Principal's Report

Transition to Face to Face Teaching

Most of you would be well aware of announcements made earlier today regarding the transition of Victorian schools back to face to face teaching.  These can be summarised as follows.

 

May 25 has been declared pupil free and grade Prep-2 students will return to school the following day.  Our Scotsburn Campus will be ready to go on May 26, so Ms Anderson’s class will attend on site.

 

Grade 3-6 students will return to school on June 9, meaning we will have the school fully operational for the last 3 weeks of term. 

 

The availability of on-site instruction for children of essential workers will continue between May 26 and June 5.  Arrangements for registering children for on-site learning have not changed.  If you believe you meet the criteria, contact Scott, Dave or myself to discuss options.  Grade 3-6 students who can learn from home between May 26 and June 5, must learn from home.

 

This is all very good news as we all look forward to getting back to some sort of normal.  Our teachers and teacher aides are certainly keen to return to working face to face with students in classrooms.  To our parents and carers, you’ve all done a wonderful job to this point and we’re sure most of you are relieved that the end of learning from home is in sight.

 

Obviously we all want to know that this can all be managed without putting members of the school community at risk.  DET (Department of Education and Training) is developing plans to ensure the transition back to school can all be done safely.  This will include:

  • A boost in cleaning, which is likely to include the sanitisation of key touch points around the school during the school day.
  • Social distancing measures in place in classrooms similar to what was in place for the last 2 weeks of term 1.  Staggered break times will help with social distancing in the yard.
  • Strong personal hygiene standards across the school, including the availability of hand sanitiser in every classroom.
  • Staggered pick up and drop off times and avoiding gatherings of parents outside the school.
  • Minimising the number of parents entering the school grounds and buildings.
  • Drink fountains will not be used at school, meaning children will need to bring along their own drink bottles.
  • Assemblies won’t take place for the time being, so we will be continuing with our weekly broadcasts.
  • School camps and excursions will also be put on hold for the time being.

DET has now provided some broad guidelines relating to reporting for the end of semester 1, which includes the requirement for the provision of written reports and follow up discussions with parents.  We will use these guidelines to develop a modified report format and a method for running Parent Teacher Interviews.

 

We understand parents will be keen to hear more detail regarding some of the above announcements, which we will share as things unfold.  It’s now our task to figure out how to deliver on all of the above in the Buninyong PS context.  This will be quite a logistical exercise, but that’s something we have become accustomed to over the past few months.

 

As always, please give us a call or send a message if you have any questions.