RETURNING TO SCHOOL
We are looking forward to welcoming back our youngest students (F-2) on Tuesday 26th May and then the rest of our student cohort (3-6) a fortnight later on Tuesday 9th June.
We hope that you have by now all read our communication sent out on Wednesday of this week outlining important procedures for the Foundation- Year 2 student return. On Monday we will send out a simplified one-page reminder you can keep with you of the most important things you will need to remember for drop-off and pick-ups and to ensure we can all maintain physical distancing.
Aside from reading this important communication one of the most important ways you can help out everyone in this community is just by applying common sense when approaching all situations.
We thank you greatly for your cooperation and support with these new procedures and will continue to review and make adjustments as necessary to keep everyone safe.
STUDENT LEARNING
Every couple of weeks this term we have a call out to staff to send in to us photos of student learning and experiences. Receiving these photos and gaining insight into the learning experiences our teaching staff put together for our students is always the highlight of our week.
STAFF VIDEO FOR STUDENTS AND PARENTS
Thank you for the beautiful feedback we have received around the staff video from both students and parents. Miss Sweeney has just told us that the video is sitting on 367 views and 74 likes on Streams. It is hard to tell if some of our children are just watching it again and again, but we do certainly hope it makes its way around to all the students and parents.
If you would still like to watch this video and share with your children at home please click the following link.
https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/986a429f-2c26-4e4d-b480-f4b595aabb66
Remember you will need to login in through your child’s Teams account to view.
TRAFFIC AND SAFETY REMINDER WHEN RETURNING TO SCHOOL
School drop off and pick up parking signs must be adhered to. We encourage you to park your car a short distance from the school and walk, if needing to park your car.
Under no circumstances are any children to exit their car from the middle of the road whilst stopped in traffic. This is not a safe practice and the Glen Eira council will be called to fine people if this occurs. Please be patient and work together to ensure our children arrive safely at school.
WELLBEING – RETURNING TO SCHOOL: SLEEP AND ANXIETY
Michael Carr-Gregg mentioned in his recent wellbeing webinar, that sleep will be an issue for students when transitioning back to school and also anxiety. Please see the links below for suggested strategies around these two areas.
Raising Children’s Network – https://raisingchildren.net.au/school-age/sleep/better-sleep/sleep-better-tips
PARENT SURVEY – TOP 10 PARENT TAKEAWAYS!
Thank you to those parents that took the time to complete the parent survey regarding flexible and remote learning two weeks ago. We have greatly valued your feedback and reviewed it carefully to support our continued implementation of remote learning for the next few weeks.
We would like to share with you the TOP 10 TAKEAWAYS from the parent tips section in the hope that even one of these might assist you in the coming weeks.
- Take a small break if a particular task is too overwhelming.
- Letting my kids know how well they’re doing with learning from home and that I’m proud of them for their focus and adaptability.
- Don’t put too much pressure on yourselves, parents are not the experts of teaching.
- Do tasks in order of your child’s interest.
- Provide ample breaks if children lose focus. We do thirty minutes of work and thirty minutes of break.
- Isolate the daily repeatable tasks from the new ones so that kids can manage the parts they know themselves.
- Write a list of everyday activities they need to complete then put a stamp next to each activity as they complete them.
- Morning bike ride before school and work starts.
- I sit with my kids at the beginning of the day to identify what they have to submit and set a couple of alarms during the day so they do not spend all day on the same activity.
- Older siblings can often be helpful to younger siblings as they have completed similar areas of learning before. But make sure you talk to both your children separately first and work through how this could look when they support each other and work through some ground rules to avoid problems they might run in to.
PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS
Parent teacher interviews will take place in the final two weeks of this term on Monday and Tuesday afternoons. These will occur online and we will send you information on how to book a time with your child’s class teacher via Compass in the coming weeks.
This year the June interviews are parent teacher interviews rather than 3-way conferences involving your child. This decision has been based on your feedback gathered from surveys conducted last year and we have acted on this by creating a balance of different opportunities across the year for you to learn more about your child’s learning. Some of the planned opportunities are student led conferences, portfolio sharing, parent teacher interviews and student reports. The parent teacher interviews this term will be a time for you discuss the Term Two learning tasks comments and important next steps for your child as we move back to on-site learning.
STUDENT REPORTS
Student reports for Semester 1 will be available on Compass on Friday 12th June.
As outlined in previous communication, reports will look a little different this year and will follow the continuous reporting model. Reports will outline three learning tasks your child has completed (Reading, Writing and Mathematics) and provide your child with feedback to help recognise achievement and provide next steps for learning. Teacher feedback will be directed to the student and included to form part of the Semester 1 report. In addition to this you will receive a description of what has been taught this semester along with a brief general comment on how your child has adapted to remote learning.
Please contact the office if you require a hard copy of the report.
SCHOOL COUNCIL SUMMARY
On Monday night we had our monthly school council meeting online for the first time!
During this term we will continue to meet virtually. The council reviewed the school’s financial position and approved the amended budget taking in to consideration the changes in revenue and expenditure.
Additionally, council acknowledged the way the staff have expanded their skills and knowledge during this challenging time.
2021 ENROLMENT
A reminder for any parents who are yet to enrol their children for 2021, please do so as soon as possible as places are filling fast.