Dear Students, Parents, Carers and Families,

As we move into a new chapter of the COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria, it is even more apparent that our resolve and commitment to overcome these continuing challenges is significantly dependent on how we do this together as a community.

With the current restrictions it seems very likely that schools will be closed and students learning remotely either online or via paper packs for a significant amount of time. Even though the school looks different at the moment, school attendance and engagement in learning has never been more important or significant to a child’s development!

Many parents and educators share a common worry: When the pandemic subsides, how will my kids’ learning be impacted upon?

Answering this question is complicated by the unique circumstances of COVID-19. Current school closures have added to the time that students have already spent learning at home during the first lock down measures in Term 2, without explicit face-to-face instruction from teachers.

Meanwhile, teachers continually look towards ensuring there is maximum student engagement and learning with schools adapting their teaching and learning approach and content for the online platform. Similarly, parents are juggling work responsibilities (and associated concerns) with caring for and teaching their own children. Students themselves are faced with isolation and uncertainty about the future. In so many ways, the current situation is unprecedented for all of us in one way or another.

This is why high levels of student attendance and engagement in learning every day during this time is even more important to our children’s education and their future.

The Importance of School Attendance and Learning Everyday

A student’s absences accrue over several years, the effect on a student’s academic achievement is cumulative with as little as 10% a year having an ongoing impact on their learning growth. Therefore, regular school attendance is an important factor in school and life success. Research shows a direct correlation between good attendance and student achievement. Poor attendance has been linked to poor academic achievement, which starts from their very first year in Foundation.

In fact, the EARLY YEARS of school are the most important due to a child’s rate of development.

Did you know that:

a child who is absent a day of school per week misses an equivalent of two years of their school life
90% of young people with absence rates below 85% fail to achieve five or more good grades of VCE and around one third achieve no VCEs at all
poor school attendance is also closely associated with a high percentage of early school leavers

VCE may seem a long way off for you and your child but all absences at any stage leads to gaps in your child’s learning. This in turn can:

mean that they fall behind in work
affect their motivation
affect their enjoyment of learning
lead to poor behaviour
affect their confidence in school

Non-attendance is not clear cut as there are many contributing factors. Especially now, I know it is really hard in so many different ways for all of us, but it is important we make sure our children continue to learn.

In an ideal world, it would be great if all students completed every learning activity every day, but we are very aware and realistic that our situation is not ideal. It just means that we need to make sure our children have a really good go at it and do the best that they can every day. It does not mean that checking in for the roll in the morning, but then not submitting or doing any of the learning is enough.

Important Changes to Recording Attendance

Our attendance records are one of the indicators we use to measure student engagement and remote learning. In order for us to measure this more accurately and also provide reports to the Department of Education and Training, we will be making the following change:

Where the roll is taken in the morning, but there is limited to no student engagement during the day with limited to no learning tasks submitted then the student’s attendance will be adjusted to absent.

As in the classroom, the student’s work provides important information to the teacher about the student’s learning. This further enables our teachers to plan appropriately for the student’s needs and then report accurately on the student’s progress and achievement in their end of semester report.

EVERY MINUTE COUNTS!

Wellbeing Wednesday’s Success

The feedback from families and the level of engagement of students and families for Wellbeing Wednesday was amazing! There were some brilliant creations and innovations, but most importantly everyone had a lot of fun doing it. Next week, we will be able to share a few photos of these with the community. Well done!

Wellbeing Wednesday’s Coming Soon

As mentioned last week, we had already planned to have another Wellbeing Wednesday on the 19th August, however due to Stage 4 restrictions being implemented we will be having a Wellbeing Wednesday every second week.

Wellbeing Wednesday dates:

Wednesday 19th August
Wednesday 2nd September
Wednesday 16th September

Take care and stay safe!

Kind regards,

Darren Wallace

Principal

Mathletics