Dear parents and guardians,

We are looking forward to welcoming our Year 12 boarders back to the boarding house on Sunday evening in time to join their Year 12 2021 cohort when they return on Monday 18 October.  These are uplifting times for the College – the week after we will welcome back Years 7-11. 

NSW’s vaccination rates are ramping up quickly: by 8pm yesterday, 76.5% of people aged 16+ were double-vaxxed.  I encourage everyone to contribute to this trend and get vaccinated.  Please remember to update your son’s vaccination status here.

On Monday during Period B (10.40am) we will speak to boys in Year 7, 8, 9 and 10, and on Tuesday to Year 11, to outline our expectations around the return to campus. These are compulsory sessions so please make sure your son joins them.

These sessions will be followed by sessions for parents and guardians.  On Monday, we will host a webinar for Year 7 and 8 parents at 6.30pm, followed by Year 9 and 10 at 7.30pm.  On Tuesday evening we will host a webinar for Year 11 parents at 6.30pm.  The link for all sessions will be sent on Monday and Tuesday during the day – please look out for the link in your inbox.

One of the things we will be discussing with boys is how they are to present themselves (hair and uniform) for the return to campus.  We understand hairdressers and barbers are busy now, but we encourage you to make an appointment as soon as possible.  In the interim we ask for your co-operation with no new mullets (the Mullets for Mental Health campaign ended 2 weeks ago), no fades or lines cut into hair, no hair colour and, if you are using clippers at home, no less that a number 2 all over.

We are in a very good place for a return to campus, and have a range of measures in place:

• All Stanmore staff on campus (teaching, operational, property and maintenance) are fully vaccinated.
• We will not allow visitors on campus except by appointment.
• Recess and lunch will be staggered as well as start and finish times to the school day
• Maintenance staff will open all windows and doors on classrooms early each day to improve ventilation.
• We have added greater air filtering capacity to our Air Conditioning System

If there is a COVID case on campus we have a process in place to close the school, arrange for all boys to be collected and to identify any close contacts. We will work closely with NSW Health to determine the appropriate steps.

This pandemic can make it easy to be ‘glass half empty’ rather than ‘glass half full’, but the latest edition of Censored contains a story that will change that.  Among the trove of Newington community experiences that might not normally see the light of day, our Senior Prefect Aiden Carter unearthed a story that deserves to be heard and understood. Aiden sat down with Ali Reza Hossaini (10/KL) and his mother Momina. I feel privileged to share their story with you.

Enjoy your weekend.