Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

Remote Learning and Onsite Learning

As we live and learn through this new environment, and now we know we will continue in remote learning for all year levels until, most likely, the end of Term 3, we see our students and staff working positively together to get on with the job.

While in remote learning, attendance for all students will still be marked even if the teacher is unable to take the lesson (e.g. Professional Practice Day, appointment, etc.) and work will be left for the students to complete on Google Classroom.

Showing great initiative, some of our VCAL students have manufactured masks, which ties in nicely with their Work Related Skills class. Staff are placing orders to buy these washable cotton masks, which are in high demand.

From the start of this term, our Year 7 – 10 students have been learning remotely, and VCAL and VCE students transitioned to remote learning from Wednesday. Like our students, our staff learnt a great deal from the experience of teaching remotely last term and are implementing changes to ensure effective and engaging lessons are delivered to the classes. Teachers are always trialling new strategies and learning new ways of teaching remote lessons. Our students are responding positively too. They are asking more questions and generally seeking assistance on a more regular basis.

To further understand how everything is going at home, we ask that parents and carers respond to a survey that we will be sending out to families next week. The focus of this survey is parents and carers of students in Years 7 to 12. It will be great to receive your feedback. Conducting this survey mid-term will provide us with an opportunity to make any necessary changes for the rest of the term.

During the rest of this term, parents and carers are encouraged to email their child’s classroom teachers regarding course work. For any questions relating to wellbeing support, contact our Wellbeing Team and/ or your child’s relevant Year Level Coordinator, Director of Subschool and/or Assistant Principal.

Student Progress Check

Semester 2 commenced in the final week of Term 2, meaning we are now in our fifth week of this semester. With our increased communication this year, our progress checks continue to occur approximately every five weeks. The purpose of this is to ensure families know how their students are progressing throughout the semester. Teachers will use the same adjusted work habits rubric that was used the last time we were in remote learning. Progress checks will be released to families via Compass after 3:30 pm on Friday 14 August, prior to our Parent Teacher Student Interviews. More information regarding this round of progress checks is attached below.

Parent Teacher Student Interviews

It was unfortunate that we were not able to run our Parent Teacher Student Interviews at the end of Term 1 and now with the current Stage 4 restrictions, we have researched and revised how we will be able to operate our interviews with students and families this term.

Our Parent Teacher Student Interviews will occur on Wednesday 19 August and will be operating online. We will run online five-minute interviews using Google Meet. Invites will be sent to the student's school email address and we look forward to discussing progress with both the student and their parents and carers. These interviews will occur between 9:30 am and 5:30 pm. Parents/carers are asked to book interviews via Compass, opening on Wednesday 5 August after 5:00 pm.

Professional Learning Day for Staff

Each year we allocate a small number of days to dedicate to the ongoing professional learning of our staff. On Friday 14 August, we have our next Professional Learning Day which is a student-free day. Our focus will be on further developing our ICT skills and student connectedness. No classes will operate on this day, either online or onsite. We encourage students to utilise this day to catch up on any work and/or for families to focus on wellbeing activities for the day.

Important Dates

August