MRPS Whole School ANZAC Day Service

Dear Families,

I cordially invite you and your entire family (where available), to attend the MRPS Webex (online) ANZAC Service.

The service is this Friday 24 April at 10am. The online event will be open for you all to join from 9:45am with a 10am sharp start.

Please click on the link below and use Webex Meetings from the web (may require a download on PC) or using Webex Meetings (free) App on iPads. If you already have the app (all school devices do) on iPad or the software on PC (most do), the link will take you straight to the "join meeting" option.

https://eduvic.webex.com/eduvic/j.php?MTID=mccabad71e43e59f4c49c859d5b5064bb

Contact School to get onto Sentral

To our loyal and positive school community. If you hear of families who aren't connected on Sentral, please actively and strongly encourage them to contact the school (phone or in person is best) to gain support in getting connected to Sentral. If you're not receiving email, text or push notifications, please re-login and set it to receive these. You can also check spam or junk mail, but that's not sustainable.

Sentral is our platform for communication, alongside iNewsletter. Should there be an emergency situation or critical information, we need families accessible.

We understand it has been unreliable, but please persist. Sentral's main two rival platforms, both crashed on the first two days of remote learning, so it's not perfect but it is our way.

Interesting to Note

Data backed evidence, suggests our students will be better equipped and not ill-affected by current schooling arrangements.

A study of students from the 2011 Christchurch Earthquake, reveals they have not been disadvantaged or indeed achieved lesser results, due to isolation during that period of time.

Students in Christchurch endured up to 8 months, in some instances, of no ability to access schools or remote learning, following the 2011 earthquake.

Nine years on, graduating students from both primary and secondary schooling are thriving and they have developed skills for coping and resourcefulness beyond other schools.

Week 3 & 4 School Support

Some facts below to follow and be aware of:

from next Monday's scheduled calls onward (Week 3), teachers are switching from phone calls to Webex online scheduled meetings 1:1
you will receive a webex meeting invite via Showbie (Yr3-6) or See-saw (Yr F-2) from your teacher for every 'meeting' (learning conference with student & parent)
you click on the meeting link
if you have an iPad it will take you straight to a page asking you to "join meeting" (big green button) OR it will ask you to download the Webex (free) App - note: majority of devices that are school owned or been at school will already have the app
if you are using a PC, the link will take you straight to a page asking you to "join meeting" (big green button) if you have the software OR it will ask you to download the "app" on your PC, to which you follow the usual download prompts, 'run' the program and 'allow' changes to your device

Privacy & Intellectual Property

Please note, that any material produced by the school, MUST NOT be shared, reproduced or published in any other way, without the written consent from the Principal. I ask that you consider our staff in this context. The learning tasks developed, accompanied by any video is work that we have put a great deal of effort into. We do not post this work in the online environment for praise or public scrutiny – the only purpose is to educate your children. You can imagine how vulnerable and exposed our staff will feel if videos of themselves are shared (even if the intentions are to highlight how wonderful our lessons are) – just as your professional documents and files are not for public display, neither are our teachers – please privilege them their privacy. If I am made aware of this breach of privacy, I will be required to address this with parents/carers directly.

Successful start to remote learning

Congratulations to students, parents/carers and staff for a very successful beginning to remote learning, albeit via a migration process, which continues.

You are all doing an amazing job, under very trying circumstances - congratulations!

I am in awe of your resilience, patience and persistence. This won't and can't be the same learning environment as usual, but it will bring our community together and we will be richer, stronger individuals because of it.

School Works

You may have noticed, if you've been around the school since the holiday period, we had the pine trees at the front of the school removed. The trees themselves were safe, but coming toward the end of their lives and were showing signs of stress and splits. The grounds look substantially different without them and it certainly opens up a line of sight across the grounds from the street frontage.

We are updating some facilities and resources during the school closure period, to maximise our opportunity of having fewer students in the grounds. Particular improvements are being made to our existing library, whereby we are re-defining its purpose and layout, to better reflect student demands / requests.

Classroom libraries are being developed and stocked, thanks to PFA raised funds, and all their volunteer hours. Students will be well supported with new and updated reading options.

We are also having a ramp installed to the existing library & art spaces to support wheelchair access.

Online School Council AGM & General Meeting

Next Monday, 27 April from 7pm is our School Council AGM and April General Meeting. Previous Minutes and Agenda's will be emailed home today.

You will also receive a link to the meeting via Webex.

Dates to Remember

This week...

Later this term...

2020 Camp Dates