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Michael Gray, Principal
Dear St. Joseph’s School Community,
I trust in this new environment we are all living in that the message of Easter had a chance to arise within your family’s isolation reality! The Easter message is one of hope and it challenges us, in these difficult times, to Live with Joy (Young people searching for hidden Easter eggs!), Live without Fear (We will come through this time and the community sacrifices we are all making is having a difference to health in Australia), Live with New Eyes (Working with your child at home will open new possibilities, new discoveries, new challenges and confirm your belief in your child).
My key tip is to focus on what matters; values, care, doing your best and having a go. If some gaps in learning do occur teachers and schools will identify them and make up for it and “in the grand scheme of 13 years’ of education, it is not going to be the end of the world.” (Age Newspaper advice over last weekend.) This though is gold. With significantly altered programs and resourcing changes, it is important to prioritise and trust your school. Our staff are all here to help. It is one step at a time.
For the on-line remote program and students in your home, your child’s teacher will contact you this week and help you get started. The learning plan to guide the work will arrive today. One step at a time, tomorrow will come.
The school on-site program attendees will also receive correspondence today; the key points are, arrive at school from 8:50 am, in uniform, with snack and lunch and the package sent out over the break. The program will start in the hall and then move to the classrooms. Noting teachers and support staff helping with the on-site program will not be the child’s normal classroom teacher. Classroom teachers will be working contacting the home students. Pick-up can happen from 1:00pm with all students finishing at 3:00 pm. The normal After School Care program will commence at 3:30 pm.
General Program Context
To achieve the necessary community health goals of reducing travel, protecting our health system, staying home and saving lives, schools in Victoria are being asked to make additions to their school operating models for Term 2 and transition to flexible and remote learning.
Schools must also provide a ‘Care and Supervision’ option for students that cannot stay home due to family work or are identified as vulnerable.
Additional to the above, the Victorian Premier and Education Department, along with the Chief Victorian Health Officer and the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria has advised all schools for Term 2 that “any student who can stay home must stay home” and “staff must work from home”. These two requirements will have a significant impact on program delivery. All schools in Victoria are required to offer this program.
Tomorrow
From Wednesday 15th April, 2020, the on-line remote learning will start. Importantly this new mode of learning will be new for everyone. It will be a gradual step by step process. Success will build on success, mistakes can be reviewed and learnt from and it is not a race!
A final reminder is no issue is too big or too small. The Leadership Team at St. Joseph’s will be available each day to answers questions, clarify and help. Our teaching teams are highly skilled committed people. These teams have already demonstrated high-level commitment and support to your precious young people and will continue to do so. I trust all goes well these next three days.
Regards
Michael Gray, Principal
Later today an Individual Learning Plan for each child will be uploaded to PAM, you will receive an email notification. This will contain a comprehensive outline of what your child/ren will be working on each week.
To clarify, in a previous correspondence our program SIMON was referred to instead of PAM. Pam stands for Parent Access Module and is what the parents see and use whereas SIMON is the program that our staff use.
PAM can be accessed via our website or SZapp using your individual family parent login and password. Note: Andriod users need to access PAM via the school website if order to view .PDF files.
During Term 2 if your child is unwell and unable to participate in on-line remote learning or attend on-site learning as arranged, please contact the school via our SZAPP to notify us of the "absence".
You can now also notify the school of absences via PAM by clicking on the "Parent Notified Absences" (see the screen shot below).
Our Administration team are working on a rotating basis in the office due to social distancing guidelines. For this reason the school can be contacted via phone during the modified hours of 10:30am - 2:30pm each day.
We encourage families to use the "Get in Touch" tile on the SZAPP to contact the school. Emails will then be directed to an appropriate staff member to respond to.
Teachers will be contacting students throughout this remote learning period.
Please note that for privacy reasons their phone call may appear as "No Caller ID" or a similiar message.
We have received completed important surveys for a large majority of our students. If you have not had a chance to do so please complete this week. It will help us ensure your children have access to quality remote learning opportunities this term.
Thank you to families who have completed the survey and advising of your families interest in accessing the St. Joseph’s Primary School, Government and Catholic Education Commission of Victoria’s initiated on-site ‘Care and Supervision’ support, during the World Health Organisation’s declared coronavirus pandemic.
For vulnerable students or those where no other arrangements can be made please complete the following form for School Business Manager, Cathy Duynhoven.
This program will run within school hours and will not be a full classroom educational program but adjusted as per all our students.
A detailed letter containing arrangments for onsite care and supervision will be emailed to families who have registered for this program.
School Sports Victoria have provided a statement on 7th April, 2020 in relation to the Coronavirus and School Sports. A link to this statement is below.
Note: Our school will provide appropriate updates via the newsletter in relation to individual and team sports when we have more certain information. Please don't contact our School's Sports Coordinator for further details as the SSV website suggests.
The link on the SSV site to "ways to remain active and practice your sports skills" has some great information for parents and students.
Emily Lloyd, Sports Co-ordinator
sport@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au
Thanks to the great work from Glen Watson Photography families who ordered a School Package with a digital option will have received, via email, a copy of their child's school photo.
Packages that had a digital option were the Digital Package, the Photobook pack and the Premium Pack. So if you ordered single photo/s (rather than a package), a 4 Page Booklet or a Basic Pack you will NOT receive a digital copy.
If you thought you should have received a digital copy and you didn't, then check your junk/spam folder or search for Watson if your email program.
Please contact Glen at Glen Watson Photography with any queries regarding your order. Glen can be contacted via the Contact button on his website.
We are expecting the photo orders to be delivered to the school later this week. Further information regarding the distribution of the orders will follow in next Monday's newsletter.
Enrolments for all NEW families open on Monday 25th May and close on Friday 19th June at 4pm.