Whole School

Covid-19 and Continuous Learning – Term 3

We are currently enjoying being face-toface with our students and we hope and pray that this will be the case across the remainder of the year. Yet as we all know, the situation with the pandemic and related mitigation measures continues to change weekly, and daily in some cases. For this reason, we have put plans in place if we need to return to remote learning for a few days for a deep cleaning, or for a longer period.

Survey data and anecdotal reports from the community indicated our initial approach to remote learning was a sound one. Parents and students appreciated teachers’ efforts and the schools’ communication and organisation, and teachers praised students’ willingness to engage, support each other and give their best under difficult circumstances. Nevertheless, we identified a few areas requiring some improvement should we need to work remotely in the future. 

To address these needed improvements, the first day of a shift offsite will be a staff preparation and learning day, with students independently completing work set by their teachers. On that day, teachers will have the opportunity to improve their skills by seeing what worked well for other teachers, set up their Canvas classes with cleaner, more consistent navigation, develop skills in screen casting and use of OneNote Classroom, and add to their repertoire of strategies for collaboration using Microsoft Teams.

Remote lessons with teachers will start on the second day offsite. This staff preparation day will only take place once. Any additional shifts to learning from home will see teachers and students moving immediately into remote learning. 

Regardless of where we are physically, we want to assure you that we remain dedicated to staff and student wellbeing through connections to community and a focus on continuous learning.

Denise Lombardo

Director of Learning and Innovation