Principal's ONLINE LEARNING UPDATE

Learning from home

I thank all of our parents/carers working from home and supporting the learning of their children. This is an extremely difficult challenge for all of you and we know that this is adding complexity when you have to complete your own work from home. 

I have heard from many parents that they are frustrated and stressed and I really appreciate you reaching out to me to raise your concerns and issues or to provide your support to the school. Our teachers are equally frustrated and worried about the learning of their students. Parent, student, teacher interviews will provide us with an opportunity to talk to each other and to share our experiences and to plan for improvements as we move forward. I ask that we all approach these interviews with kindness and with an understanding of supporting our students to achieve their best in this complex learning environment.

As teachers, teaching online is unnatural and awkward and whilst each teacher aims to do their best, the engagement levels of students are dropping as the novelty of 'screen learning' wanes with students across the state. We have paused at the end of Term 3 to reflect on the feedback on the experiences of parents and students as gathered at the recent parent online session, through the school council, PTF and recent surveys. Now that we know we will be online for some of our learning in Term 4, we need to prepare for this, to increase engagement and to be organised for a return to face-to-face learning (hopefully) later this year.

We are looking at the following to improve learning:

1. A change to the teaching timeline - by removing exams at Years 8-11 we are able to gain additional teaching time moving from 5 weeks of teaching in Term 4, to 7 weeks. We hope that some of this time will be face-to-face and we are focusing on how to be prepared for this.
2. Reduction in screen time with a focus on consolidation and building self-motivation for Year 10 and 11 (please see David's information in the Year 10-12 section). This change came directly from the students themselves who found that they did not have adequate time to complete/consolidate their understanding of the work being set in class. Our students want to produce work of a high standard and to undertake the pre and post revision that needs to occur in senior studies. Parents requested that we provide information related to these study sessions so teachers will provide instructions (but not full lesson plans) for the work that needs to be undertaken independently.
3. Increased wellbeing, socialisation, consolidation and extension at 7-9! We are looking at a model of more project based work where possible, provision of weekly fun 'check-in' sessions with a dedicated teacher, and the offer of some extension for high achievers. Thank you to parents who have driven this change through their feedback. We will be reducing face-to-face online; many other high performing schools in our network are doing the same as students fatigue from screen time . Our focus is on both consolidation and extension, supporting those who need a helping hand and those who need a challenge. Please see Viv's Year 7-9 page for more information.

How do I know what work my child has to do?

If you are concerned about your child's workload and about what they have to get completed we have simplified information by flagging essential learning tasks that must be completed. We need these tasks completed to the best of your child's ability so that we can assess their progress. Assessment is all about knowing whether or not a young person has progressed in their learning, it is not a punitive process so please remind your child of this. This year assessment information will provides us with vital information about the impacts of COVID and online learning. We will use this information to support individual students as needed and to identify the areas that we need to focus on in 2022.

Key things to remember

1. Wellbeing is number one for our students
2. We want all students to complete flagged tasks to the absolute best of their ability so that we can collect accurate evidence of their progress
3. We would really like students to hand everything in that is set by teachers but understand that in some cases this is difficult due to mental health issues, ICT and resource limitations and complex home circumstances so FOCUS ON THE FLAG!

REMEMBER - FOCUS on the FLAG