As we approach the end of 2020, we want to extend our thanks to you – now more than ever.
First of all, thank you for putting great trust in us, both to care for and to educate your children, this year in particular, when there must have been times of real worry for all of us.
Secondly, thank you for your patience at the start of the pandemic, when we all found out that schools would be closing with very little notice. We had a challenge on our hands working out what our new normal would look like, but we were also very aware that you too faced challenges in changing work plans and arranging childcare.
Thank you to those of you who then continued to serve in frontline roles, while entrusting your children to our care. You must have worried that you were putting them at risk to allow you to go to work.
Thank you, too, to those of you who, with little warning, made arrangements to keep your children at home. Very few school teachers would opt to home-educate their own children: we know what a challenge that is! Thank you for your tolerance while we sorted out remote learning, trying to balance the needs of everyone.
Thank you for listening to our messages, reading our emails, and watching our videos as we tried to reach out to the children that we so desperately wanted back in school.
Thank you for your understanding. These were, and continue to be, totally unprecedented times and we may have been guilty, at times, of too much communication, too little communication or you may have been confused or disappointed with the decisions we took. Whatever we did and continue to do, we always have the children at the forefront of what we do.
Thank you for all your support in returning the children to school in September. Lots of planning took place and lots of preparations had to be made but we couldn’t have done it without you and your support.
Lastly, thank you for working with us through these strange months. In some ways, it’s felt harder than ever to be together as a school community but, in other ways, this period of change has highlighted the importance of working together as we do.
Throughout 2020, we’ve worked with you to provide our children with the safest, most enjoyable and most effective education possible and we look forward to doing the same in 2021.
Happy Christmas from the Hillside Team.
We hope that you all have the most wonderful festive family time!