Page 4 - Basilikos 2020 BOOK
P. 4

From the
        Principal








                                                              ceremony for the Captains. The camps were postponed
                                                              to occur once restrictions were lifted. Grandparents
                                                              Day became a series of online messages spread
                                                              over the world. ZACH MACH and carnivals had to be
                                                              modified and were mostly restricted to participants,
                                                              with observers doing so virtually. With each trial came
                                                              an adaptation, a modification, a way of preserving the
                                                              spirit of the event while obeying the restrictions. It was
                                                              a restriction, and we made it a meaningful adaptation.

                                                              The Parent Association had the same challenges. How
                                                              do you run events for students and the community
                                                              when you can’t even come on campus? Mothers day
                       Dr Barclie Gallogray                   stalls, Fathers day stalls, meetings and so on. You run
                                                              them virtually, with online shops and online meetings.
                                                              Again the team accepted what it was and made it
        Welcome to the Mackay Christian College Basilikos for   something different something that worked in spite of
        2020.                                                 the restrictions.

        This year has been, to use the oft used word,         The lessons of 2020 can best be summarised in the
        unprecedented.  We began the year with bush fires     Serenity prayer. “Lord grant us the Serenity to accept
        that  burned  their  way  through  the  area  I  grew  up  in   the things we cannot change, the strength to change
        and ended the year on the slow rise out of a global   those we can, and the wisdom to know the difference”.
        pandemic. The year can be well summed up in the       Or in the words of Year 12 of 2020, “It is what it is, but
        catch phrase adopted by the graduating class of 2020,   it’s also what you make it”.
        “It is what it is, but it is also what you make of it”.
                                                              God bless, and see you in 2021.
        This year we had a try at digital learning from home for
        a little while and learned some important things, both
        as a school full of teachers, a school full of students,
        and a community full of parents. The teachers learned
        a lot of new technologies and how to use them to
        create effective learning environments. The students
        learned about how they learn best, whether at home
        or at school. Many of the parents expressed that they
        learned a much greater appreciation of the hard work
        that teachers do each day to help students learn. We all
        learned something. It was a trying experience but we
        made it a learning experience.


        When we returned to the classroom it was with a
        whole new set of rules to follow to keep COVID from
        being spread amongst our community. Almost all of
        the usual activities of the year were cancelled. ANZAC
        Day, Camps, Grandparents Day, ZACH MACH, carnivals
        and many others, could not go ahead as planned. So we
        adapted. ANZAC Day became a private wreath laying
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