A message from the Principal

Getting back to normal

It has been wonderful to spend the last few weeks getting back into the normal routines of school life and watching as restrictions are gradually relaxed.

Two terms spent trying our best to deliver remote learning to children at home and managing an empty school has given me a new found appreciation of the smaller things at SKiPPS. Being able to greet students each morning, see them doing sports on the oval and interact with each other in class has been great.

The teachers have also been working incredibly hard to provide a positive and calm learning environment for the children and also to fully understand the learning impact of such an unusual year of schooling.

The extensive assessments and moderation discussions taking place this week have allowed us to get a strong understanding of the progress and learning goals for each child. Our initial judgements show that, for the majority of our students, they continued to learn well from home and there has not been a major negative impact from remote learning.

This is both highly pleasing and a huge testament to the work of families and teachers to adapt and ensure children stayed engaged and on-track during terms 2 and 3. 

This strong understanding of student learning will allow us to plan for next year and ensure that we can catch-up any children who have fallen behind or missed some key ideas due to being away from the school due to COVID-19. 

To support this work, we were excited to hear about the recently announced tutoring program which will roll out in schools in 2021 to provide small-group interventions for those children identified by their teachers as needing support to catch-up. 

Like all schools we are working out exactly how this will look but it is wonderful we will have access to additional resources to ensure no student will be left disadvantaged by 2020.

Neil Scott, Principal