Dear Parents and Guardians,

As we reach the end of Term 3 I want to extend my sincere thanks to our school community for the way you have continued to work with the school in this time of remote learning. Remote learning has presented many challenges and unforeseen change which has required all members of our school community to reframe the way we go about teaching and learning practices. It has called us all to be collectively placed out of our comfort zone when it comes to learning and education.

Throughout remote learning there has been a constant evaluative process undertaken by teachers and school leaders to ensure students' learning and wellbeing needs are best met under these circumstances. Part of the reflective practice is also to make available to our community a short survey focused on remote learning which has been developed by Catholic Education Melbourne. Further details have been provided below. The survey has been developed to capture feedback from students, parents and staff. Participation in the survey is completely voluntary and the responses are only identified by a school name. (no other personal information is required). Please give some consideration to sharing your feedback.

In Term 4 Week 1, remote learning will continue for all students with onsite supervision provided as per previous arrangements in Term 3. An updated Google Form will be shared with families shortly regarding onsite supervision requirements for Term 4 Week 2 onwards.

We are looking forward to our Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 students reconnecting with face to face learning from Monday 12th October. Onsite supervision will be available to eligible families for students in Years 3-6.

A return date for Years 3-6 students of Monday 26th October has been announced by the state government however this is subject to health advice.

Finally my hope for each of our school families is for you really to take some time to recharge and rejuvenate during the school holiday break. Please switch off the screens and devices where possible. This year of remote learning has meant that students have had increased amounts of time in front of device screens for learning and entertainment purposes. This is fatiguing on the body and, in my experience, does take its toll. I am also strongly encouraging our school staff to have a break from laptops, webcams and video production.

School photos - Term 4

This year we were required to postpone our scheduled school photos day Term 1 due to the COVID19 restrictions. After consultation with the photographer and taking into consideration a COVID Safe approach to conducting the school photos, the following arrangements have been made

P-2 students will participate in school photos on Wednesday 14th October
Students in Years 3-6 will have a confirmed school photo date once we know when students are returning.
Families who are interested in sibling photos, these will be taken on the date of Year 3-6 students school photo day.

All of these arrangements are subject to change.

Further information regarding school photo preparation will be provided in Week 1 of next term.

Remote Learning Survey - Catholic Education Melbourne

The period of remote learning has been a challenging time for us all, but despite the major disruptions to normal activities, there will be many valuable lessons derived from this period that we as a school, and the system, wish to take forward.

Below is a link to an optional survey in order to help capture the learnings from the remote learning period.

The surveys are designed to be a quick capture of learnings while the experience is fresh, and are not designed to capture every aspect of schooling during the lockdown period. Your feedback will be valuable in learning from the experience and improving education outcomes.

Here is the link to the survey. It is expected the survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete.

Parent / Carer survey

Thank you for taking the time to contribute to our learnings as a school and education system.

Whole School Assembly - Livestream

One of great positives that has come out of remote learning this year has been the school assembly livestream. Every time the assembly has been hosted we continue to get positive feedback and affirmation. I would like to thank the school community for their continued support and encouragement of this worthwhile and important communication at this time when we are fragmented and unable to gather in our usual ways. I would also like to thank all of the staff and students who work behind the scenes in the lead up to each assembly. Each of our assemblies have been full of lots of reports and insights into what is happening in the community and this is as a result of our student leaders working with school staff to put this all together.

Finally here is a “behind the scenes” view of how the live stream assembly is put together!

A final word…

The Victorian Parents Council is hosting a free webinar title “Young People's Mental Health during COVID-19 and beyond - what can parents do?” this evening (Thursday).

This may be of interest to families as we hopefully start to come out the other side of the current pandemic restrictions. (Thank you Lara Eckfeld for sharing this with me)

Click here for more information.

God bless

Tom Wursthorn

Principal

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