Dear parents,
These past few weeks have been a difficult time for everyone. Each of us has been impacted by COVID-19 whether through work disruption and uncertainty, difficulty in our daily routines or the heightened anxiety about the health and well being of our loved ones.
We are incredibly lucky to be part of a school that is so committed to the health, safety and enrichment of our children. Whether we all know each other’s names or not, we (together with our teachers and staff) are all part of this community and I hope that we can continue to show our support and respect for it.
Community support
I believe that one of the best things we can do at the moment is to help our community to feel the familiarity of their daily routines in the way that we usually do. Of course we may make different choices about how we do that and we’ll all be more vigilant with hygiene but for each others sake, as well as our own, lets do our best to model the values that we’re teaching our children: Stillness (I think at this time we could stay calm!), truthfulness, courage, service and respect.
There are so many examples of negativity and panic in the news, across social media, and in broadcast communication tools such as Whatsapp – the kinds of things that aren’t living these values. It’s ultimately up to you the way that you choose to communicate but let’s try to respect these values and stick to email (as requested by the school) for parental and school related communication and if you’re using other types of communication let’s try to help each other by being calm and kind. If you have any concerns regarding the school, operations, health practices etc, please forward your concerns to the relevant person at JCS via email, the school’s formal mode of communication.
Upcoming events – cancelled
At this point, I’m afraid that we’ll have to cancel The annual walkathon (April 9th) and also the Trivia Night scheduled for April 4th. We will try to schedule these for Term 4 but this will be addressed later and as events unfold. If you’ve bought tickets to Trivia Night already, I’ll be in touch separately about refunding your tickets.
We know that these are difficult times financially for many families and the P&F do not want to add to your challenges with events that are fundraising oriented.
At this point we’ll keep a close eye on things and be ready to cancel events scheduled for Term 2 (Movie Night specifically) or continue with them if things settle down dramatically.
What other help can you be?
The school will continue to update us and will continue to react relying on expert advice across many Government departments and Educational networks. We entrust our children’s education to these amazing people and this should be no different.
When you don’t agree with their recommendation, of course you should do what you feel is right for your family, but please do contact the school directly on this and they will be very willing to help you to the best of their abilities.
What else can we do? Honestly, it’s hard to know but if you’ve got thoughts on ways to bring the parents or children together without physical gathering and expense please do share these with your class parent or with a member of the P&F and if you’ve got resources or expertise that might be helpful for our teachers and staff let’s offer it.
I hope that you remain safe and positive and very much appreciate your help in keeping our community connected.
Please contact me if there’s anything that the P&F can do to help you or your class and we will be very happy to support you.
Many thanks,
Tanya (on behalf of the P&F)
