Dear Parents and Caregivers

Wow, Week 2 is already over. I am in awe of the way that our school community has worked together to ensure that our Blended Learning program has worked. Even with the tyranny of distance and poor internet services, we have been able to provide a solution that works for families. Most families are accessing lessons via the Google Classroom, and children are connecting with their peers and Leaders of Learning via Zoom. We have some families accessing some resources offline and having regular phone calls with their Leaders of Learning. All of this has helped us to continue to remain a connected school community.

I am proud of all of our students and families. I have been able to report that we have had a connection with every family at our school, even amongst this phase of COVID-19. I am very proud of the way that our parents have worked with our Leaders of Learning to assist children’s learning. You, families of our students have enabled this to work, your willingness to try a new method of learning in a time that has been pretty dark and scary. You have helped your children to be stronger, more resilient and more competent learners.

Next week, I am excited to see all of our students back at school for their learning days. We are aware as a staff that there is some reluctance to return for some students. We are making sure that school is a safe place to return. We are also aware that there has to be a transition to students returning. Therefore our blended learning program will continue in its current form for the next few weeks. This way, students can continue having daily check-ins with their Leaders of Learning when they are not physically at school.

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Monday - Kinder

Tuesday - Stage 1

Wednesday - Stage 2

Thursday - Stage 3

Friday - Essential frontline workers

Monday - Kinder/Stage 1

Tuesday - Stage 2/ Stage 3

Wednesday - Kinder/Stage 1

Thursday - Stage 2/ Stage 3

Friday - Essential frontline workers

Monday - Kinder/Stage 1

Tuesday - Stage 2/ Stage 3

Wednesday - Kinder/Stage 1

Thursday - Stage 2/ Stage 3

Friday - Essential frontline workers

It has been a little sad today as we would usually have our Mother’s Day Liturgy and Stall. Students here today, made some cards for their mothers and are looking forward to giving them out on Sunday. Our P&F are looking at some alternative arrangements that we can do when we are all present back at school to celebrate our Mums and the special place they have in all of our hearts.

I hope that you are all keeping safe and well. In this edition of our newsletter, we have included some student work samples for you to have a look at. Even with families in isolation, students have been able to produce some wonderful work. The below gallery is a small sample of what we could share. I hope to share more examples of learning made from home in the coming weeks.

As a final note, restrictions are beginning to ease. Life is starting to return to a similar normal that we had pre-COVID-19. However, there are a lot of things that we can take from this experience, and include in our lives going forward. The importance of family and community are highlighted. We cannot be alone. We need to be able to maintain a human connection, and seeing our children connect more deeply with their siblings and parents has been wonderful to witness. It has also been great to see families out walking and riding their bikes around town and in their yards, having fun and enjoying the nature and neighbourhoods around them and realising that it is OK to slow down. To experiment in the kitchen, to try new things as a family. Not being rushed, living life and loving life. As a staff, we used the following resource as part of our prayer this week. Some of you might have seen it already. However, it is something that you can watch over and over again and get more meaning from it. My takeaway from this clip is the idea of how some of our old habits will be made extinct, but new habits and rituals will develop through this time. As a family, we will grow stronger post-COVID-19, as will we as a school community.

Have a wonderful weekend. God Bless

Alistair Stewart

Principal

St Joseph's Primary School

Issue 4 · 08 May 2020

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