From the Rector
Greetings from St Bede’s College.
We are one step closer to resuming the term on site. The staff met on Thursday to prepare for the students return on Monday. All the staff are keen to see the boys to resume the learning. Earlier today you received an email from Mr McDowall that outlines how the school will support the boys coming back to school next week, which I have also attached for your interest.
The key messages we wanted to emphasise to the staff was the importance to ascertain how the boys were in lockdown. Just as the staff had many challenges in juggling family life and teaching, this would have been the case for the boys as well.
During the lockdown we surveyed the boys to get a gauge how they were feeling. It will help to inform us when we meet them in person next week. Nearly 30 percent of the boys were anxious about assessments. We have told the staff not to stage any assessments for at least the first week, rather to spend the time inquiring how they are feeling about being back, and getting an idea of what learning they have done. Some parts of the teaching programmes will need to be taught again.
We appreciate there may be problems with public transport, and are aware that some students may be late to school as a result. In the earlier email from Mr McDowall there is a survey to complete, to help us manage boys using the bus as a mode of transport.
We won’t be in a position to assemble the students all together to communicate to them what our expectations are as regards the health and safety requirements in Alert Level 2, but will do so in their first classes on Monday, via a video the senior boys are producing today. I have been most impressed with their virtual assemblies as a means to keep the boys connected, so we feel that this is a good medium to convey these important health and safety messages to the boys.
The boys will also be very keen to not only get back to see their classmates, but also to begin sport. We ask for your patience regarding when we can begin any sport, until we get some more guidelines, which we hope we will receive on Monday 25 May. So there will be no training or games until we work through the guidelines and communicate these clearly to the boys and the community.
We are aware that many people within our community have been affected financially through job losses or salary and revenue reductions. In an effort to offer support to those who may now be struggling and ensure that all our students are able to continue to access a St Bede’s College Catholic education, we will be initiating a College-wide Appeal.
We are currently working through the details of how this will work to best support our families of St Bede’s College who have been significantly affected financially by COVID-19. Support will be offered for the payment of school fees, uniform purchases, extra-curricular activity costs and boarding fees
Please be assured that the appeal process will be handled in the strictest confidence. We look forward to working together to ensure that all boys are fully involved in their wider education.
We began the staff meeting yesterday in the Chapel with an opening liturgy. As part of this we shared the below video clip, which is an excellent reflection. We thought we would share with you.
We are looking forward to seeing the boys back at the College on Monday.
Until next week,
J. G. Boyle