The Influencers: Scott Thelning

In challenging times it is often the things that bring us a sense of comfort, stability and normality that we fall back to support and guide us through the ups and downs.

For me it was getting back into my early morning gym routine, on my bike in the Port Hills, and supporting my kids on the sidelines on Saturday mornings. Structure, routine and enjoyment – it all feels normal and a part of daily/weekly life.

As a school, it was critically important after lockdown that we returned back to our site with all of our students and staff in order to provide this sense of normality, routine, structure and connectedness.

We had supported our school community very well with a strong remote learning programme, and it was vital we then settled everyone back into school and work in a manner that met the requirements of the Ministries of Health and Education, but resembled school as ‘normal’ as much as possible.

We chose to adopt a simple, safe and sensible approach and not twist ourselves in knots creating unnecessary processes, systems and compliance headaches that would in turn create an unrecognisable environment for our students and staff.

Structure, routine, normality.

Conversely, through these challenging times we are being encouraged to innovate, adapt and evolve so as to meet the new demands of our communities and customers.

The Cathedral Grammar School and Christ Church Cathedral have recently broken the glass ceiling on a 139 year old tradition and introduced girl choristers.

Equality in action and creating a new normality.