Dear Parents, Guardians, Students and Friends,
I write to you, not in the usual way, where I welcome you back to school and being happy to see familiar faces. This time I welcome you back to school on April 20, to join your teachers in the Google Classroom or Zoom or Skype and even individual contact though Whatsapp and other means. I hope you are as eager as your teachers are. Our whole world has been turned “upside down”, so to speak. The COVID -19 has had so many countries under lock down and we are all quarantined in our own homes, if not in the hospitals or imposed quarantine by respective governments for the safety of yourself and others.
When this is all over, you will refer to incidents taking place as happening ‘ during the time of the COVID -19’. How will you describe this period to your children and grandchildren? What will you tell them about your participation or non participation in classes? Did you find creative ways of spending your time? Did you get more thoughtful and caring for others? Did you participate in religious worship via internet? Imagine an Easter in Guyana and not seeing Kites flying high in in the sky and the sea wall around Georgetown and its environs, parks and pastures crowded with families. The picnics in the park would have been missed by many.
Shortly after we closed school, the Google online Classroom platform was created both in the Primary and Secondary Departments and most of your teachers used that platform to continue with their teaching. Many teachers also sent home work with the students. Some teachers chose other means to continue their teaching. The Ministry of Education also provided other resources which hopefully you have tapped into. I encourage each of you students to take responsibility for your learning, and I therefore advise you to manage your time well. School was scheduled to be reopened on April 20, 2020, and this will be through virtual classes. Your teachers will be on line and hopefully you will follow a schedule to assist you. The syllabus is being continued and when this is all over you will be assessed on what the teachers have covered. Please treat this seriously. This process necessitates self-discipline on your part.
We are in serious times and we have to make the best of it. Many things have been postponed while other things continue. We don’t postpone bodily functions or our meals, so take the attitude that what has to be done should be done now and not later.
I pray for all of you and ask our Lord to keep you safe. Our desert time in the wilderness has given us time to build families and care for others; it has given us time to pray. We should come out of this COVID -19 desert as better persons, more humane and kinder and we will emerge renewed, physically, mentally and spiritually –an Easter full of hope and joy.
Sincerely,
Sister Marie Harper, osu
Principal