By the time you read this, we should be ready to embark on the April holiday, leaving behind us some important St Mary’s milestones: the 2021 matric formal (so called owing to Covid-19 restrictions on dancing), our first term Junior School parent afternoons (online – another adaptation to the virus) and all the slightly modified activities relating to Book Week, the Little Saints Wheelathon, charity collections and special assemblies.

We shall, I imagine, be looking forward to the days spent with our families over the Easter weekend, at home, or travelling to a holiday destination. As much as we might relish time away from work, holidays and more relaxed regulations bring with them a sense of trepidation as well: according to expert sources widely quoted in the media, the predicted third wave of Covid-19 could engulf the country in the next few weeks.

We appeal to you, our St Mary’s families, as part of the community of Independent Schools, to conduct yourselves sensibly over the holiday period and to take all reasonable and necessary precautions to keep yourself and your children safe, healthy, and ready to return to campus in the last week of April. Our teachers are prepared to switch to remote learning at short notice, but it is our heartfelt wish that we continue to teach onsite next term, while running as full a programme of co-curricular activities as possible.

As March draws to a close, we also look back on a month of more or less significant local and international events, activities, and commemorations discussed in class, assembly and chapel with the girls: we remembered that this was the month, last year, that the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic; we spoke about International Women’s Day and its theme of Choose to Challenge as well as Women’s History month, celebrated in America; we mentioned World Poetry Day, World Down Syndrome Day and the International Day of Forests – all acknowledged on 21 March – and, most importantly, we discussed Human Rights Day (marked worldwide as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (officially commemorated on 10 December) and our own Bill of Rights, enshrined in Chapter Two of the South African Constitution.

This year, the celebration and solemn remembrance of Human Rights Day saw civil society engage in the usual, vigorous discussions on how to protect the human rights of all South Africans, including its children, with the noteworthy addition of one highly topical item: the world’s right to a fairly priced and accessible Covid-19 vaccine.

The girls’ intelligent and enthusiastic contributions to these lessons and assemblies show that discussions of this nature are happening with you, at home. My thanks to the teachers for supporting the development of a truly holistic curriculum, and to our new Junior School librarian, Ms Elk, assisted by her Grade 7 librarians, for the thoughtfully curated displays on women leaders and other themes explored this term in the rapidly transforming Junior School library.

Before we part for the holidays, I would like to say a formal goodbye to Revd Jenny Mabin-Krige who leaves St Mary’s at the end of this term. Jenny’s tender, wise ministry will be sorely missed by the girls and her colleagues in the Junior School. To close my assembly on Human Rights last week, I played the girls a clip of American musician, Bobby McFerrin leading an audience at the World Science Festival through the universal wonders of the pentatonic scale.

The clip could serve as a fitting tribute to Jenny as well – who has demonstrated the idea of shared humanity in all her Divinity lessons and chapel services, not by telling us about it, but through her actions, stories and simply beautiful pictures.

SARAH WARNER
JUNIOR SCHOOL HEADMISTRESS