assistant principal's message

dear parents and families 

So for the Foundation and Junior grades, Tuesday is the day! So much has already been shared with you about the arrangements, and I sincerely hope that you and your children feel as prepared as possible. 

While I’m aware that Tuesday next week could be emotional for many of us, and for many reasons, I am confident that once we all get back into routine, things will become more comfortable and reassuring. I certainly hope so!

I thought I’d take the time to share a beautiful story told to me by Carmen, who has a grade 1 child. I was so moved by what she told me this week during a meeting, I asked if I could include it in this newsletter, this is what Carmen wrote about commencing remote learning:

"Learning Outside the Box"

The idea of not being at school for a child so accustomed to schedules and regimens was daunting to say the least. We had done a lot of preparation for transition to Year 1 and the changes due to the pandemic looked as it would undo all of that preparation and work.

We approached the idea of remote learning with dread and despair, assuming that our child would not succeed in the transition. 

We were honest with Wendy and his teacher, Lisa that we didn't think our child would be able to keep up with the work, let alone be successful in the requirements of remote learning.

Instead of agreeing with our fatalist perspective, Wendy and Lisa reassured us that there we creative and non-stressful ways to engage our child at home.

More importantly, they stressed important things that made us feel so much better:

-That teaching is an art and no one expects us to jump into the shoes of an experienced primary teacher

-That each child has individual strengths and weakness and to use the time at home to give them a supportive and calm environment to work on those

-That this is a STRESSFUL time for EVERYONE, including the adults and to give ourselves a pat on the back for making it through another day.

and my favorite gem: that it’s not likely that we would get through everything assigned and to work with our child AT HIS LEVEL and DO NOT STRESS! 

I heard those things and internalized them and realized that it was all true. 

We decided to take on the "Don't Worry Be Happy" attitude.

We set up a little "learning corner".

Lisa created a “pared down” version of the weekly lesson plans keeping in mind his current level and achievable goals.

We made a realistic schedule that worked for our child with plenty of breaks

and most importantly, we stopped stressing. 

Much to our shock, our little one flourished. He loved the new format of his learning corner. He became comfortable with our "new normal". He enjoyed his activities and seeing his work go up on See Saw. Seeing him relaxed and happy made us realize that we had succeed. We were doing what we could do in the circumstances we were given.

This has been a steep learning curve for all of us but I truly have learned a lot about the resilience of our little learners and I truly appreciate the BNWPS family for helping us through this. 

It took a Pandemic and a complete disruption of life as we know it for us to realize that we had the tools and resources the entire time but it took the support of Wendy and Lisa to give us the confidence to try.

Thank you!!

We look forward to seeing you back soon!!!

Carmen

Thank you Carmen, while everyone’s stories are different, I hope that you have all found your children’s strengths and have had some unique and uplifting experiences, even in this challenging time.

Another story that I want to share is that of the great work our staff. One group of staff who are often unsung heroes are our Education Support Staff (ESS). They work with our children who need extra care and support.  In order to provide a specific child with engaging and academically challenging tasks, Emelia who many of you may know, has taken this time to use her creativity to develop this monopoly game. The student enjoyed it so much, he didn’t even realise he was learning! Thanks to Emilia and to all staff for continuing to go above and beyond. There are many stories such as this. 

Lego Competition

Well the time has come… our wonderful JSC students and staff next week will begin looking at the LEGO creations, and beginning to short list them. I’m sure they’d be happy if any final creations were sent in on Monday, but then the entries will CLOSE! 

The shortlisted creations will then be sent to Ryan McNaught, AKA “The Brickman”!! We are very excited and appreciative that Ryan has very kindly agreed to be our expert judge. 

Parent teacher interviews:

Parent teacher interviews will be postponed until early next term. By then hopefully more flexible ways of communicating will be available to us all. In the meanwhile, your children’s team or classroom teacher will be asking every family to share your understandings of your children’s strengths and areas for improvement. The goal for collecting this information, while it is fresh in everyone’s mind, is to support richer discussions when we do ‘meet’. This will help us to form learning goals based on our shared understandings of your children. 

Some safety measures:

A big thank you to Paul Broadhurst and the Building and Grounds team in sourcing and installing 6 new drinking troughs where children will be able to fill up water bottles. As you are all aware, the ‘bubblers’ drinking taps have been turned off at this stage. Also to support good hand hygiene, outside each classroom are wall mounted hand sanitizers.

Return to School Map.

So as to support families visually, this morning we sent out the brilliant map made by Kate Cunningham, unfortunately I’d failed to pick up the date at the top reading Monday 26th of May, rather than Tuesday 26th of May. As everyone knows by now, F-2 students will be returning to school on Tuesday 26th of May, and Monday 25th of May is a Pupil Free Day! The modified map is also attached to this newsletter. I apologise if this was confusing for anyone!

Community announcement:

Online session: Getting ready for kindergarten and school

Moreland Council will be facilitating an online session for parents, carers and educators, which will identify the differences between preschool and school settings and discuss children’s personal characteristics, skills and attitudes that support them in these settings. Strategies and experiences that help children transition into preschool and school will be discussed along with challenges children and parents might experience, and other issues. The session will be facilitated by Kay Margetts, an Associate Professor and Honorary Principal Fellow of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. She has undertaken significant research in the area of children’s transition and adjustment to school and regularly consults on early childhood development, learning and teaching both locally and internationally.

The session will be held via a Zoom link Tuesday 26 May 2020 from 7.00pm-9.00pm. 

For further information and to book please click here or if the hyperlink doesn’t work go to Merri Health on 935559900.

Cost: $13 per person

Take care 

Wendy White