From the Head of Secondary
Thank you to all members of the community – students, parents and staff – for your understanding and cooperation this week. Your messages of support have been much appreciated during what has been a very challenging time.
School Closure
In the event of school closure, the College will email (and SMS) and ask parents to provide children with written notification of when they will return home and what their mode of transport will be. We ask that all parents ensure they have a way of communicating with their child either by SMS or email.
Remote Learning
The College has implemented a strategy that considers the capacity of teachers and students to access and use technology. Details of the strategy were released to both students and parents yesterday and are available in SEQTA Documents.
The strategy allows for the potential disruption to learning, with the possibility of either students or (some) teachers being unavailable. To ensure that this is viable, programs are shared with whole-of-cohort courses, rather than classes. All students will have common meeting points: SEQTA Cover Page for course work and Year Group Teams with Course Channels for communication. Backup teacher capacity is built into all meeting points.
Once the foundation level of the strategy is established and operating efficiently, we will build on skills and knowledge to expand and improve the remote learning experience.
Ongoing Learning and Assessment
Whilst the school is open, students are directed towards both SEQTA and Teams to access teaching and learning resources to ensure they can continue to progress with the development of their knowledge and understanding of each course.
All student absences related to COVID-19 will be validated and a standardised mark will be credited. To ensure all students have the opportunity to learn from the assessment, teachers will make the assessments available to students as soon as practicable after the assessment. Students who were absent will then be able to complete the assessment and teachers will provide feedback. (A standardised mark will be awarded for the assessment). Students are asked (in normal circumstances) to return their response to the assessment to their class teacher within 24 hours.
NAPLAN
NAPLAN is cancelled this year due to disruption caused by the pandemic.
Queries
Members of the Secondary Leadership Team are available to answer any queries you may have. In the first instance, I suggest you direct your queries to the relevant Assistant Deputy Principal. Questions of a more general nature can be forwarded to either Jessica Bouwman or me.
Staff at the College have been amazing this week. It is a pleasure to work with such a dedicated group of people and I thank them for their considerable efforts. I know they will do all they can to ensure the best outcomes for students.
Kathleen Negus
Vice Principal – Head of Secondary