From the Principal 

 

Happy Mother's Day

“To the world, you are a mother, but to your family, you are the world.” —Unknown

Happy Mother’s Day to all of mums in our school community.

Mother’s Day is such a special day to celebrate the gift of motherhood and the unwavering and unending love of a mother.

We hope that Sunday is a beautiful day for all of our mothers, albeit a different one, where many families cannot be physically together to celebrate with their mothers.  If this is the case, let this be a time to stop and reflect on how much we love and value our mothers and how central they are in each of our lives.

To our school children, please spoil your mums on Sunday and give thanks for their love.

To all those whose mums are no longer with us, we remember the beautiful memories of their love and care and how lucky we are to have had such a beautiful woman and role model in our lives.

We look forward to welcoming all mothers and grandmothers to our Zoom whole school assembly this Friday 8th May at 12:30 pm. The teachers will share the Zoom meeting link on your child's Google Classroom page on Friday morning. Please encourage any grandmothers to join us by 'Zooming' into our assembly. We ask that all of our mums sit on-screen with your children during this assembly.

To all of our mothers in our school community, have a great day on Sunday.

Remote Online Learning....Is it only Week 4?

I’m sure many of you are feeling the same ...is it only Week 4! 

As we soldier on during this unusual time I would like to thank you for your continued support in what has been a  difficult time for all. We appreciate the efforts you are taking to support your children. One of the big takeaways from this experience is to be easy on yourselves as parents. We see the efforts you are making to support your child and their learning. You are all doing an incredible job. The feedback from the children is that they love the time you are giving them - the board games, cooking, gardening, bike rides and the fun you are having together. Read with them, laugh with them and enjoy this uncustomary time together. Make them feel good about themselves and the love that surrounds them. They will never forget this special time.

Our children have been nothing short of marvellous during this time. They have been engaged and are trying to make the best of a difficult situation and have made all of our staff extremely proud of how they are coping and managing this situation. Our Student Wellbeing Leading Teacher, Annie McNaughton, has recently conducted a student survey and received their feedback on how they are feeling throughout this time. They have unanimously responded with some really positive comments about how they love spending more time with their families. The downside is that they miss their friends at school. Annie will share this important feedback from the children with you in the coming weeks.

Our staff are working tirelessly to try and meet each child’s learning needs. Your positive and supportive feedback has been so gratefully received and many staff have commented how they have felt renewed energy from your messages of encouragement. 

The last few days have certainly been difficult with our Federal Government and State Government at odds over the current restrictions that are in place and the proposed return to school dates. Whilst the messaging may seem confusing, I want to reassure you that all decisions regarding the return to school arrangements are based on the expert advice and directives from the Victorian Department of Education and Catholic Education Commission of Victoria. In due course, we will be informed of the proposed timelines of when it will be safe for the children to return to on-site schooling. As soon as we are made aware of this information we will endeavour to inform you immediately. We look forward to sharing this news with you.

In the interim we will continue with our online remote home schooling arrangements and are endeavouring to modify programs and procedures to meet the children's learning needs. If you are have any concerns or difficulties then please reach out via email to your child’s teacher and inform them of these issues. This is a ‘different’ time for everyone and a one-size-fits-all approach will not work for every child in our school. The teachers are more than willing to modify and work with you and your children to ensure that their learning needs are being met.

Behind the scenes the staff have been meeting regularly online and have been busily planning and discussing ways that we can improve the delivery of the curriculum to your child.

Following your survey feedback received last week we have met and discussed ways we can improve our feedback to you and your children and the amount of set tasks per day for your children. Hopefully, you would have noticed changes in the last week that reflect our response to your feedback.

Parent/ Teacher Interviews

A reminder that this Thursday 7th May are the parent/ teacher interviews that were postponed from last term. These online Zoom meetings will only be for 10 minutes and we ask for your support by being punctual and adhering to the allocated times. If parents can log on at least 5 minutes prior to the allocated time slot the teacher will place you in their waiting room and bring you into the meeting at your allocated time. Homeroom links for the interviews will be sent out via Skoolbag and email .

If you are unable to make the time then please notify the teacher via email and an alternative time will be rescheduled. In this unusual time, these meetings will be more about the social and emotional wellbeing of your child - how is your child/ parent coping with the workload and remote learning? Are there any supports we can offer you or your child? 

The teachers will also identify one area of the curriculum that they feel your child needs to work on throughout this time and how you can support them with this goal. As you will appreciate, 10 minutes is such a small window of time but will be an important ‘touch stone’ for you to ask any questions and receive some feedback from your child’s teacher.

School Fees

We would like to assure you that we are here to support and assist anyone who is experiencing financial pressure or difficulties throughout this difficult time. I appreciate the honest communication from parents who have contacted me to inform me of the need for the school's support.

As the landscape changes, we are awaiting further advice from the Catholic Education Office regarding 2020 school fees and fee-relief that may be offered to parents who have been affected by this pandemic. As you are aware, Catholic schools rely heavily on school fees as an additional source of income to operate and offer extracurricular activities, resources and facilities to the children.

However, right now, this is the furthest thing on our mind. We need to make sure that everyone in our school community feels supported during this time.

In due course, we will address a reduction in fees for things such as excursion expenditure and other programs that have been incorporated into the 2020 school fees (Aquatic Education programs, sporting carnivals, interschool sports etc) which will more than likely be cancelled for 2020. However, we just need to wait for the advice and, as time unfolds, what we can or cannot offer the children for the remainder of the 2020 school year. 

For those who are in a position to pay their children's school fees, we have decided to extend the $200 discount to June 30 for this year.