Upcoming Events

As I sit in my office with its window wide open to the courtyard, I see children enjoying  Mr. Flight's lunchtime activity station, others on the see-saw, others reading books. I hear teachers laughing together as they have a break. It's great to witness these increasing levels of social interaction as we respond carefully and cautiously to the lifting of some COVID restrictions.

This week's Tuesday staff devotion was led by Mr. Johnathan. He shared his recent experience of becoming a first-time father and the many obstacles that had to be overcome during that journey. He likened this to the journey HOPE is now walking, especially with the impacts of COVID and the property sale/purchase. The words WAYMAKER, MIRACLE WORKER, PROMISE KEEPER, took on fresh meaning for us all that morning as we sang and declared who our God is for each of us individually and collectively as part of the HOPE community. Such truth must become etched in our hearts and minds as Jesus followers.

If we open the windows of our souls we can daily find evidence of  God's goodness to us here at HOPE. He has provided a Computer Science teacher, an Art teacher, and a Physics teacher for next Semester, and the new deputy principals for Middle and Primary school have confirmed their flights to arrive before Christmas. Please join me in continuing to pray for Jesus to be the Waymaker for the remaining vacancies we have for Jan 2021.  Also that HE makes a way for funds to be released. 

I hope to see many of you at the Dyvith on Monday for the family fun day. Thanks, Parent Council for bringing us together at last.

Yours in service to ensure your children experience the love of Christ as they engage with learning here at HOPE,

Helen  Blaxland

A Health Update from our Health & Wellness Committee

Within the constraints of government requirements and restrictions that we must comply with, where we have discretion, HOPE seeks to implement socially and morally responsible responses that are proportionate to the local pandemic situation.

We recognise that the pandemic is not over anywhere until it is over everywhere. Globally, it looks as though the COVID-19 pandemic will be part of our world's reality for at least the next couple of years, with several waves and changes in circumstances. We cannot be complacent as experiences in Phnom Penh have proven this week. We need to anticipate and be prepared for multiple phases that will likely include at least one active outbreak in this country.

During the current low-risk phase, we will continue to comply with government guidelines and instructions. We thank families for their cooperation that has allowed us to open the campuses for in-person learning.

While we are in this low-risk phase:

■      Thank you for keeping your children home when they are sick until they are fully recovered.

■      Only those individuals who are showing symptoms must stay home. Please watch out for emerging symptoms in other members of the household and if other members begin to show symptoms, keep them home as well. But individuals with no symptoms may still come to school even if a family member is sick. This is because in the current low-risk phase, coughs, fevers, etc are most likely to be due to some other virus; the probability of them being COVID-19 is very low.

■      However, if ANY member of the household develops sudden new loss of smell or taste, please keep ALL members of the household home and notify the school. This is because sudden loss of the sense of smell or taste is a symptom that is fairly specific to COVID-19.

This advice will change if we move to a higher level of COVID-19 transmission risk. HOPE is developing staged levels of relaxing or tightening our protective strategies within the framework set by the government. Pandemic stages we could foresee and plan for include:

■      Suspected or confirmed cases of local transmission within Cambodia

■      Suspected or confirmed cases of transmission in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap

■      Suspected or confirmed cases of transmission within our school community

Click HERE to read the full Reopening Protocol Guidelines  

Season 2 After School Sport

Thank you to those who have participated in our first season of sport this year. We are now moving into the second season with Football (November - January) and request that parents provide permission for their child(ren) to participate. 

Update: At this time there will be no interschool competitions for the remainder of the semester.