A year after the COVID-19 pandemic struck our community and dramatically impacted the
learning environment for our children, I am proud to say we made it a year of in-person learning!
As this very unusual school year draws to a close, I would like to take a moment to share a few
thoughts & sentiments. Although many told me we would not make it more than a few months
in person, yet here we are. I want to thank you for your kindness, grace, and prayers as our
faculty and staff members worked to provide quality learning experiences for our students and
to support their efforts to learn online from home when quarantined or isolated. We have been
amazed by the flexibility, tenacity and creativity that our students have shown as they have
navigated this new and different way of accessing their education. They are resilient and we
know that they will come through this difficult time having learned important lessons about
themselves as learners. I would like to close with a letter:
Dear parents, students and parishioners,
As we approach the end of the school year, tradition would have it that I write a letter thanking parents for their support
in general.
This year, we owe you our thanks considerably more than ever, so please let me offer it now. We always recognize that, in
sending your children to our Catholic School, you are putting great trust in us, both to care for and to educate them. This
year, this couldn’t be more true. So thank you for continuing to trust in us through this tumultuous time, particularly
when there must have been times of real worry for you, as there have been for all of us.
Thank you for your tolerance
Thank you for your patience at the start of this virus when we all found out that schools would close just days later. We
had a challenge on our hands working out what school closure would look like, but we were also very aware that every
delay in us sharing information with you was adding to the challenges you faced in changing work plans and arranging
childcare.
Thank you to those of you who continued to serve in frontline roles, while entrusting your children to our care. You must
have worried that you were putting them at risk to allow you to go to work; know that we were grateful both for your
faith and your contribution to tackling the pandemic in its most worrying phase.
Thank you, too, to those of you who, with little warning, made arrangements to keep your children at home. Very few
school teachers would opt to home-educate their own children: we know what a challenge that is. Thank you for your
tolerance while we sorted out remote learning, tried to balance the needs of everyone, whether enthusiastic for more
work or struggling to access any.
Thank you for listening to our messages, reading our emails, and watching our videos, while all around us was
contradictory information in the press and on social I'm sorry for what felt like constant change
To those who were confused by too much communication, or disappointed with the decisions we took, we apologize. As
always with schools – and any organization – sometimes we get things wrong. On these occasions, the urgency with
which we had to make decisions meant that sometimes we had to go back and change decisions. Hopefully, each change
improved things for you and your children, but it was another adaptation to have to make, all the same.
Thank you for all your support in returning the children to school in August. Thank you to my re-entry team and medical
team who lent countless hours to ensure we provided the safest, most loving, educational environment. Every teacher in
the building worried in late July as we prepared classrooms, drinking fountains, café and playgrounds for the return to in
person learning, but we also relied on your support to make it all work. And, lastly, thank you for working with us
through these stressful months, without traditional events like back to school night, open house and much more.
In some ways, its felt harder than ever to be together as a school community but, in other ways, this period of change has
highlighted the importance of relying on our Faith not fear.
Hopefully, you’ll agree that, throughout 2020-2021, we’ve worked with you to provide your children with the safest, most
enjoyable and most effective education possible. We look forward to doing the same in 2021-2022.
Sincerely,
Angela Bostrom
SMS School Principal