Principal's Message
Commemorating ANZAC Day
Please find below the link to our school's presentation to commemorate ANZAC Day. Learning about ANZAC Day helps young children to understand the life and times of Australia and its people. By building our students' understanding, the many real life stories of sacrifice and heroism of everyday Australians will not be lost, but be handed down to future generations. We thank our families who have contributed to the presentation this year and hope you have an opportunity to view and reflect with your families.
We understand there may be some issues accessing videos from personal devices, this presentation will also be posted to google classrooms by teachers on Friday.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Vx19jBUIFpVissljlMEUso_ilzaHSJzlr6cz1An5iy4/edit?usp=sharing
Remote Learning Term 2
Thank you for taking the time last term to provide feedback on our ‘Learning from Home’ model. We have been able to make some changes to the model which we hope will work better for your family.
This term teachers will run all classes remotely, with families able to access this while continuing to focus on their children’s wellbeing and their household needs. While routines are important for children’s mental health and wellbeing, there is no need for families to stick to a rigid 9am to 3pm school timetable.
All remote learning has been designed by our teachers and able to be accessed by families and students, at times that suits you. Teachers will set a range of tasks for the week that students can complete whenever best suits them. Teacher will also be arranging protocols for checking in with you and your children.
On the Friday prior to a new week, teachers will post a schedule of the following week’s learning tasks. You will have the opportunity to preview the learning available for the next week, and design your child’s week to suit your family’s needs and priorities. There are however, set times for the Live Google Meet chats with the classroom and specialist teachers and these are outlined on the weekly schedule. If your child misses one of these live sessions, there will be a recording posted shortly after onto Google Classroom for your child to view at any time.
You will notice that learning tasks set by the classroom teacher are focussed strongly on building students' literacy and numeracy skills. Each week, there will be ‘submittable’ tasks. These are indicated with a ‘Submit’ symbol on the weekly schedule. Where possible, we would like students to work on these as a priority and post their work back to their teachers for feedback.
If your child has questions about the learning tasks set, there is a daily Q&A chat with their teachers. They can also post questions via Google Classroom. If you have further questions or feedback, you can email the classroom or specialist teacher directly.
Preschool will be continuing with the Seesaw class app in the same format as was trialled Term 1, Week 10.
Safe and Supervised Sites
We understand the changes for Term 2 can be confusing and many people have questions about how it all works. Keep the questions coming because it is helping us to get the systems right for all stakeholders.
All learning will be delivered remotely by our teachers and will be the same as that provided for students studying at home. Students will need to bring to school their own computer devices and other materials provided by their classroom teachers. The wellbeing of staff and students remains our key priority. Physical distancing will be practiced in classrooms and around play and recreation as much as possible. Health and wellbeing measures will be in place at all school sites, including hand washing and the use of hand sanitisers.
The school has a list of registered students to attend Amaroo School. We have been working on several documents for the staff who will be working with our students:
- How each student learns best and supporting plans if applicable
- Collating each students' passwords, class codes and links to access remote learning
If you haven’t registered to attend a school site, this can be done at any time if your circumstances change, no child will be turned away. We will have skeleton staff on site at Ngunnawal from Tuesday 28 April and can assist people with this if required.
Several of our regular relief teachers will be present at Amaroo School as will members of our executive team so our children will have familiar faces when they arrive.
Refunds for AquaSafe
We have been un able to secure a suitable Aquasafe booking for later in the year therefore we will refunding parents who have paid for this program. Please use the refund form below to submit a refund request.
BASE Reports
‘BASE Reports’ (previously known as PIPS reports) were due to be issued this week, however due to the global issues caused by COVID-19, the Directorate has yet to receive the dataset needed in order to produce these reports. As soon as it is received, the Directorate will endeavour to quality assure the data and provide feedback to schools for distribution. As is the case with any aspect of your child’s education, should you have any concerns, please discuss with the school/classroom teacher as they are best placed to provide quality feedback.
School Improvement Works
Over the holidays our school improvement works have continued. We have completed some minor repairs in preschool and all of our preschool classroom interiors have been painted. We have new blinds being installed in lots of classrooms over the next few weeks. Work on the preschool entrance and a nature play area will also commence in the next week. We look forward to sharing this with you when all when you return.
Staff Changes
Next week we welcome Naomi Smidt as the teacher of 4XB. 4XB will become 4NS for the remainder of the year. We wish Xian all the best will her move to Western Australia when borders reopen.
2NE will be working with both Nichole and Catherine over the next couple of weeks. Catherine will officially commence as the teacher of 2CB at the beginning of week 3. We wish Nichole all the best with her impending new arrival.
We also wish Lauren Samson from our administration team all the best as she commences maternity leave.