Principal

Joy!

The smiles on the faces of our students on Tuesday morning were huge. The smiles on the faces of our staff were just as huge. 

We have had a successful start back to onsite learning. We have established hand washing routines, careful movement around the school and students have started to get used to the new set up in classrooms and the return to the onsite learning environment. 

Sitting in my office this week I have started to hear the school coming back to life. We have heard the sound of students and also teacher conversations. It is all a bit different, with everyone moving around carefully and making sure they are socially distanced appropriately. 

A reminder that our Year 3-6 students start back onsite on Tuesday June 9th, after the Queen's Birthday public holiday.

Return to school information was provided to parents via Sentral last week, it is attached below for your information. 

How far is 1.5 m?

Have you measured 1.5 m? We have been using a tape measure at school to familiarize ourselves and have been quite surprised at how far 1.5 m actually is. When waiting to collect your child at the gates it is essential that all adults keep 1.5 m between themselves and other adults. 

Social distancing and hygiene will remain vital as all students return to school. These posters are around the school and on the gates, everyone is responsible to follow the measures included.  

If your child is unwell they cannot come to school, if they have any of these symptoms then they must stay home and you should seek medical advice. 

Reports

A reporting letter was sent to parents via Sentral on May 20th. It explains the differences you will see in your child's report this semester. Reports will be available through Sentral on June 25th.  The reports will include a reflection on the types of learning your child experienced during the remote and online learning time. For many reasons our students have had different levels of engagement with the learning, therefore this part of the report will be common to all students at each level. 

Arrangements for the start and end of the day

We are exceptionally lucky at BPPS to be able to allocate our students to different gates for the start and end of day procedures. Unlike many schools we have not had to stagger start and finish times because we have been able to spread the numbers of students and therefore adults at our gates. 

Thank you for following the procedures set out, we are finding the start of day very smooth. Our end of day processes are coming together. We will  review these when all students are back on site on June 9th. If at this time the congregation around gates is not safe we will make a plan for staggered start and end times. 

Well being

This week I have included some handouts from Michael Grose's Parenting Ideas website - we have a school membership which enables us to access articles for sharing. If you have particular topics you are interested in finding out about, please contact me and I will see what is available on the website. 

This article talks about transitioning your child back to school. 

The website also gives us access to short videos on a variety of topics - this one is around Managing your child's anxiety

As part of our subscription parents can use vouchers for webinars. We have attached a webinar recording voucher for Future-proofing your child and a voucher for an upcoming webinar Understanding techno tantrums. 

Parent and student surveys

Thank you to the parents who completed surveys for the teaching teams over the course of our Remote and online learning time, many of these results were used to adjust the learning program provided to students. 

This week you will have received an invitation via Sentral to take part in a parent survey around Remote and online learning. This survey has been developed by the Department of Education to enable all schools to gain feedback. Please take ten minutes to complete the survey - remember only one per family. 

Our Year 4 to 6 students will be asked to participate in a Remote and online learning survey next week, their teacher will coordinate this. 

Enrolment for 2021

Do you have a child who will be starting school in 2021? Download an enrolment form from our website, fill it in and return it to the office, we are taking enrolments for 2021 already. 

Susanne Lowe

Principal