Dear Parents and Families,

School is back, the footy is back and local sport is maybe back.  I hope life is maybe getting back to normal for your family.

Can I start by congratulating our senior students on the way they have settled back into school after their extended break.  It has been interesting listening to their stories and opinions on their experience of learning from home.  There has been a growing evidence base around the impact of remote learning across the globe with the only similar situation in modern times being the extended closure of New Zealand schools after the tragic earthquakes in 2011.  The comments from the students spoke of the feeling of being more in charge of their learning, having to be more self directed and independent with a reduced about of support while the negatives generally were around a lack of peer interaction and connection to school.  Staff reported similar ideas with the lack of connection being something they sorely missed, while the reality of a normal classroom with students working at different levels and at varying speeds was amplified in remote learning.  When chatting with parents we have noticed an overall increased engagement in their children's learning and an understanding of how they learn, with remote learning giving parents a raw experience of each child's strengths and challenges.  We would be interested to hear of how you think we could harness the lessons learnt from remote learning to improve child's school experiences.

During all this COVID commotion faith communities have continued to celebrate the mystery and joy of the Easter.  The season of Easter doesn't stop on Easter Sunday but continues for weeks afterwards with some key events that laid the foundation for the Christian religions to this day, the recent celebration of Pentecost in particular shaping the church as it is the moment the first witness of Jesus went out to the people to speak of the Good News.  The Good News of today is the increased availability of more people allowed to attend Mass.  This past weekend we celebrated a feast called the Holy Body and Blood of Christ which reminds us of the gift of communion received by the Disciples at the Last Supper but also on offer to us at Mass.  We look forward to our return to school masses sometime next term.

The remainder of 2020 school calendar will continue to be shaped by Federal and State guidelines.  As a school our greatest asset are our children so we will continue to heed the health advice given to us.  Already we anticipate that camps and excursions will be impacted as we move into the second half of the year, while we hope that we will be given some clarity around how we can reschedule the sacramental program.  The Melbourne Camp for the Year 5/6 students is a good example of a complicated scenario as it involves multiple tourist type venues, a number of different restaurants, public transport and overnight accommodation.  As the weeks progress we will have a much clearer understanding of our options, as schools around the country adapt and modify.

Finally (and continuing the theme of adaptability and modification) we thank those families who have responded online or via the paper return slip to acknolwedge you received the notifcation about the poorly timed power outage causing us to close the school this Wednesday.  When we were made aware of this on Friday we just shook our head and wondered what else 2020 could throw at us.  It really has been a hoot of a year so far ....... a Collingwood premiership would really just finish me off!

Have a great week

Dave