Each year The Grammarian provides a snapshot of the year that was. It is an historical document. I suspect that the record of this extraordinary year will be especially valuable to future historians. None of us foresaw as we returned to school at the end of January what was in store for us. We began to hear rumours of a virus emerging in China, just as we were returning to school, and being cautious, we asked families returning from their annual trips to quarantine themselves for two weeks before returning to school.
like, that we are not comfortable with, and that sometimes we will be called on to make personal sacrifices in the interests of the greater good. But the boys have also learned that they have great resources within them, which can be developed and used to sustain them through tough times. They have had to be independent learners; they have had to organise their day and maintain their motivation. And they have had to find ways to remain connected with each other and with their school.
We did not imagine then that terms such as ‘quarantine’, ‘physical distancing’ and ‘lockdown’ would become a part of our vocabulary. We did not imagine the way that this tiny virus would sweep across the world, kill over a million people globally, and change the way we live. In Victoria, we fought off a second wave of the disease by following strict lockdown rules which impacted all our lives, and which meant that we could not operate our School in our normal way. Many of the events and highlights of a ‘normal’ year at school had to be cancelled or modified extensively. We had to learn to teach and to learn through our computers, we all had to become ‘Zoom literate’, and we had to find ways to connect when we could not be together in person. The inventiveness and creativity of our staff and students was extraordinary. Undaunted by the challenge, we saw online music concerts pieced together from individual recordings. Our School Play was presented as a filmed event. Our students embraced new sports challenges on ‘Strava’, and played online Trivia for their House.
This Grammarian is different then, from many which have preceded it. It documents a year in which many students spent significant amounts of time at home, in which sport was severely limited, in which concerts had to be abandoned, and Open Day cancelled. But it also provides a record of an historic year, in which the world fought a pandemic with various degrees of success, and in which we needed to respond to rapidly changing and unpredictable challenges. It documents the ways in which we were able to reimagine our life at school in the face of those challenges. I offer my thanks and congratulations to all who helped us get through 2020 and I know that we will be able to face whatever challenges 2021 throws at us.
Resilience is not an attribute, it is a muscle, which gets stronger through exercise. We have all had to exercise that muscle a fair bit this year. We were given an extraordinary opportunity to learn. Our students have learned that life does not always go to plan, that we will inevitably face situations that we do not
INTRODUCTION
WELCOME
As always, The Grammarian is the shared result of many people’s work. A special thank you though to Mrs Jade Dolling, who has again carried the greatest burden in putting the magazine together. From the very first article collected at the beginning of the year - from that little thing - a great magazine has grown. I am grateful for all who have nurtured its growth. Thanks also to our Prefect in charge of Publications, Matthew Chan, for all he has done to promote the writing in our school this year, and particularly through his reimagined student publication, Realms. Dr Paul Hicks Headmaster
The Camberwell Grammarian 2020 | 3
