What a week to have the flu!

I haven't had the flu since 2007! And I've probably gotten a little complacent - sure, I wash my hands 20 times a day and steer clear of sneezing people; I send my staff home when they are sick with severe admonishments about coming back to school too soon, but I don't have the flu jab every year and for the past few years have escaped unscathed.

But, no, this is the week I pick to get bedridden - the week our Indoor Sports Centre was finally open and we could have an indoor Assembly!

I've been talking about this possibility since our very first Assembly in January 2010. The fact we didn't have a hall like every other school in Australia at that time drew raised eyebrows from the then Minister for Education and Training, Geoff Wilson, when he opened our school on 12 February 2010.

There were lots of phone calls, emails and letters from me and pleas from the P&C Association which all seemed to fall on deaf ears; then suddenly one day in 2012 I was told the funding for our hall was in the state budget.

However, a budget year came and went and there was no sign of any activity at all. I had sat in on many meetings, chosen a plan, walked the site with builders and engineers but no one could say when it was going to happen.

Suddenly last August I received a call - 'we start next week' was the message. And it's been flat out since then. We've had a few hiccups - 'small' things like too many new enrolments and not enough classrooms, so they decided to put two classrooms under the centre, lots of dirt through classrooms driving our cleaners crazy, Prep H shouting at each other over the noise of diggers and trucks despite Ms Hollonds best efforts to instil 'whisper voices' in the classroom. But now it's finished. It's big and beautiful and exactly right for Assembly.

And I had to go and miss the first one!

I've seen a recording on You Tube though - thanks to Elaine in the office. It was so great to see all the students, parents and staff in there with room to spare! And everyone stood QUIETLY for the national anthem (this is my dream!) but maybe Elaine's recording wasn't so good for that section.

We are going to have a lot of fun in that space. It's a facility that will add to our already strong community spirit. But for now, I'm so happy to see it sitting there up high on the edge of our school.

I'm not missing Assembly next week - for anything!

5SH - the first class to have PE in the ISC