From the Principal - Edition 6 - 2020

At times, the tyranny of distance, a small population and a preference for low-density living, could be viewed as creating environmental and social issues in South Australia. However, through the COVID-19 crisis, these factors have seemingly helped to prevent large outbreaks and keep us safe. It may be optimistic to say that we are slowly emerging from under the spectre of COVID-19 as a State. Even if we are, it doesn’t mean we can resume all of our ‘normal’ Westminster activities straight away.

We are slowly and carefully reintroducing a number of activities for our students, opening up more possibilities for them to maintain their physical health as well as their mental wellbeing. Small groups of students, in accordance with health guidelines, are starting to train with our Personal Trainer, Gerard Dutton and we will be looking at expanding this program as soon as we are permitted.

Our Sporting Associations are monitoring all information from national and local sporting bodies to ensure that we can get back to interschool sport as soon as possible. We are resuming some sports training in accordance with guidance from governing bodies and the AHPPC for some of our athletes. We will be expanding our program as soon as we are permitted. However, prevailing guidelines and directives will still need to be followed to ensure that there are as few COVID-19 cases as possible within our State and community.

Thank you for your understanding and support as we continue to work through this pandemic together. We still have a higher percentage of students than normal being driven to School, and we thank you for working through the modifications we have made to streamline the traffic flow out of the School in the mornings. As more and more students start to use School buses and public transport to and from School, we will be able to revisit the traffic restrictions.

The School Leadership Team is very hopeful that, over the coming weeks, we will be permitted to keep expanding on what we are doing. If this proves to be the case, we would like to be back to our full curricular and co-curricular programs by the end of Term 2 – offering our exceptional educational experience that we all consider as ‘normal operations’ for Westminster. I look forward to seeing you all over the course of the term, especially when we are permitted to again enjoy sport, music and performing arts, and other community events at School.

Simon Shepherd
Principal