While we were in lockdown, I spoke to principals, to teachers, to early childhood educators, and to parents in Upper Harbour, and there was fatigue, there was concern, but there was also creativity in how schools responded. There was humour, there was collective support, and most importantly, in so many conversations, there was an affirmation of what is the most important thing to families, to schools: the health and wellbeing of those children and of our families. There was resounding support for how we had approached the COVID response, and now that we do have high vaccination levels and we have a paediatric vaccine, we are committed to keeping our schools and early childhood centres open, with closures only used as a last resort, a measure when there might be a community or a school outbreak or other issues that might make it unsafe for a school to open.