Headmasters Newsletter Week 32

We have just announced that King’s-Edgehill School will be opening in September with “real” classes. Boarding and Day students will be warmly welcomed to campus on opening day. Because we believe that the best teaching and learning environment is personal and not virtual, our provincial health authority has helped us create daily screening protocols and operational guidelines to keep everyone healthy. These will be refined over the next four months, but our guidelines include providing a safe and comfortable two-week off-campus isolation period for international boarders upon their arrival in Nova Scotia. They also include everything from shields for our kitchen staff to daily temperature and health checks for our students. And the highest quality hand sanitizer everywhere!

 

I don’t know why it is, but it seems that anything we do at King’s-Edgehill School ends up in the media. I am well aware that different universities across Canada have declared they will only be offering online instruction in September. For sure, our announcement is counter-current and will likely draw some attention. However, we have always held ourselves to the highest standard of education and given that we have a beautiful and contained 75 acre campus (with facilities that rival some small universities), we can continue to offer the very best in personal, caring, education. Goodness knows we already have the smallest class sizes in the province and are one of the smallest high schools in Nova Scotia. All this is to say that I expect our little school may draw some big headlines this long weekend. Maybe not. Frankly, I would prefer to enjoy some time with my family and not Zoom this weekend.

 

Although I have never been a country music fan, I am quickly becoming one. In general, I find it soothing, often funny, and typically stocked with old-world family values and sentiment. A lyric from the song called Ten Year Town this week has stuck in my head. It goes like this: “I didn’t come this far to only go this far.” No matter where we are living, we have all put much effort and energy to stay healthy, to stay home, to keep ourselves together during this most emotionally trying period of time. It has been challenging for everyone. These lyrics remind me that we didn’t come this far together to only go this far together. As the world starts to open up in its phases and stages, each one will represent a new challenge. If we meet the challenges of each phase successfully, then together we will move on to the next and the next. The same is true for our grads. You did not come this far to only go this far. The school year is almost over. Finish this stage of your life well and prepare to launch yourself into the next.