Appreciations

It has been terrific to glance out my window this week to see parents, students and community members rummaging through the collections of produce from the orchard and selecting a pansy or petunia plant for Mother’s Day. Pictured, Kristen MacKenzie and her son, Sebastian (3/4 DW) setting up the plants they propagated (along with her partner and Seb’s dad, Randall). The supplies have been replenished regularly to ensure there is no need to congregate in order to collect your plant.

We are blown away by the act of kindness and generosity from the Brown family, Chase 3ES and Scout 1CW! These gorgeous succulents have been donated for Mothers' Day and are on our share table at the front of school. We are part of a wonderful community.

What a great way to acknowledge Mother’s Day despite the many restrictions that have affected our lives. It is amazing how a positive action such as this can have such a buoyant effect on others.

Archer 4MK and Perry 2JI made and delivered muffins to the Footscray police station for afternoon tea. Along with a card that said ‘thank you for helping the community’.

The Learning at Home challenge

Our staff are deeply appreciative of the extraordinary support they have received from so many parents and carers as they engage in providing a comprehensive response to the challenging and unforeseen experience of learning at home instead of at school. I expect that if you have found things challenging your class teacher and a member of wellbeing team will have contacted you. We anticipate that teachers are communicating daily with all children online. All parents who wish to communicate with their child’s teacher, a member of the Specialist team, or the Wellbeing team, are encouraged to do so by contacting the school through the usual methods, or emailing the relevant staff member. Please see the contact details on Page 3.

What happens next?

We will continue to plan for online learning for now, cognisant that there is currently lots of discussion about when schools will open for larger groups of children. I could hazard a guess and of course I hear lots of rumours, however it doesn’t assist anyone if I engage in uninformed speculation. We are however planning for a variety of scenarios. I trust, consistent with previous practice, I will inform families of what our plans and contingencies are as a matter of immediacy when this time comes around.

Next week (Week 5 Term 2) we will provide each teaching team with one day when they will be released from their day’s remote teaching responsibilities for a Professional Practice Day. This requirement is part of the current Schools’ Agreement and while we know that much is not normal or regular, the reality is teaching teams are so busy responding throughout the day and preparing, assessing and uploading learning tasks and resources before and after school that being provided with a dedicated day seems the least we can do. Class teachers will not be online on this day but the specialist team will be managing the curriculum and responding to the students on the day.

Below is a timetable for when your child’s student will utilising this day to plan for students.

Monday	Specialists
Tuesday	3s and 4s
Wednesday	Preps
Thursday	1s and 2s
Friday	5s and 6s

What defines leadership at a time like this?

We can be pretty sure the Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan was anticipating a different media and public response when he claimed the Victorian Premier Dan Andrews had failed to demonstrate leadership during these unparalleled times. Many will agree a most positive style of empathic national leadership was evident in Jacinta Arden’s clarity of action and purpose. This article is worth reading if this is of interest:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/opinion/coronavirus-leadership.html

May all the many mums who form such a vital part of our wonderful learning and caring community have a happy Mother’s Day.

All the best

Brendan Millar

The West Weekly

Issue 12 · 07 May 2020

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