Myrniong and ELC
Remote Learning 'Silver Lining'
As our fourth week of remote learning comes to a close, I would like to focus on the acceleration of new channels of innovation, creativity and the systematic transformation that our Junior School learning has experienced in a short period of time.
Our Early Learning Centre staff have become overnight YouTube sensations, with their regular recordings of storybooks for our Piccolo and Piccino children. The Reggio inspired showbags that Mrs O’Brien and her staff thoughtfully compiled and sent home with families have returned with monsters, rainbows and clay creations. Weekly Teams meetings see our youngest Collegians using technology to connect with their classmates and teachers.
Our Prep to Year Six students are now adept at logging into their devices, navigating their Teams calendars, sharing their screens, collaborating with others on shared documents, accessing meetings and uploading work samples, photographs, audio and video files.
One to one online Reading Recovery lessons are occurring throughout the week, along with small group literacy sessions. Mrs Kelvy and Mrs Marshall sit in on online lessons then connect with individual students and assist them with their completion of set tasks.
Junior School Staff meetings and professional learning sessions continue with online catch ups via Teams. Junior and Senior School staff even meet on a Friday for a virtual recess. With mandatory tea and coffee in hand, staff share stories from their remote learning week. We also have a virtual wheel with prizes awarded each Friday.
Professional Learning-Pupil Free Day - Friday, May 15th
Next Friday, May 15th will see a pupil free day at the Junior School and Senior Campus. It will take the place of the scheduled Report Writing Day originally planned for Friday, June 5th. No remote learning lessons will take place nor will the Junior School be open to students needing supervision. Staff will have time allocated for meetings and professional development activities. As this is roughly the mid-point of Term Two, it should allow families time to refresh and reset for the remaining six weeks of term.
Junior Campus Challenges
Throughout the period of remote learning, open-ended challenge activities and competitions will be run to support student well-being. These challenges and competitions have been introduced in weekly online Assemblies and have been emailed out to students. The majority are ongoing. Students will receive House points for ‘having-a-go’ and submitting their work.
Week 1 - Drawing a Celtic Cross
Week 2 - ‘The Weekly Beep Test’ Challenge + ‘Missing Myrniong’ writing task
Week 3 - ‘Autumn Wreaths’ construction
Week 4 - ‘Toilet Roll Challenge’ video and ‘Myrniong Trees’ guessing competition.
'Tell Me the Story About the Virus'
At Wednesday’s Assembly I shared the ‘The Great Realisation’ by poet and artist Tomfoolery. He is a visual storyteller, utilising tools such as cameras, creativity and poetry to create stories. This four minute clip is one I urge you to sit and watch as a family. It beautifully portrays our lives pre- and post-COVID-19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bea4jCAkXsI
Stephen Nelson
Head of Junior School