19 Mar 2020
Parents & Carers,
In an email to us yesterday, Secretary Mark Scott thanked Principals for their leadership during this time, but I would like to thank our teachers. They are at the front line and are the unsung heroes. Let’s thank them for turning up each day; for continuing their teaching programs; for calming our students and providing a reassuring environment they are used to; and for cleaning and monitoring hand washing practices.
While many workers have an option to work from home, teachers do not. Not while schools are open.
Our schools are operational and Hoxton Park PS is cleaner than the local shops because we can largely control our environment.
The leadership team will be discussing how our school can support every child to learn from home if we get to that phase. The Department of Education has been working behind the scenes for weeks on solutions for this. The ABC have dedicated a channel to education should they need to use it. We have many different possibilities with online learning but need to cater for students who do not have the same access to these resources.
Further cancellations: we have had to close Community Hub activities until further notice.
A reminder to those who drop students off in the morning to please leave the school grounds. We will soon get to the stage where no parents will enter the school unless we all can cooperate with these requests. Working together is how large communities thrive.
So everyone, we continue day to day to reassure our children that the world is not ending, although there are some tremendous teaching points about humanity for us all, considering some people’s behaviour at the shops!
We will continue to teach about caring for each other, sharing what we have and looking out for one another.
In unprecedented times such as these, it is more important than ever to show these traits to your children so they learn and pass them on to others.
Have a great day.
Kylie Donovan
PRINCIPAL