Welcome Back

Welcome back to a very different term of learning. While many things around us have changed for the time being, I know as a school community we will draw upon our resilience, creativity and kindness to support each other as we navigate our way through this term. There will be times when technology will fail us, when things are unclear and when things just generally go wrong. It will be okay as we are all in this together and others are quite possibly feeling the same way as you. 

On the Royal Children’s Hospital’s website, parents can find advice supporting young people to cope with the Coronavirus. See link below:

https://www.rch.org.au/kidsinfo/fact_sheets/Supporting_children_and_young_people_to_cope_with_the_coronavirus_COVID-19_pandemic/

Our staff are dedicated to supporting students and families with learning this term, in whatever format that takes. Yesterday teachers sent an email to parents with two important documents to support Home/Remote learning this term:

• Term 2 Curriculum Outline for each year level
• Letter outlining minimum learning expectations and  answers to some questions parents may have as they begin supporting their child’s learning at home

Teachers have planned and set up learning for a period of two weeks. We will organise new student packs        (most likely for the Foundation, year 1, 2 & 3 students) to be picked up sometime next week. That way students will receive new readers and any hard copy learning they require.

A letter outlining further information to the parents of students who will be learning onsite at school was sent home yesterday. Key messages contained in this letter are:

• Reduced numbers of staff onsite. Staff that can work at home, must work at home
• The learning program delivered onsite should be the same as the learning program delivered to student undertaking home/remote learning
• Limited numbers of students to teacher ratio
• Students will be directed to maintain physical distancing and good hygiene practices
• Unwell students will be excluded from attending
• There will be a different teacher rostered on each day to supervise students. The school will provide staff to release the supervising teacher each day. There will be two staff members rostered on each day.
• Physical activity breaks for students will be limited to certain areas.
• The school will operate according to normal school hours of 9:00am-3:30pm
• Access to visitors and contractors will be monitored and limited

While the school is open, our school is operating in a limited capacity, following all guidelines from the Victorian Premier and CEVC. 

I thank the many parents for the considerate and understanding way in which you have corresponded  with me over the last few weeks. I understand this is a challenging time for parents, who are juggling working from home arrangements, along with now setting up to support their child’s learning at home. If you have any queries regarding your child’s learning program this term please contact your child’s teacher. For any other queries or questions, please contact me at principal@scmoorabbin.catholic.edu.au 

Welcome to Meghan Horwood

A very big welcome to our new Administration and Finance Manager Meghan Horwood. Meghan has previously worked in Catholic schools in this role and is looking forward to working with staff and families at our school. In the next few weeks while transitioning into her role, Meghan will work two days a week.(Wednesdays and Fridays) Beginning the 2 May she will work Tuesday to Friday and Paula Hamilton will work on Monday in the office. 

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

As we enter into our first week of Remote Learning, I wanted to provide you with some support information about helping the students stay safe online and how to talk to your children about what is happening in relation to the Covid 19 virus. 

The e-Safety Commissioner has produced a booklet called the Covid-19 Global online safety advice for parents and carers. “Even if you are at home together, it is not possible to monitor your child’s online activities every second of the day.It is important to talk to them about online safety issues to help develop their critical thinking and ability to make good choices.” e-Safety Commission.

This booklet covers important issues such checking the parental control on the devices being used by the students, designing a family friendly technology agreement,and ten tips to help keep your child safe online and much more. It can be downloaded at the following site:

https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-issues/covid-19/advice-parents-carers

The Catholic Education Office Melbourne has provided some parent information, via the Wellbeing site, from School TV, both videos have been presented by Michael Carr Gregg Child and adolescent Psychologist. The first video provides 11 tips for talking to the students about the virus in a positive way. The video is to help parents assist their children to feel informed with evidence based information that will be more reassuring than what they may have heard from their friends and snippets from the news.

Site: https://schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-coronavirus

The second video is focussed on preparing for Remote Learning. We are all heading into uncharted territory and it is important to remember to just do your best to balance remote learning and daily work responsibilities. Taking time out to have a break is essential for everyone. Make the break times a chance for all the family to enjoy. Make a brain break jar where everyone gets to write down activities they would like to do for 5-10 minutes eg: dance to a video, do some Yoga, count how many star jumps everyone can do in 30 seconds. Each break time, take turns to pull an idea out of the jar and complete the task before returning to work. To watch the video head to the following site:

https://schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-preparing-homeschooling

School TV has various information videos that you might also find useful over the coming weeks. Please continue to take care of each other and let your child’s classroom teacher know how they are going, when they make contact over the next few weeks. It’s important that everyone feels supported in this uncertain time and that we look out for each other.

Kind regards,

Maree Hills