Hero photograph
The Tuku Aroha quilt, representing living together in a harmonious community
 
Photo by Leoni Combrink

A Year Like No Other

Mike Fowler —

Some might say that the saying: “Experience is the worst teacher – it gives the test before presenting the lesson” seems to be relevant to us, as our nation and the world square off to face Covid-19. If we were to believe this saying, none of us have ever experienced anything like this Covid ‘test’, therefore we lack the experience to inform how we should respond. I disagree – we have plenty of experience to draw on which stands us in good stead.

Whānau in our city have certainly been tested by unparalleled events over the last decade. There’s a lot we’ve learned about ourselves and our responses from those earlier experiences as we face Covid-19. The resilience and empathy people showed to others during the tragedy of 15 March 2019 is as important now as it was then.

One of the most successful aspects of learning how to respond to Covid-19 or other crises is to understand what we’re facing. Our country’s leaders have done an excellent job in building the community’s understanding about Covid and how to beat it, with timely and decisive communications about good hygiene practices, staying socially connected and keeping physically distant. Our Prime Minister asking us to “be kind” to people both outside and inside our bubbles is exactly the sort of simple effective message we need to enact, whether that’s a smile for someone you walk by when out exercising, or acknowledging and accommodating different perspectives of those you’re living with.

There’s great advice for us in this newsletter to help our school community move forward both through the lockdown and beyond that too. I recommend reading Mike Gilchrist on keeping your bubble running smoothly and Rowan Milburn on ways of supporting young people.

Hagley has always taken flexible approaches and that’s even more important now, particularly in senior programmes. Students or parents concerned about NCEA assessment and learning over this time should read Marie Stribling's comments and be rest assured that we’ll be working to ensure that students are not disadvantaged, both in the short term and across the rest of this year.

In looking forward to when we can welcome everyone back to Hagley, I thought about the last occasion many of us came together at school to unveil the Tuku Aroha quilt on 16 March. Rebecca Jones’s article outlines how Hagley artists developed 20 diverse prints to represent what it means to be human and how to live together in a harmonious community – that’s a pretty important message for us all at this time.

Kia kaha e te whānau.

Mike