Staff update

We start Term 2 welcoming back some staff who have been on leave. As a community we congratulate Mr and Mrs Butchart on the birth of their new daughter, Zoe, and Mr and Mrs Cooke who welcomed their second son, Lawson. We welcome back from leave Mrs Telma Keen, Ms Alicia Emslie, Mrs Leigh-Anne Hopkins, Mr Peter Herman, Mrs Anne Gilmore and Mrs Jane Zhang. We welcome Mr Steven Wayman as the Secondary Chaplain and Christian Education/Physical Education teacher with Mr Matthew Harris Acting Head of Christian Education while Mrs Butchart is on leave.  Heather Bishop recently married and is now Mrs Heather Borovina.

What has Covid-19 taught us?

Over the last few weeks I have heard quoted many times former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill who during World War II implored the British people to “not waste a crisis”. I am not sure in the COVID-19 crisis of 2020 that this is a particularly welcomed thought. Taking the time to note it is healthy for all of us. Many families who have communicated with College staff have had varied experiences. Much of this was obvious confusion with the paradoxes that this created. Only a few weeks ago you may have been concerned about the time our children were spending online, yet we are now in virtual classrooms all day, parents who may have been concerned that they had been so busy they were not spending time with kids are now spending 24 hours a day 7 days a week together as a family. The focus on the busyness has given way to a re-centering. It is no coincidence that we have seen on the news expressions of gratitude and kindness with generosity of strangers to those standing in Centrelink queues or donations of food from large organisations. Streets are adorned with teddy bears and rainbows are coloured in on driveways. We see our parks which were empty are now full of families playing together. All of this draws out of us what is really important. Some who have been able to work from home with the stability of employment have a chance to reconnect as a family, while others have been isolated from support structures and still facing uncertainty and difficulty. As we move back into a very different world, it remains important to allow ourselves the time and space to understand what ‘being’ now is. It is equally true for students and children as it is for adults. 

I have been on more MS Teams, Zoom and WebEx meetings than ever before. Some of these will remain embedded in our future practice, while others we will gladly discard in preference of meeting together. All of us have experienced this. There is heightened worry what we need to make up for lost time. Renowned educational researcher John Hattie wrote recently in an article that the educational improvement data from other recent disasters such as the Christchurch Earthquakes and the New Orleans Hurricane where schools where shut down for lengthy periods of time had unexpected results. Hattie makes some key observations about what becomes important in learning during these times. He comments that students made up perceived educational gaps very quickly when back at school. When moving our College to an online platform where learners are not physically in front of them, teachers made a significant adjustment, our learners, even more so. As families, you have first-hand witnessed the process and I imagine, it did not go smoothly all of the time. Reassuring is the research that we need not be alarmed. Teachers will quickly bring that back on track. The extraordinary staff at LJBC are well underway on this task.

Throughout the last few weeks, our community (parents, students, staff and the wider community) also see and recognise the need for social connectedness and wellbeing, being able to be in the social service of others, and experience learning beyond merely downloading content; ‘seeking wisdom’ perhaps. More than that, this crisis awakens in us a need for seeking a higher purpose, a sense of something bigger than us and in that we can develop a sense of who God is, even when asking the question.

Finally, where change occurs so rapidly and the world appears so different, school remains a constant and known place for the students in our College.  As families take the first tentative steps out of the safety of home and return to workplaces and students back to on-campus schooling, seeing friends after a long time apart and teachers face to face, let us remain focused on what matters and take the lessons that this global crisis has allowed us; valuing one another, learning, being, expressing our gratitude, kindness, worshipping and expressing new ways of serving each other, our community and our world.

Paul Sonneman-Smith
Acting College Principal