INTRODUCTION

It’s hard to imagine a school year as distinctly divided as 2022.

The first half was dominated by the gruelling endurance as the wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that swept the country in early 2022 finally broke over the School, bringing sickness and absence at unprecedented levels. At times in Semester 1, nearly 20% of staff were away with COVID or winter illnesses or bearing carers’ duties. Students, too, were absent in large numbers, with countless families in household quarantine. Classes that couldn’t be covered had to be collapsed or reallocated, students were supervised en masse in the War Memorial Hall or in outdoor programmes, and time and again activities and events were postponed, cancelled or transferred online.

While not as dramatic as the lockdowns and disruptions of the previous years, the impacts of the pandemic in the first half of 2022 were at least as traumatic to an exhausted faculty, a frustrated community and to students who had not known the School in normality for three years. That’s a long time for the young: the whole of the early learning years and half of the primary or senior school experience. Many students, families and staff had never even known the School as it was before the pandemic, nor therefore what we now strive to recreate.

Yet, remarkably, amidst it all, School life was brimming with individual and collective triumphs, fuelled by the ideas and idealism of our student leaders, and vibrant with the energy of a community determined not to be diminished. As highlighted in the mid-year edition of CGS Outlook, our student leaders gave focus and purpose to the year. Their initiatives, including welcome events for new students, Harmony Day, recycling schemes, and an admirable array of service-learning projects, worked to rekindle our togetherness and optimism.

As a consequence, and as the pandemic subsided, the School’s rebound in Semester 2 was remarkable. The winter sporting season climaxed in exciting record finals. Outdoor education returned in force with eleven camps in last three months of the year! Community events saw hundreds of parents welcomed back to campus, and Year 12 celebrated the end of their schooling in style. After years of disrupted preparation, we also launched our next strategic plan, CGS 100, to build upon the achievements of our past and guide the School towards its centenary in 2029.

Amidst it all, the opening of the Snow Concert Hall brought excitement and more music back to the daily experience of the School than we’ve heard in years. As a magnificent venue for Primary and Senior School assemblies, for the wonderful Yumalundi Concert Series that ran throughout Term 4, and for a delightful array of Christmas celebrations, it gave us the opportunity to affirm our togetherness when we needed it most.

Likewise, our first full Presentation Night in person for three years was an opportunity to celebrate our bounce back in music and dance and song, in the words of our student leaders, in the awards presented, and in the acknowledgement of as many students and aspects of the School experience as its possible to include on stage in one event. To have that capped by the outstanding results of our IBDP and HSC students in the summer that followed was all the more confirmation of our enduring spirit.

In short, having begun the year in illness and anxiety, we ended it proud and excited for all that is to come. For that, and all that is fulfilling in the enjoyment and progress of our School, we thank our students, staff, families, alumni and community, as always, for your support.

Sincerely,

Justin Garrick Stephen Byron Head of School Chair of the School Board