From the Assistant Principals

Student Arrangements

The return to school for the students in Prep - Year 2 has been so smooth, and we are so excited to have the rest of the school heading back next week.  

When students are back at school full time, things in the classroom will seem relatively 'back to normal'. There are things in place to limit the amount of items that students need to share, and to minimise the crossover of students in and around the school. For the rest of the term, and possibly into next term, students will have designated playground areas, and these play spaces will be sanitised throughout the day. While students are not expected to socially distance from each other, we will be reminding students to wash their hands regularly, and encouraging them to take reasonable precautions when working with their peers. 

When students are arriving at school (any time between 8:45-9:30am) they can make their way directly to their learning space. Some mornings, students may have Specialist classes, and will need to proceed to those spaces instead of their classroom. The whole school timetable is attached below for your information. 

Reports and Parent Teacher Interviews

Remote learning has obviously impacted on the the way teachers would usually collect data and information on students progress, so the reports coming home this term will look a little different. Usually, students receive an A-E grading for core learning areas, but this semester that will not be included. Teachers are working hard preparing comments for student reports, and these reports will reflect work from term one, as well as comments from work undertaken during the period of remote learning. 

Parent Teacher Interviews will occur during Term 3. Dates for these interviews will be confirmed at the beginning of the term. 

Positive Education

It has been fantastic to see classes continuing their work in Positive Education with their online Connect Groups. It may be a while before we are able to have our cross-year level groups operating, but we are excited to continue to build students knowledge and experiences in Positive Education. 

Many year levels have been including activities in their remote learning classes from the Friendology program. There are some amazing resources available to families as part of this program that can offer some ways to discuss how good friends act, what positive relationships look like, and how you can discuss issues that come up in relationships using simple and effective language. We are so pleased to have 4 more teachers being trained to use this awesome program, and look forward to more classes using it!

ICAS Assessments

A reminder that the ICAS Assessments are now available for parents to purchase online. These optional assessments are available for students in Years 2-6 and offer tests in English, Mathematics, Spelling and Science. This year, payment for these assessments is made directly to the organising body via an online parent portal. Information around using this portal was included in detail in a Compass notification earlier in the week. 

If you have any questions about the ICAS tests, feel free to email me at Jessica.Mann@education.vic.gov.au