Last Saturday, 5 June, was World Environment Day, an event the girls and teachers would have enjoyed commemorating together in assembly under pre-Covid conditions. Instead, for the last fortnight, as we have watched the number of transmissions steadily rise among our families, we have further curtailed gatherings on campus and devoted time to devising contingency plans to safeguard the health and safety of our community. At the time of writing this article, the Junior School children are still onsite, but we are closing for half-term a day early, on Thursday. We all deserve a rest.

Some Johannesburg schools have posted videos pleading with their communities to limit social activity in the wake of new infections among pupils. We appeal to you to use the half-term to distance yourself from other families and to give your children the best chance to return to onsite schooling with a dramatically reduced risk of transmission. Please take the opportunity to withdraw from social engagement and replenish your energy in preparation for the challenges of the long winter term that lies ahead.

The girls and their teachers have been busy: the Grade 6s and 7s have completed their mid-year formal assessments while the younger grades in the Senior Primary have been tackling class tasks and, like the Junior Primary girls, consolidating their understanding of concepts and practising skills. The teachers are writing reports and have been meeting in teams to discuss and review the progress of every child in our care under the thoughtful eye of Di Gordon who personally documents the entire process from Grade 000 to Grade 7. The reports will be released later this term, on Tuesday 13 July, and online parent afternoons will follow on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27.

Before closing for half-term, we were pleased, also, to host two speakers from the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre on campus. Our guests ran workshops on fostering empathy, building connections, and deepening an understanding of discrimination with the Grade 6s (who are working their way through The Boy in Striped Pyjamas) and with the Grade 7s (in preparation for upcoming history modules on the slave trade). My thanks to Rosa Elk and Lauren Howden for giving the girls such valuable exposure.

Among all of this, we have still found time to play. Little Saints has been experimenting with the speed of colour by sending cars through paint and down a ramp, the Grade 0s and 1s completed their daily dash with vim whatever the weather, and the Senior Primary girls take every opportunity to challenge each other to a game of swingball on The Close outside my office – gulping down the last of their lunch to secure a turn with the equipment before anyone else. Of course, even playing can be hard work when you are wearing a mask.

For your children, enjoy a safe, secluded break and make time to watch the dazzling documentary The Grand African Green Up on National Geographic (DStv channel 181) and National Geographic Wild (DStv channel 182) tomorrow night, in honour of World Environment Day.

We wish our community a sustainable return to school.

SARAH WARNER
JUNIOR SCHOOL HEADMISTRESS