Principal's News

Congratulations to a successful first week of remote learning! 

We would like to thank our whole school community for their amazing efforts over the last few weeks and in particular as we began online learning last week.

We are committed to our students continuing their learning during this time and realise that for this to be successful we will be asking parents to support us, particularly with our younger students.  We understand that this is placing pressure on parents as you also work from home and appreciate your commitment. 

Parents are reminded that although work will be available for the start of the day, if you need to start work later in the day, that is fine.  We ask that your children go on Google Classroom each day and either post work or a comment in the class Stream, as this is how the teachers are taking the roll. 

We are aware that, for the younger students in particular, you may be unable to get all tasks completed by your child because of your own work load, please look after mental health first and get done what you can.

One of the changes we have made in response to your feedback, is to have work on Google Classroom the night before so parents can plan the following day. Please be aware that staff will not be available at this time to answer questions, they are available from 8.45am to 3.45pm to answer questions on Google Classroom.

All classes are using Google Classroom to deliver the work to students, however each team is using the classroom slightly differently.  This will be as a result of the student skill level and the skills of staff within each level.  The teachers have learnt an amazing amount in a very short time and will continue to develop these skills as the term progresses.  As the term progresses staff will begin to include instructional videos and some may move to live lessons, but we ask for your patience as teachers work behind the scene to develop the necessary skills.

Feedback

In order for us to support you in your role, we would appreciate feedback from you.  We will be sending a survey to parents in the next few weeks; however parents may wish to share feedback with us before this – please email the school or your child’s classroom teacher.

Thank you to the parents who have already emailed us, we hope the changes we are implementing are helping you. We hope you also understand that we cannot necessarily meet all your requests.

Sharing Student Learning

We would like our newsletters to be a way of sharing student learning with the school community and celebrating the great work being done at home.  Your teachers will be asking for permission to post samples of work in our newsletters as the term progresses.  

You will notice that we have already included some work and items in this newsletter, which we hope you enjoy. 

Challenges

We will also be including challenges and activities in the newsletter that students may like to participate in – these are not compulsory, join in as you like.  We ask that students (or parents) send the responses to the email address when and as indicated on each challenge/activity. 

Look After Yourself

We appreciate the challenges being faced by everyone at the moment and thank you for your wonderful support. 

Please look after yourself, particularly your mental health, everything else will be easier if you stay in a 'good' place. 

The teachers are online every week day and happy to help in any way we can.  The teachers are including mindfulness activities weekly for your children, please encourage them to participate in these.

Dean has included some links on the school's website that may assist to support your own and your child's mental health.

Robyn James