Assistant Principal's Report 

Welcome back to Semester Two and welcome back to on-site learning! Wow. What a crazy start we have had to the term. This crazy start actually extends all the way back to the last Monday of the school holidays when we received the phone call telling us that our planned Woorabinda school camp could not go ahead. That was incredibly unfortunate news for the entire school community, especially in light of most camps being cancelled in 2020. Thankfully we were able to get into Somers camp at late notice and I am delighted to say that the kids (and the Teachers) had an incredible experience. The facilities and the staff at Somers camp are incredible and over three days the students all enjoyed a fun-filled time complete with many challenges and exciting firsts. 

From the perspective of a Teacher, school camps are an incredibly rewarding experience as you get to see a different side of the students and get to have a lot of fun with them. Somers was certainly no exception and it was fantastic to see not just how much the students enjoyed themselves, but also to see how they conducted themselves and demonstrated our school values in a different setting as well as watching many take on leadership roles within their groups, and at times really extending and challenging themselves through some of the activities. The challenge swing and the flying fox were certainly highlights for most students, though not necessarily for all Teachers! 

The craziness of the term only escalated on the second last day as we received news that we would likely be transitioning back into remote and flexible learning as of the following day. It would be fair to say that this lead to some frantic planning on behalf of the Principal Team in the afternoon with no access to internet from camp! However, with support from an amazing team of Teachers back at home, we managed to put in place plans for a transition into remote and flexible learning once more. 

Whilst remote and flexible learning is certainly not the preference of anyone, it has to be said once again that the way that everyone from students and parents to Teachers and Education Support staff have embraced this most recent phase and endeavored to do the best they can has made us incredibly proud. Remote learning poses a number of challenges for Teachers, however, they again rolled up their sleeves and put together programs for the students that were not just purposeful, but also fun and engaging. Students have been enthusiastically logging into their morning re-connection meetings and submitting some fantastic work through SeeSaw. The support of the parents in facilitating remote learning has also not gone unnoticed and we certainly appreciate that remote learning similarly poses many challenges to parents and carers.

We hope that you are all as proud of yourselves and your children as we are. We have seen in these past few days too, just how supportive that work has been in ensuring a really smooth transition back into face-to-face teaching. I'm pleased to say that students have adjusted back into school life seamlessly and haven't missed a beat in getting back on with their learning. 

Unfortunately, due to this most recent lockdown and the restrictions that remain in place, we were forced to cancel our open afternoon that we had planned for this Wednesday. We would love nothing more than to be able to invite families on-site to share in the wonderful learning that has been taking place. Unfortunately, restrictions just do not permit us to do so at this point but if they ease in coming weeks then it is certainly something that we will consider rescheduling.

Another planned celebration that we had to put on hold was our 100 days of school for our Prep students. I must say that Miss Hannan and Miss Aoun are a little confused now as to how many days we have actually done on-site as opposed to remotely! However, we believe that we are fast approaching 100 days on-site and we are happy to announce that we will celebrate 100 days of school next Friday, August 6th when Miss Aoun is back on board with us. Further details of the celebration will be sent out in coming days but what I will say now is that students will be dressing up as if they were 100 years old so put your thinking caps on now and get creative. Teachers will make sure that they do likewise. There may have been a comment made by a students a little while back who was wondering how Mr Forster would dress up to look 100 on the day considering he is already bald. Cheeky. I will really need to get creative!

Finally, huge thank you goes out to all parents and community members that have taken library books home in recent weeks to contact them, ready for student use. You have certainly made a big dent in that pile of books on the library shelves and Lyndal continues to work frantically in an effort to get them finished and in Learning Communities. However, there are still a number of books that require contacting. If any parents are willing and able to take a few home to contact whilst watching TV of an evening that would still be most appreciated. Lyndal is on-site every Monday and willing to do a 'book contacting masterclass' for anyone willing to learn!

So there you have it. A start to a school term certainly like none I have ever experienced before. We look forward to a time where we can have more of our parents and community on-site with us, but at least we have students back on-site this week!

Take care everybody and stay safe. 

Regards

Danny Forster

Assistant Principal