There is no doubt that the relaunching of a fuller co-curricular programme brings with it a sense of renewal and optimism. Obviously, with every relaxation of regulations, however limited, comes an element of risk – something we are monitoring carefully with our reintroduction of inter-school sports matches. The girls’ hunger for this kind of encounter reminds us how much some aspects of school life have been missed. Parents, regrettably, will have to wait a while longer before resuming their spectatorship at such events. Thank you for your restraint – at a time like this, when our primary goal is to keep our schools open, it is a radical act.

Smaller things in the Junior School are gaining momentum too. The girls are rediscovering the library and the habit of research through the combined efforts of our Geography, History and Natural Science curricula, and the Grade 7s are establishing connections with the Senior School library as the relationship between libraries and librarians across our school strengthens, providing our girls with valuable access to shared resources. (All of this against the backdrop of the devastating burning of the Jagger Reading Room at UCT, home to the significant African Studies Collection and an important collection on Southern African languages, among other treasures.)

The Science lab is fully inhabited and humming with activity while women scientists and healthcare workers worldwide lead the global health security effort in developing and designing Covid-19 vaccines and ensuring their fair distribution. Not to mention that 70 percent of health and social care workers are women, which, according to one mainstream website, “puts them at the heart of the Covid-19 response.” Women are tending to their patients’ physiological needs, but also, in the words of Albanian physician, Dr Entela Kolovani, “staying as close as possible to them.”

“Staying close” – a strange choice of words when we are reminded daily of the life-saving advantages of keeping our distance. What sense can we make of them? As I watch your children return to a whole experience of school, albeit on a different scale – through their participation in assemblies, chapel, singing, dancing, playing sport and charity drives – I ask that you stay as close as possible to us. I know you feel cheated not being able to walk onto campus, see your child’s classroom, and engage in the hundreds of daily, incidental exchanges that make up the social fabric of our lives and give our rising every morning, getting dressed and even brushing our teeth meaning. I know how much you feel you are missing.

Please take the hand, or elbow that we are extending to you, however imperfect. Read the app, attend our webinars, take our virtual tours, follow us on Facebook, return our calls.

Stay as close as possible.

SARAH WARNER JUNIOR
SCHOOL HEADMISTRESS