Year 7
When the Spirit of truth comes,
he will guide you into all the truth,
for he will not speak on his own authority,
but whatever he hears he will speak,
and he will declare to you
the things that are to come.
John 16:13
The Gospel of John contains several significant references to the ‘truth’. The truth will set us free and the truth will guide us in uncertain times. I can’t imagine a more uncertain time than the last couple of years. So for everyone in the Year 7 community we wait with enthusiasm for the return onsite to school in a few days’ time.
As COVID-19 vaccination rates increase and schools here in Australia and around the world return to onsite learning, the teachers and students at Kilbreda will endeavour to re-establish face-to-face relationships and routines, take time to reflect on their home learning and teaching experiences and think about where to from here.
The Year 7 students have been learning remotely for such a long period of time now and some have found this iteration of remote learning particularly difficult. As schools return to face-to-face teaching, we all need to consider how to support as many of this cohort going forward as possible. It may be years before we are able to measure the impact of the pandemic on our current school students, but we’ll do our very best to support all the Year 7 students when they return to school. School leaders, teachers, parents and communities can all support this process in different ways.
Relationships need to be re-established and be supportive of all, in this new era of face-to-face teaching. Conversations between students and teachers, as well as parents, are an important foundation moving forward. These conversations need active listening to the voices of students, so they can be reassured that their return to school will be successful.
School leaders and teachers need to be tolerant of differences in levels of anxiety and the different abilities of both teachers and students as they return to possibly new and different routines of school life after long periods at home.
Some students may take longer to reacclimatise themselves to the class situations, to lesson and timetable routines that were used prior to lockdowns. More than ever, students need to be reminded of their strengths, what they do well and positive school and classroom cultures that celebrate difference. Each Year 7 has their own truth, which will be respected when they return.
One thing to remember is that this return to onsite is both similar and different to the start of the year. Similar in that students have been offsite for a long period of time, some learning online and some not. Different in that students may have the same (not a new) teacher and are in the same classroom with the same peers who they haven’t been able to see.
Information about supporting young people during the pandemic can be found at https://headspace.org.au/young-people/how-to-cope-with-stress-related-to-covid-19/
As always, any parent or carer of a Year 7 student is welcome to contact me at school by phone or email at bill.fitzsimons@kilbreda.vic.edu.au
Bill Fitzsimons
Level Leader:
Year 7