For numerous parents, the last two months have been a blur as we have juggled remote schooling our children and working from home and many of us have had fears and concerns about our health, the economy and how we were going to put food on the table.

For teachers this has all been amplified; not only have they had the health concerns and worries of being frontline workers, they have also had to negotiate and reimagine whole new ways of learning and teaching for their students across classrooms and online learning platforms. They have also had the same challenges of schooling their own kids, taking care of elderly parents and being unsure what is next for the economy. Many teachers I have spoken with just want to get their students back into the classroom because they know that school is also a place of safety for children from troubled homes.

And yet, in amongst all of this, teachers have risen to the challenge, despite frequent complaints of “too much work”, “not enough work” and they have scrambled to make online learning a viable option for most of us with children at home. Our families have all benefitted from their hard work and as a society we are grateful to them all!

With this in mind, last week, we decided to say a little thank you to all of the schools we partner with across NSW and QLD, who began bringing kids back into the classrooms. We sent some “doughnut fairies” on a mission to say thank you to teachers from 21 different schools, knowing that a little bit of sugar and a note of encouragement might just bring a smile to their faces!

As you can imagine, those particularly mouth-watering doughnuts went down well! But what I loved was the message that it sent to them; a message of value, of support, and a message of thanks from grateful communities, who have a greater understanding and appreciation  for what teachers do every single day, and are who are very ready to send their kids back to school!

Imagine if we all sent thank you notes back with our kids to the teachers in their schools next week to let them know how much they are valued! I think it might just make their day!