Dear Parents

 With the closure of the school due to COVID you have the opportunity to reflect on how the school can support families. It has been a very challenging time and reviewing procedures we are mandated to follow a number of learnings have been evident during lockdown. We have our individual concerns in the family household: 

• Impact on employment
• Impact on mental health
• Impact on our children’s relationships (or lack of) with friends
• Impact on our community
• Impact on those organisations, sporting clubs, churches that we attend

We don’t know when this will be over, but I know that we have been very resilient.

From an educational perspective reports coming from UNESCO state that by the end of March, 2020 over 1.5 billion students or 87% of the world's student population across 165 counties had been affected by school closures caused by COVID-19. In early May, only 3% of children in Victorian schools were in attendance, whereas the Northern Territory had returned to normal levels of 79%.

Teachers have also had challenges with COVID-19. We have all missed the children. Nothing seems to beat face-to-face teaching. The following points have been noted as major hurdles that have affected the lives of students:

• Reduced one-to-one engagement levels of students
• Difficulty in ascertaining engagement levels of students
• Restricted ability to monitor individual progress
• Increased social isolation and reduced ability to support student wellbeing

At St Mary’s we are committed to supporting all families. We want to see light at the end of the ‘tunnel’. We want to invite parents to attend our school assembly, look forward to having spectators and helpers at the school athletics and a BBQ celebration at the junior athletics. We still hope that this will be able to occur.

Thank you to all of our families. Look after your loved ones. The school is here as a support to you all.

Jason