Principal Report

Now that remote and flexible learning is coming to an end (we all hope or at least in its current format) I thought that it would be a nice to get our students perspective on home schooling.

Who better to ask, other than our two School Captains.

Emily had these thoughts:

Hi Everyone!! I’m Emily, one of Oatlands 2021 School Captains. Just like everyone else, Raneth and I have been doing home schooling throughout the year. Home schooling is most likely a different experience for all of us, however we all know it’s not always fun, but I’ve learnt a couple of things during home schooling. I’ve learnt how, sometimes when you’re at school everything is organised for you but when I came last year to do home schooling I realised that I needed to be more independent and organised! 

Like most people, the worst thing about home schooling is not being able to walk into school and see all your friends and teachers! At Oatlands friends are pretty much one of the reasons we come to school to learn, it is certainly something I look forward to every-day. Especially during those limited days or weeks we’ve had together after all the lockdowns we’ve been through. 

If I had to do home schooling again (Let’s hope it’s a one-time experience) I would want to change one thing; most of the activities I have done are for me to complete alone, however partner/group activities would make things a lot more fun and enjoyable in my opinion! It would also allow me to see my friends and classmates, maybe not the way I would want to see them but at least I would get to see people I miss. Thank you and I hope we see you all at school soon!!

Raneth shared his reflections:

Hello, my name is Raneth and I am one of the school captains. I know that everyone is going through their own personal problems, with lockdown making a bigger impact on people. We might even start to lose hope. But the important thing is to stay true to why we decided to get through this: to be able to live safer and to provide a better life for our children. That’s how we got through this. That’s how we got a date to return to school and hopefully get back to normal. So I just want everyone from students, parents and teachers to keep it up because you are all doing an amazing job. We made it! 

Even though remote learning felt different in every way, there was still a lot we could learn from it. We learnt how to become independent and take control of our learning. We learnt how to communicate in different ways and this could help us when we go on our separate paths. I personally didn’t know where most of the keys were on the keyboard last year, but now I know them enough to type this sentence without looking. Remote learning taught us many things, but the most important thing is that no matter what comes our way, we will always get through it because here at Oatlands, we never give up!

The journey to get to where we are wasn’t easy though. Some of us faced difficulty learning while others tried to battle loneliness. I felt that whatever I did, didn’t matter. That things would never change. Then I realised that I could make things change. The harder I tried, the closer I would come to accomplishing my goal. Everyone’s experience of remote learning is different to others and we all have a story to tell. As the kids know, we need to change the red thoughts that are telling us to give up, to green thoughts. These green thoughts are what will get us through this in the end. 

I just wanted to thank all the staff and teachers for making this experience as close to normal as they could. You all did an awesome job in creating tasks that we all enjoyed a lot. If there would be one thing that I would do differently, it would be to have more inclusion of other classes and grades. The only day a week I would see someone other than my class through small boxes would be on Friday for assembly. I wish we could do grade assemblies or at least be able to see our buddies once. Other than that, I thought that the experience was to the best of what it could be. 

I hope everyone has a great transition back to school and I can’t wait to see everyone again.

Our two captains Emily and Raneth have done a fantastic job putting their thoughts together. I really appreciate the effort you both put into your writing. Home schooling has certainly had its negatives, positives and areas that could be improved on. As I mentioned at the beginning I hope that we never get to Lockdown 7.0 and home schooling. However, if we do I’m confident that we will all push through, do our best and come out the other end in a better place.

John Armao

Assistant Principal