From the Principal's Desk

Week 2 term 2 2020

The NEW NORM – What is the new norm? Sanitiser is my new perfume! Staff meetings via video conferencing, Seesaw for remote learning, instructional videos and audio, makeshift classrooms and families working and learning together, School Council by video conferencing sitting in our lounge rooms or makeshift home offices, teachers explaining the finer points of the day in front of a white board in their study.

It is hard, but it is temporary and we will get through this and there will be some positives that we will take from it.

Our leadership team has reflected on the on-line learning platform. The students are posting and responding to the class and specialists’ activities with great gusto to the point of thousands of audio and videos to approve (see table below). We are working our way through this.

All teaching staff will be available from 8:45 am on Seesaw until lunchtime 1:00 pm and take a mid morning recess break to cover the 3 hours approximately of tuition/learning content per day. Monday to Friday from 1:00 pm until 3:30 pm is allocated for preparation for team meetings, planning, video content and learning schedules. Teams will post the next day’s learning schedule by 4.00 pm or as near as possible to that time. This routine will help families to look through the work, be prepared and allow the students to start before 9.00 am should they wish to do so. After 1.00pm every day is assigned for teaching staff to plan and prepare. Emails received after 1:00 pm may be answered either the next day or when the teacher can find the time.

https://vimeo.com/410095756

Our teaching staff and support staff are all working incredibly long hours to make this work for our students. Thank you for the wonderful support you are providing to your children and our staff in these first weeks of home learning. We have received much positive feedback in this time of new learning for all and it is greatly appreciated.

We have had a number of queries about the possibility of virtual classroom time and the use of Zoom.

A virtual classroom is something we are working on and hope to introduce in the coming weeks. We are unable to use Zoom as it is not secure software and it is not approved by the Department of Education. We are currently investigating Microsoft Teams and Cisco WebEx as options. Please bear with us – we want to ensure the asynchronous learning through Seesaw is working smoothly and is well understood by our community before we start introducing anything new.

https://vimeo.com/409668887

Facilities Update:

• The evaporative cooling installation is underway. The installation in the hall should be completed by next week.

• The grade 2 hub has framing up for the glass doors at the end of the existing deck. The glass has now been ordered and should be installed before the end of the term. G&T Builders have quoted to install the flooring and ceiling as well. This work is ideally installed during this term while the students are absent.

• Awning installed during the holiday break for the new portable for grade 3/4 by Elite Garages.

• Reinstatement of the pathway around this portable this week with gravel and asphalt by Mike Rowley.

• Painting of the new STEM room completed by Furlong Painting.

• Partitioning for office space in the renovated STEM space.

Schools are permitted to have contractors on site managed by the principal. The works had been budgeted for and I believe it is important to keep small businesses working.

Be safe, follow the rules and learn together

Liz

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