A message from the Principal

A Term to Remember

Well, I remember a few weeks ago feeling as though we had crammed as much excitement and activity as was humanly possible into this term. I was wrong.

The last 2 weeks have been dramatic, scary, confusing ... we have all been put through the ringer. However, I can confidently say that the support through the community has been immense. Thank you to all the parents who have made an effort to pass on messages of support and encouragement for myself and the teachers and to the many who have been helping each other out, too.

It was an odd period of time for everyone involved but some of the observations I made over the last 2 weeks are:

* Our community valued the chance to see and speak with each other, even as the physical distance between us started to grow, everybody got a little energy boost when they came into the school.

* The students are resilient. As much as we worry and respond to their anxieties, in difficult circumstances they were managing remarkably well (let's be honest, sometimes better than we were).

* RNPS teachers are selfless. The conversations I have had over the last 2 weeks have been about the children and about how to teach and support them. While the world spun in circles, they remained focused on the children's needs.

So, as we move into a brief hiatus, where we will all stay at home and try to occupy ourselves and the children through whatever means we can, I would like to say thank you. To the students, teachers and parents. We are currently faced with significant challenges and while it is a long way from being over, I am confident that as a school community we will emerge refreshed and re-energised.

Please allow the children time to decompress at home. In any normal term, it would be important for them to have a break from school work and formal learning - at this point in time, it's even more crucial. That doesn't mean that learning stops, it just means we wait patiently for the learning opportunities to come to us. Whether working in the garden, cooking in the kitchen, doing some laundry or playing with the pets - learning needn't stop as long we ask the right questions and allow ourselves the time to be curious and critical.

The teachers are under strict instructions from me to take a break, so please allow them this space to shift their attention to the wellbeing of themselves and their family.

While we await confirmation about which mode learning will take place in, there are a couple of things to remember:

* Learning resumes for students on Wednesday April 15, whatever mode we are in.

* If remote learning starts, Prep to Year 3 will use SeeSaw as their primary communication platform. Teachers will contact parents and students through this platform. Years 4 to 6 will use Google Classroom as their primary communication platform.

* In the event that we do go to remote learning, children of parents who work in essential services will have the option of students accessing the remote learning while under supervision at school.

* If you know a family who doesn't have access to the internet or a device at home, please ask them to contact me during the holidays.

If I could ask one favour please: if all families could ask their children to log onto the platform and share one interesting thing about their holidays. This will let us know who is able to access the learning and who we need to follow up with to help them use it.

I am sure there will be more information and more twists and turns in the next 2 weeks, but at least for now, I think we have a rough picture of what could happen. Thank you for your patience, understanding and flexibility during this time, it has meant a lot to all of the staff at RNPS.

Take care during the holidays and enjoy your time with the family.

This Week's Assembly Award

Parent Resources

The following articles from our school's Parenting Ideas subscription offer interesting perspectives on some current issues for some parents.

Talking to children about coronavirus.

https://bit.ly/2JmeWW8

Spending time with kids. An interesting article that talks briefly about making the most of the time we spend with our children.

https://bit.ly/2QQ8zi2

Staffing change

A big thank you to Jessica Easy, who is starting a new role at another school after many years of service to the students at RNPS. Miss Easy has been such a caring and supportive teacher to students for over 9 years, we wish her all the best.

We also are excited to welcome back Belinda Nerantzoulis from family leave who will take over teaching 1E.

It's an interesting time for teachers to be making these transitions but the Year 1 team have been trying their best to make it as seamless as possible.

We also wish the best to Deb Freeman, our office manager, as she starts an extended period of leave.

Ideas for Home

Some things that have passed through my inbox the last week or so that might help you:

This resource (below) may be helpful for those supporting a child with ASD.

Active April will look a lot different than usual and unfortunately you won't benefit from the many great discounts, but this page of workouts might give you some ideas to help keep the family moving: Link to Active April Workouts

For something a bit slower, try an art challenge, such as this: Link or this one catered to children (Link)

And to support learning, this DET resource is great to get you thinking about different ways to support literacy and numeracy development:

Link

And don't forget to ask your children to post to the SeeSaw or Google Classroom page with something interesting from their holidays.

OBAN ORACLE

Issue 5 · 27 Mar 2020

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