Principal's Report

REMOTE LEARNING

It’s nice to see some sunshine outside today after a week of wet, cold and gloomy weather.  No doubt many of you will take the opportunity to get outside and give the kids a good run around.

 

We’re already into week 4 of remote learning, although for some of you, time may have dragged and the days have seemed very long. You may be feeling like this term will go forever.  The article Scott has included in the wellbeing section of this newsletter is well worth a read and may help you understand the rollercoaster of emotions we’re likely to be experiencing as a result of current restrictions.

 

We continue to be impressed by the way students, parents and staff are handling the situation.  I’m enjoying popping into some morning class check-ins and chatting to students to get their perspective on things and hear how they are coping.  It’s nice to see that a number of children are proud of the way they are handling things.  Usually that results from plenty of guidance and support from parents.

 

There will be spin off benefits that come out of the changes that have been forced upon us, one of them being the development of self-management skills in our students.  We know some people naturally do these things well, but others have to work at it.

 

Another spin off benefit is the learning for our teachers.  There’s a real sense that our teachers are exploring new ways of using technology to make the learning accessible and engaging for our students.  There’s no doubt that some of this learning will be applied well after the days of Covid-19 are gone.

 

It was great to still have a large audience with last week’s broadcast, despite going to the new timeslot of 2pm.  Thanks for tuning in, as this helps us keep the school community connected throughout this period.  Thanks also to those that are encouraging their children to contribute photos related to the current topic/challenge.  Having a student presence on the broadcasts is certainly something we want to encourage. 

 

This week we’d like to encourage all parents to steer their children in the direction of learning tasks set by our specialist teachers.  The specialists are doing a brilliant job preparing engaging tasks for the kids and we’d like to see more children giving these tasks a go.  Some parents have told us that their children only have enough time to get the literacy and numeracy tasks completed as set by their classroom teacher.  If that’s the case for your children, it’s OK to put the literacy and numeracy tasks aside occasionally and make some time to attend to specialist tasks.

 

Well done to Mrs Sullivan who has adapted the Mother’s Day Stall to fit the current environment and thanks to parents who have already placed orders.  We’re always looking for opportunities to teach the children about gratitude and the Mother’s Day Stall is one of those, so we are pleased to have found a way to make it work.

 

In terms of transitioning out of the current restrictions, we don’t know any more than you and will keep you posted with updates as they come through.  It looks like current arrangements will remain for some time and we'll plan to make the best of that.  Advice from DET regarding assessment and reporting guidelines for term 2 are expected soon. 

 

We hope you have a successful week of remote learning at your place and please feel free to reach out if you need assistance of any kind.