Poignant Dingwall Academy prizegiving hails 'history makers' as school celebrates endeavour during coronavirus crisis
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A TOUCHING tribute to the efforts of pupils, parents and teachers "shaping and making history" during the Covid-19 pandemic saw Ross-shire's largest school rise again to overcome an unprecedented challenge thrown up by the crisis.
A poignant virtual Dingwall Academy prizegiving saw head teacher Karen Cormack hail staff for "going the extra mile" during what was "a massive learning curve" in home-based schooling.
Acknowledging the challenge for parents, she said: "No one has ever written the perfect guide on how to be the perfect parent and certainly no one has written a guide on how to be a parent and a teacher at the same time and we appreciate that this has not been easy. You've been asked to juggle home life, your own work and then school work on top and we thank you for your support and your patience and your understanding that we have all been trying our very best under exceptional circumstances."
To pupils, she said: "You've been asked to step up and take real responsibility for your learning, to organise your days, prioritise your time and to work through some really difficult days when we've not always had someone there to turn to. You've had to take responsibility and grow up faster than might have been the plan. And you've had to do all of this without social interaction with your friends, your wider family and having your teachers right there beside you.
"You are living through history. You are shaping and making history and we are so very proud of each and every one of you."
She said leavers' time in school "should never have ended as it did" but said her standout impression was "people have not chosen this crisis as a reason not to do something but as a challenge to see how they can do things differently, not just to say 'it's too difficult I can't do this but to say, okay, how can I do this'?"
It bode well for a world needing creative thinkers and problem-solvers, she said.
Head boy for 2019/20 Rory Cormack hailed staff saying the feeling that "everyone is there for each other" marks out the school.
Related: School draws on technology to overcome coronavirus challenges
