Filter Content
Dear Families,
It's funny how some weeks feel long while others seem to fly by. As long and as stressful as last week was, it's seems we have quickly galloped through the past seven days.
On a local level we have seen COVID-19 numbers on the increase. I have reached out to our feeder secondary school, Lavalla Catholic College, to offer our support as they dealt with the situation of having cases in their student population. As a school in the DOSCEL system we benefit from shared resources that we have been able to utilise during Remote Learning, Onsite Learning and in the Lavalla's example, a confirmed case. As always our highest priority is child safety and the systems we have in place have this as their guiding principle.
The building works that we have just finished actually clearly demonstrate our commitment to child-safety and have proven a blessing with this round of school closures. The new admin centre allows us to monitor the site much more effectively. The design allows as to offer a safe, efficient and professional environment for our students, staff and community. Our doors and gates are now fitted with 'swipe' technology, our communication system allows for immediate response across all buildings, our site evacuation plans have been professional designed and our newly installed security cameras have seen our site have zero trespassing or vandalism issues which all supports our efforts to be operationally safe. We have been blessed to have been able to implement all these new technologies into our school.
On the staffing front this week we bid farewell to Miss Joanna Watson. Joey joined us last year as a Learning Support Officer fresh from Year 12 at Lavalla. She was the winner of the 2018 Champagnat Medal (Lavalla's Brownlow!) of her graduating class and her presence at our school has been wonderful while she prepared to begin her tertiary studies. Joey has been offered another position in a different workplace which will suit her study commitments next year, so she has made the sensible decision to begin her new job immediately. If your children have been in her classes the past two years, I'm sure they will be so disappointed to hear of her leaving. We wish Joey all the best for her future adventures.
During the week I have been working my way around the school virtually by joining in with the daily classroom Google Meets, as well as our twice weekly afternoon Whole School Google Meets. It has been great to see our attendance levels increasing all the time as these events not only assist to deliver the learning, they also contribute to everyone's positive sense of wellbeing and connection.
So, thanks to everyone for their efforts at school, at home and in the many varied and important workplaces across our community.
Have a great weekend and rest up!
Take care - Dave
We offer of prayers for those who have died, their families and the sick. We also give thanks for the skills and knowledge of those leaders and scientists who guide us in this time, especially those leading the medical research to deal with this crisis.
Our Lady Help of Christians, Patroness of Australia: Pray for Us
Saint Mary MacKillop: Pray for Us
Saint Luke, Patron Saint of Doctors:Pray for Us
Saint Agatha, Patron Saints of Nurses: Pray for Us
Next week is National Science Week with the theme being 'Deep Blue: Innovations for the future of our oceans'. The staff have put together some resources that will be posted on the school website as well as through their daily Google Classroom posts. We are also having a dress up day for our Friday Assembly ... the theme is Deep Blue (think oceans, beach wear, Little Mermaid).
Keep an eye open on social media and ABC3 TV for related tasks you might like to do at home.
Due to our current lockdown restrictions, we are going to do Book Club Issue 6 a little differently. You will still be able to place your order via: https://mybookclubs.scholastic.com.au/Parent/Login.aspx
Orders will need to be in by 1/09/2020. We will offer a contact-free pickup at school when the orders arrive.
The wellbeing of everyone in the home is of critical importance during Remote Learning. The academic components of Remote Learning serve to ensure learning continuity as well as provide stimulation for the children during lock down. Our concept of Family Well-being tasks is in place to provide parents with some activities, that link to our Specialist Learning Enrichment program, that offer flexibility and choice.
Families are encouraged to complete tasks together in a way that suits the demands of your household and resources. They are not compulsory but we strongly recommend you prioritise finding some time to do some activities together regularly. The resources provided are a sample menu and naturally we are quite happy for families to do other creative things together that we haven't even thought of.
Last term during Remote Learning the school made the decision to allow families to borrow a device from school to help families deliver home schooling. Please click on and complete the below web form link if you would like to take up this offer.
Please ring the school to organise a collection time.
We ask that only one adult per family comes onsite to collect the device and that you exercise social distancing when you attend.
Even though we are only a few days into Remote Learning we've notice a slight change in the way some families are approaching Round 2.
Yesterday at our Whole School Google Meet we spoke about the conditions where people learn. We learn when we get to that tipping point of struggle, a living on the edge type excitement you might feel your on a roller coaster or walking across a swing bridge. Teachers are constantly looking at their strategies to deliver the curriculum to a class of students all wth different needs and different behaviours - they live on the edge too!
A wise colleague from early in my teaching career told me to back off a little with my instructions, she felt I was spoon feeding them the answers. She told me that they had to be like jelly, they had to wobble a bit on the plate.
Checking in with a few families I have heard them talk about how this time around they are sitting back a little more and not driving the learning as much. This reminded me so much of the jelly on the plate analogy. In a classroom setting our staff aren't in a position to deliver constant support to everyone, but in a home environment you can. The challenge is to find the happy place between offering too much and too little support, we don't want jelly on the floor but we don't want to create unsuccessful learners who don't think for themselves, fear challenge or don't have the space to innovate for themselves. It also allows more potential time for parents who work from home to not be 1:1 for children. It may take a little time to get the balance ...... treat it like going to baby sleep-school and controlled crying!
As the capacity and safety features of Google Meet and Google Classroom are established for us to use immediately this time around, I remind parents that those spaces are just as important for you as they are for the children. Feel free to listen in or log in on your other devices to keep informed of what is happening.