Principal's update 5 June 2020

Dear Parents, Carers and Students,

We have come to the end of another busy week across the Grace College community and I know that the staff team have been doing much to ensure that online learning is improving week by week. It is our explicit aim to ensure that we have the best possible online learning taking place for the benefit of all our students.  We recognise that there are significant difficulties for some students, in terms of internet connectivity and suitable computer devices.  We are considering ways we can resolve this as a community. For now I would encourage students to increase their engagement with online learning and I would hope to see an increase in the number of students being awarded “outstanding” on their weekly engagement report.

In recent weeks we have been reminded again of the ongoing and largely unaddressed racism so prevalent across the world.  The manner in which we so often fail to see how “infinitely precious” we all are has been made starkly evident as we have witnessed the death of George Floyd while being taken into custody by police officers in Minneapolis. Growing up in South Africa during Apartheid, I witnessed racism and white supremacy on many occasions.  At times I had the courage to challenge it outright, at other times it seemed like nothing would resolve the deep hatred between race groups and all too often I think I never reacted when I should have done something!  But it is time to think again, resolve again and commit again to see all men as equal in the sight of God.  We must take the knee and defy those who would oppress others because of the colour of their skin. This week, Archbishop Justin Welby and Archbishop John Sentamu released a joint statement which included this which bears repeating in this week’s newsletter “God’s justice and love for all creation demands that this evil is properly confronted and tackled. Let us be clear: racism is an affront to God. It is born out of ignorance, and must be eradicated. We all bear the responsibility and must play our part to eliminate this scourge on humanity.”  The school is committed to anti-racism and we all hope for a more fair and more just society.  In this week’s Principal’s Update we are focussing on our response.  Please take time to watch this on Monday 8 June on our YouTube channel as we consider Hope and Justice and discuss with Faith Henderson in Year 10 about how best to eradicate this evil.

From the 15^th of June we are asking Year 10 students to attend school for one 2-hour session each week.  The focus of this weekly tutorial time is to assist this year group to be successful in their academic studies and to offer crucial wellbeing support.  Year 12 will be able to meet with subject specialists by appointment from this date too.  Early next week these two year groups will receive specific information about arrangements and procedures to follow. We believe that these arrangements will ensure the safety of staff and students while support these year groups who face GCSE and A level exam in a year’s time.

I wrote to all parents and carers earlier this week and shared a video explaining our six key priorities.  If you have yet to look at this video I would ask you to do so now so that you are aware of the overview of all we are intending to achieve in the coming months. The link to this video is available just below this introduction.

This half term our theme is Hope.  We want to share ideas around what we are hoping for, what is our vision for the future and how might we work together to bring about a better world.  To share these thoughts and ideas we are asking students to send in an electronic postcard which will be printed out and put on display in school so that we can build a “Hope Wall” to represent all that we believe to be true and all that we hope and pray for.

May this weekend bring rest and peace to us all.

Regards