Principal's News

Dear parents, families and friends,

This week during the assembly I reminded the students about online protocols and work expectations.

Online Protocols:

• Be on time to Google Meet Sessions
• Be in an open area - lounge room, kitchen where adults can see and hear you
• Have your microphone turned off unless you are speaking
• Have your camera turned on

Just like being at school, it is important to be ontime. If a student is unwell or not able to attend a Meet, then we expect that this is communicated to the teacher or staff member via email prior to the Meet taking place. This is the same requirement we have when attending school. It is important that for the Google Meet sessions the students are in an open area where they can be seen or heard. When not in Google Meets students may be working in another room such as a study, lounge or bedroom (door open of course). This allows for active supervision by parents or carers, in other words, checking on them regularly.

Work Expectations:

• Complete all set tasks/ work
• Complete all work to the best of your ability, challenge yourself to do better , to extend - don’t settle for close enough is good enough
• Use feedback from teachers to improve yourself and achieve higher standards in your work

Just like at school, we expect that students are completing all set tasks, the Must Dos. Sometimes this may not be possible in one day, however by the end of the week(this includes Saturday and Sunday) the students should be up to date. I encourage all students to do their best and complete tasks to the best of their ability. I also encourage them to challenge themselves to do better, to extend themselves to write more, spell more accurately, complete more sums, get more spelling words correct and complete more activities. I also encourage and want to see the students using the feedback provided by teachers. The whole purpose of feedback is to make the students better learners. Next time remember this, do this or try this.

Parents you are doing an amazing job in supporting your children during remote learning. You have stepped into the shoes of teachers in trying to juggle multiple children at varying levels of learning and need for assistance and support. I am going to provide you with some hints and tips to support you in supporting your children through Remote Learning.

• Give them time to think, to process, to respond to questions or text read.
• Check in with them regularly, but don't sit with them constantly. Say to them:
  • I will come back when you have read the text
  • I will come back when you have written the sentence
  • I will come back when you have answered five questions
  • Show me when you have drawn the picture
• The above is particularly important when you have more than one children at home. This is what teachers do in the classroom when they constantly move from student to student, checking on their progress, correcting their work and providing feedback or further direction and instruction.
• Allow for breaks. The students don't need to be and can't work solidly for 60 minutes. Read and discuss the story on the couch. Move to the table or desk to do the activity. Allow them to go to the bin to sharpen their pencil. Allow them to go to the toilet if they need to.
• If they finish their work to the best of their ability and properly, then allow them to have some free time before the next learning activity (session/lesson) begins.
• Allow the students to do their own work and to make mistakes. The best learning comes from mistakes.
• If they seem overwhelmed by the amount of work, break it into smaller amounts such as 10 questions is too much, cover up questions 6 to 10 and let them focus on 1 to 5.
• Focus on the Must Dos. Insist for them to do these, but don't insist on them doing the Can Do activities if this will only lead to arguments and fights and increased levels of stress.
• Incentives and rewards are your best friends along with praise, encouragement and positive talk.

I have been feeling rather tired lately. I feel like I have hit the wall. It has been a long time, especially when you include the two weeks of the Term 2 holidays. There are still many things to be positive about. I thank God daily for my health, for my family, for my home, for still being able to work. I pray for those that have not been blessed with the positive things I have in my life. I suppose that my wife and I are are lucky that we are generally homebodies. Of course we like to go out to cafes, shopping, movies and dinner. Catching up regularly with friends and family is also important. However we do enjoy being at home relaxing or doing house work. One thing I do quite regularly is to reflect on life. Part of this reflecting leads me to make connections with books, films and music, pop culture connections (hence the image above) . Here are some scenes from films that I feel depict our current times.

A reminder that it is Caps, Hats, Masks and Makeup next week. So dress up for assembly, dress up for Google Meets, dress up if you are attending on-site at St. Augustine's. Remember to send me those pictures to include in the newsletter.

"Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory."   Dr. Seuss

Have a great weekend.

Kind regards,

Matthew Stead

Principal