Learning from home

Well we certainly didn't expect the term to start with a week of online learning. But haven't we all risen to the occasion brilliantly? I've loved hearing from you all and seeing photos of students hard at work learning at home. I've heard from many of you that there have been some challenges along the way - some common ones mentioned were learning how to support with the tasks set, understanding how the iPad works and trying to work at the same time as supporting your children. Some families have struggled with some more significant issues such as moving house, recovering from surgery, or navigating around a litter of puppies in the house! Whatever your personal circumstances, I hope you've found it interesting to engage with your child's learning and have discovered a bit about their learning style too.

It's been a time of new learning for staff as well, discovering how to schedule tasks on SeeSaw and working out how much work to set at home so that students are sufficiently challenged but not overwhelmed. Thank you for your positive feedback letting us know how very much you appreciate what the teachers do.

Here are some photos of students learning at home, in some cases with the 'help' of a much-loved pet. Make sure you scroll and click right to see all of the photos displayed!

Senior class Zoom lesson!

Science experiments at home

Community-minded

Our theme this term is Community-Minded, under the Give category of our school motto Learn Stand Give Fly. We planned this quite some time ago but we think it's a really appropriate theme for this term, given the challenges facing our community in lockdown and the fact we can't get together as we would like. We have been reflecting on how community-minded teachers, SSOs, students and families have been, working together to support the learning program at home this past week. Thank you everyone!

Students will be reflecting on what they can do to give to others, at school, at home and in the wider community.

Welcomes and Farewells

We are happy to welcome the Walsh family to our school this term: Henry (Yr 1) in Katie's class and Emily (Yr 2) in Kelly’s class and their parents Kate and Alister.

We also welcome Pre-service teachers Romlea Evangelista in Sallie's classroom and Dayna Higginbottom in Stephen’s class, and Wendy Thompson who will be helping out in some Junior Primary classes this term.

We welcome back Jorja Rayner, Katie’s pre-service teacher from last term, who is now joining our staff as an SSO for the rest of the year.

Eleanor Grace, our much-loved SSO here for many years, retired at the end of Term 2. We wish Eleanor all the very best, and many happy days ahead with her grandchildren and with her travelling adventures! We will miss you and we hope you will visit us often!

Terrific Kids Term 2

Each term we award the Kiwanis Terrific Kids award to two students. The ‘Terrific’ is an acronym which describes positive characteristics that the chosen students display: Thoughtful, Enthusiastic, Respectful, Responsible, Inclusive, Friendly, Inquisitive and Capable. Congratulations to our Terrific Kids for Term 2, Lachlan Irvine in year 7 and Maddi Johansen in Year 1. We think you’re terrific kids!

New flags from Rebekha Sharkie

We were very grateful to receive 3 new flags from Member of Parliament Rebekha Sharkie. Rebekha presented the Australian flag, the Torres Strait Islander flag and the Aboriginal flag at our final assembly last term, and explained the significance of each flag to the students. Thank you very much Rebekha!

Mural taking shape

Our Wheels Hub bike mural is taking place, in between bouts of rain and the COVID lockdown! We thank Melanie Les for her patience and we can't wait to see it completed soon. Thanks also for involving the students in the creative process Melanie!

Online newsletter

I hope you are enjoying this first edition of our online newsletter! We are hopeful that it is easier for you to read, since it adapts to the type of device you access it on. We also hope that as a result, we may not need to send home printed copies of the newsletter, so that we can be more environmentally sustainable. Of course, the most important consideration for us is that families read the newsletter, so if a printed copy is the best format for you, please let Di or Sara know and we will make sure you continue to receive one. We can also send the newsletter to email addresses, so let us know if you would like to receive it by email in addition to SeeSaw.

I was so pleased to be able to include in the newsletter headers some of the photos taken by Israel Baldago, the professional photographer who came to our school late last term to take photos for our website revamp taking place soon. A huge 'Thank You' to Mel Hunter for suggesting the shoot and recommending Israel; we are really thrilled with the results.

All feedback about this new format would be most welcome!

Wishing you all a great 'second start' to the term!

Margie

Round the classes