Message from Principal Sarah 

Lockdown Extension

Monday’s news was not what any of us were hoping for, but in the true spirit of our community, I believe we will rally around each other and do our best on any given day. This time around definitely feels harder. We’re hearing this from families, we see it with the students and with our staff. My message to everyone – students, families, and staff – is that you are doing a great job under very trying circumstances. 

We are forever mindful of the challenge that remote learning brings to our students, their parents and carers, and our staff.  We appreciate that through respectful communication we can do our very best to manage to learn at home, despite the ongoing disruptions to our lives. 

Last week our teachers, reflected on their programs and teams have made changes to reflect feedback. The challenge of remote learning is to adapt our program so that it is engaging and accessible for everyone. Our priorities moving into the next two weeks is to maintain a strong focus on attendance, wellbeing, and engagement in the learning program. We are also focused on providing a routine and stability to our students. 

We know that many families are working really hard with their child’s teacher to monitor student learning progress during this time. 

Importance of WebEx sessions

We would suggest one of the most critical things right now about remote learning is about maintaining a strong connection to the school and your classroom teacher. We encourage you to consider the daily learning you can manage for your child/ren and prioritise the online WebEx sessions daily. These WebEx sessions are not optional for the students as this is where teachers are teaching the curriculum content required. This includes specialist WebEx sessions as well. Teachers also note this is the most positive time of their day. These are critically important as we work to maintain learning and connections during this challenging period.

In saying all of this we know that there are times when things are tough. We know parents and carers have their own work responsibilities, the internet goes down, or sometimes it’s just a bad day all around. We trust that families will make the call to modify the day’s learning schedule to make it work for your family’s needs. In doing this, we do ask that you continue to communicate with your child’s teacher so we can support you throughout this period.

Whole School Event Implications

Unfortunately, with the extension of the lockdown, we will have to modify or cancel some of our upcoming events. Please ensure you are reading the communications that come out from the school via Compass as this is how we will communicate any changes to our events and programs. 

In the event of a cancellation, we remind families that monies paid for cancelled events will be credited or refunded. This will be communicated with affected families as each cancellation occurs.

DET Parent Opinion Survey

If you have received the annual Parent Opinion Survey, we kindly remind you to complete this survey before the closing date of 3rd September. These results are crucial for our strategic planning and help guide the future direction of the school. 

Thank you

Thanks again to all of our NMPS community for your support, flexibility, and resilience during these challenging times. Take care of yourself and your family as we head into the extension of lockdown 6.0.