). 

We are not naïve enough to think that these won’t be the last of the cases that we see. Despite all of our safety and additional cleaning measures I think we all realise that further cases will be inevitable. But we are ready and ready to ensure that our community is safe, protected and that students can continue to learn. Working together as a community at this time is essential and if you haven’t already done so I recommend that you read through (a little, light bedtime reading, perhaps?) our contingency plan with the accompanying flow charts which indicate what you should do in the event of your child developing symptoms or testing positively for COVID-19.

I dislike the term ‘new normal’ but my creative juices are not flowing enough to think of an alternative, other than to say that this pandemic has turned our lives upside down. But even with this we can become even stronger as a community as we work together to fight this virus; the role every adult and child can play is huge. 

A huge final word of thank you for all the extremely kind and reassuring messages that we have received during the last few days. This is what indeed makes the St Julian’s community one of the best I have ever come across.