Principal
Social distancing – sure to be a candidate for word of the year for 2020 – is a key strategy in fighting COVID-19. In the space of a week or two we have all changed some fundamental habits and daily rituals. How we greet people. Where we sit in meetings. What mode of transport we take to work. Even our place of work. All these small changes to our own lives are set against wider societal change in the face of great uncertainty and the potential threat to our lives.
Interesting to me is the observation that the safest place for each of us is our homes. We don’t need to exercise social distancing with our families. Unless one of them has been, or is potentially, diagnosed with the illness, of course. Some of the features of our modern world are now in question. International air travel is now banned because of its contribution to spreading the illness. Open plan workspaces and hot desks are no longer healthy environments, though perhaps they never were. Various means of mass transit such as buses and trains are questionable. Many people are now working from home as means of limiting transmission and exposing themselves to possible infection.
That is not to suggest that all features of our modern world are to be spurned. Digital technology, IT systems and various means of remote communication are enabling us to work from distant places and to communicate messages rapidly as a means of contending with ever changing scenarios.
So while pressure continues to mount on school systems to close, which I believe they inevitably will, administration and teachers in all schools are proactively attempting to change our mode of delivery of the curriculum. At Nudgee College much planning is happening to enable at home learning to occur in the online environment. You will be aware that on Tuesday evening all students were asked to log on to our system and to test its robustness. I am pleased to be able to inform you that this was a successful trial of the technology.
More work has to occur on both the technology as well as the development of the curriculum content itself. Teachers also need to be upskilled while they continue to teach and look after the boys each day. In effect, we are trying to adapt a traditional school model of learning and teaching into an online environment on the run. No easy thing to do but one we are giving our best to achieve. We are not at the point of informing parents further about just what that will look like and how it will operate but I hope to be able to do so in the coming week.
So, to place a Catholic perspective on this scenario returns me to the point made earlier about the place of family and our homes. Clearly, the safety of these spaces in our lives will become paramount in our efforts to combat the virus. In the Bible story of Jesus’ early life, family was also paramount. Who protected, nurtured and educated him in his early life? We all know the answer to that question. It was from this loving family that Jesus grew to take on the challenge of evangelisation and spreading the good news. Instrumental to this family life was Joseph, his father here on earth.
One of the consequences of the current situation is that we are unable to gather for our scheduled Eucharistic celebration of the Feast of St Joseph. For good reason our school, like many other Catholic schools, was named in honour of him. His statue, with Jesus at his feet, is our most prominent in the beautiful rose garden outside the Treacy Building. The qualities of St Joseph are ones that we could all emulate more fully, irrespective of what is happening in our world. ‘Caring, practical, honest, humble, mentor, wise, loyal, trusting, loving and prayerful’. Each boy received a St Joseph prayer card today, which listed these qualities and included a prayer from which I conclude:
…. ‘In your example we see that we do not work alone.
Teach us to find Jesus in those who are near
And to care and love faithfully as you have done’
With every blessing during these unprecedented times.
Mr Peter Fullagar
Principal