We’re here to support you

Over the course of the COVID-19 year our school priority has been to support our community. That has involved maintaining a fine balance between the priorities of traditional schooling and individuals’ personal health and wellbeing.

Families are reminded that our school is here to support you. I encourage you all to reflect on your current needs and seek support as required. This may include:

Additional remote support from your child’s classroom teacher, education support staff or our Wellbeing staff.
Beginning on-site attendance as a result of family hardship and significant stress that is negatively impacting the health and wellbeing of your child/ren.

If you require additional support please contact your classroom teacher for additional remote support or Carol Wyatt (Assistant Principal – Wellbeing) for an identification by the school as vulnerable and permission for on-site attendance.

Additional notes:

To date Carol has organised student attendance for vulnerable children where the child/ren attend school for one, two, three or four days from 9:00 – 12:30pm, Monday - Thursday. This remains our preferred support structure for children/families that fit this criteria.
Children whose parents are permitted workers and for whom no other arrangements can be made are still able to attend school at any time when there is no other care for their child/ren.

2020 School Organisation for Year One and Year Two students

In 2021 our school will operate with our four traditional sub schools of Prep, Junior, Middle and Senior; however the Junior School Team will consist of five Year One classes, four Year Two classes and one multi-age Year One/Two class. This decision came about following consultation with staff, based on a number of contributing factors including: academic differentiation, breadth of wellbeing needs and the consensus that this year’s Prep cohort have not had a conventional Prep year.

This decision was shared with School Council a fortnight ago. Questions or feedback on this school-based decision can made directly to me at christian.holdsworth@education.vic.gov.au

Welcome back Mia, thank-you Cheyenne.

Over the past month Carol Wyatt and I have been working closely with Mia Sartori as we look to welcome her back into the workforce, following a personal leave absence of almost a year. Mia’s pending return to her position following a double lung transplant is all the more significant given the current state of world health. Mia’s initial return will be ‘remote’ with the aim to have her onsite when Victoria has greater control over the COVID-19 outbreak.

Mia will be eased back into her Student Wellbeing role, working under Julie Reid’s guidance to ensure students’ and families’ educational health and wellbeing needs are met.

With this news comes a farewell to Cheyenne Mason, who has been an incredibly valuable member of the Wellbeing team in Mia’s absence. Thank you Cheyenne for the work you’ve done with our community this year. A highlight of mine has been the Restorative Practices professional learning and skill you’ve brought to our team.

Parent – Teacher meetings

As shared earlier this week by Leigh Dixon (Learning Specialist – Assessment and Reporting):

This year, in place of three-way conferences, we will be offering parents the opportunity to book in for a 10-minute virtual meeting with their classroom teacher. These meetings are optional. The focus will be on debriefing at the end of the Term Three Remote Learning period and setting up processes to ensure your child can transition smoothly back to on-site learning. If you are already feeling confident about your child’s transition back to on-site learning you are not required to make a booking.

A Google form is linked in below to provide you with an opportunity to inform your child’s teacher about anything you think they should be aware of in regard to your child’s return to on-site learning. As an alternative to a formal meeting, you may choose to just complete this form or email your child’s teacher directly. Please note that you will still need to make a booking through the Compass Conference portal if you wish to have a meeting with your child's teacher.

Prep: Link to form
Junior: Link to form
Middle: Link to form
Senior: Link to form

Interview times will be made available for Friday, 11th September and over the period from Monday 14th - Thursday 17th of September. The available times will be dependent on when your child’s teacher has other teaching responsibilities. If for some reason you are unable to find a time that matches your own availabilities, you can communicate with your child’s classroom teacher to try and find a suitable time for both parties.

The default platform for these meetings will be Google Meet. These Google Meets will need to be accessed from a device that is signed into your child’s Croydon Hills account - the same device they use to access their own Classroom meets. The meet code will be your child’s class, followed by your surname. For example, if your child is in JCF and your surname is Nguyen, your meet code will be ‘jcfnguyen’.

If you would prefer to hold this meeting over the phone, please communicate this with your child’s teacher after booking a time on the Compass Conference portal.

The booking portal is now open on Compass. Bookings will close on Tuesday, 8th September at 5PM.

Onsite Attendance for Remote Learning 7 - 11 September

Please use the link below to notify us of your child/ren’s onsite attendance next week, 7 - 11 September 2020:

https://forms.gle/CPaSGStudFbFvSMp8

A reminder,

The Victorian Government has stated that all students who can learn from home must learn from home.

On-site supervision will be available for students in the following categories, based on revised criteria:

children whose parents are permitted workers and for whom no other arrangements can be made
to vulnerable children including:
- children in out-of-home care
- children deemed by Child Protection and/or Family Services to be at risk of harm
- children identified by the school (Carol Wyatt, Assistant Principal – Wellbeing) as vulnerable (including via referral from a family violence agency, homelessness or youth justice service or mental health or other health service).
- children with a disability where the family is experiencing severe stress.

By submitting this form, you declare that your child is well and you will collect your child as soon as is practicable upon the request of the school if your child becomes unwell.

Please consider your child's onsite attendance accepted after you have completed the form. For any:

alterations please contact Jennifer.Culshaw@education.vic.gov.au
discussion around addition student needs including an identification as vulnerable please contact Carol Wyatt carol.wyatt@education.vic.gov.au
Out of School Hours Care bookings please email oshc.croydon.hills.ps@education.vic.gov.au or call 9724 4514.

Christian Holdsworth - Principal

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