Dear Participants, We are incredibly excited to welcome you to the 2022 NYSF Year 12 Program, however we need to announce some important COVID-19 related changes. As you are aware, there has been a significant increase in COVID-19 case numbers and increased transmission of the Omicron variant across Australia. In light of this, and in line with our 2022 NYSF Year 12 Program risk management plan, we have been in contact with host organisations for in-person STEM visits scheduled for Week 2 of the program, 17-21 January. With a high proportion of staff and organisations currently working remotely and increasing concern, there has been an overwhelming preference from many of the visit hosts and NYSF Partners to postpone in-person NYSF events. Given widespread disruptions to presenter and venue availability in many cities, in-person STEM visit Hubs will be postponed in all affected locations, all except Perth and the Digital Hub. The hubs which will be postponed are Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Newcastle, and Sydney. This has been a difficult decision to make, but after consulting our risk framework we feel this is the most appropriate course of action. NYSF takes our duty of care and the health, safety and wellbeing of all staff, volunteers, hosts and participants very seriously. We wanted to advise families now as we know that a large number of you have organised travel and accommodation. Due to the pandemic, we carefully designed the 2022 NYSF Year 12 Program as a hybrid event, with strong digital offerings available each day, to ensure that all students will have access to the very best science experiences, regardless of any changes that might affect in-person STEM visits this January. Participants who were attending a postponed Hub will be seamlessly transferred to the Digital Hub and have a wide variety of interactive and diverse STEM sessions to choose from. We know from 2021 participant feedback that students found the Digital Hub extremely rewarding with 9.2/10 highly recommending the experience to others. We pride ourselves on offering unique STEM experiences and high engagement, no matter what the delivery mode needs to be. Please rest assured that we will endeavour to reschedule in-person visits in affected locations as part of our NYSF Connect Program later in the year when the environment has hopefully improved. At this stage, the Perth Hub is not affected, but naturally we will continue to monitor the COVID situation and speak with our visit hosts as the event draws closer. We are excited to officially open the program on Monday 10 January. In addition to the amazing STEM experts and experiences, you will meet another 620+ young people who are as passionate about STEM as you are! Thank you for your understanding given the unusual circumstances that we are navigating during this pandemic. We will communicate further information regarding this situation by email and will be in touch with an update on rescheduling by the end of February 2022. Thank you for your understanding at this difficult time and I can’t wait to meet you all on Monday! Dr Melanie Bagg CEO, National Youth Science Forum |