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Colleagues,

On the eve of the Easter break and school holidays, I want to thank each and every one of you for the remarkable work done across the Department of Education in recent months.

It has been a term we will never forget. We started the year shrouded in smoke: vast sections of the state ravaged by fires, communities devastated by personal loss and exhausted by a summer on high alert.

And then, out of nowhere, this virus that has come to disrupt so much of what we would have felt central in our lives: how we live and work, how we shop, where we travel, who we see, even where we can stand. The speed of its impact has been astonishing and the consequences, staggering.

In the face of it all, the response across the department by all our people has been magnificent. It is hard to think of a time when so much has changed in our schools so quickly and so unexpectedly. 

At every school across the state, the challenge was embraced by principals, teachers and support staff together. It has been such a bold and rapid response to a pressing, immediate challenge. Totally re-thinking how students would be taught and how to best support learning, engagement and wellbeing when our classrooms were largely empty. Everyone committed to deliver. Strong leadership. Remarkable collaboration and teamwork. Tremendous organisational skills. Long, long hours. Good cheer and great humour amidst the exhaustion. Outstanding public service. 

Partial extract.

From the Secretary, Mark Scott