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Term 1 2022
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT – 2022 IS OUR DIAMOND JUBILEE ROOTY HIGH SCHOOL TURNS 60 Want to be involved – please contact the school WATCH FOR NEWS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA AND DIRECT CONTACT REPORT PRESENTATION ADDRESS
I want to start by thanking staff, students and the community for the enormous efforts made this term. We started the term with “cohorting”, masks, mandatory RATs and a steady increase in COVID+ cases – first among our students and their families, and then among our staff. New terms like “COVID iso” entered our vocabulary and we were directed to put many restrictions in place. And then it started to rain, and rain, and rain. Many homes in our part of western Sydney were affected by storms and flooding. Luckily, many of our students could learn from home on the worst 3 days and we remained connected through our online learning tools. As we finish this term, we have only had a few fine days and have had to postpone a lot of events or find other ways to do them. First, we had to cancel the Excellence Assembly but with great creativity, led by Ben Diaz we were able to video the key parts of the assembly and use it as a showcase of the school for our 60th anniversary. We will watch it together next term. The next big event to be postponed was the 60th Anniversary celebration/Harmony Day. We did enjoy a wonderful Harmony Day Assembly on Monday 21 March and planned to move our Anniversary Celebration Day to Term 2. Then it rained again so we will now be celebrating with rides, performances and food on 5 August (Term 3). We have been able to complete assessment tasks, have year assemblies and keep as much “learning continuity” as possible. We have done our best. There is no doubt this term has felt very long, and students have said that it has “not felt the same” as most first terms. That is true. We have been asked to meet new challenges and do things differently, just as we did in 2020 and 2021. What have we learnt? We have learnt that “recovery” really matters. We cannot change what has happened, but we can recover and find the next phase. We may not be able to do everything the traditional way, but we are able to focus on new practices and 1