| Pathway For Return to School | Learning Material | Celebration of Learning | Kindergarten Orientation |
| Attendance | Additional Tasks | Assembly Awards | NAPLAN and the Impact of At-Home Learning |
| Wellbeing Check-ins | DUGS Day | Hunter Primary Athletics | Access to Technology |
| Parent/Teacher Interviews | Community Spirit | Matific Update | We Are All in this Together |
September 9- Wheelchair BasketBall Stage 3-postponed
September 14- Hunter Primary Athletics-postponed
September 6-9 Parent Teacher Interviews
October 26 -Start of Kindergarten 2022 Transition
On Friday the Premier and Education Minister announced two potential pathways by which students may return to school. Both pathways will be based upon whether NSW Health ‘stay at home orders’ (lockdowns) are lifted or are still in place leading up to October 25. An outline of the proposed plan is summarised below:
Pathway 1
Currently, the Hunter region has stay at home orders in place until midnight on Friday 10 September. We will not know until closer to this date whether these orders will be lifted or extended.
If at any stage NSW Health deems it is safe to lift these stay-at-home orders, then all students K-6 and staff will return on the next scheduled day for school - face to face.
In this instance, the school will operate under Level 3 Plus operational guidelines. All students will return to school, but we will be required to adhere to the restrictions put in place to reduce mingling between cohorts.
Pathway 2
If it becomes necessary that our region remains under stay-at-home orders up until the 25 October, students and staff will return to school for face-to-face teaching in a staged way.
Students will return to face-to-face learning with NSW Health-approved COVID-safe settings on school sites in the following order:
If pathway 2 becomes the plan for return, there will naturally be some implications for those families with children who attend school across the cohorts. A family could potentially have 1 sibling return to school on 25 October while others are still learning from home, which may bring greater challenges for families. We are awaiting further advice on this potential scenario, and we will keep you informed.
More details on how and when and with what guidelines will be in place will be sent to you as the situation unfolds.
During our At-Home learning period, schools have been directed to mark students as Learning from Home, if we have seen sufficient evidence of learning. We ask that all students who have been completing their learning in the workbook provided and not uploading to SeeSaw to return their workbook to school this week. You may wish to do this on Friday when you collect the new literacy and numeracy packs. Please have your child’s name and class clearly written on the front. A new book will be issued.
The majority of our students are enjoying our Wellbeing Zoom check-ins which are in place twice a week for each class. It is wonderful to be able to share stories, read books and play games together as a class. Our senior students have used the time to ask questions and give feedback about their learning and it is evident that they are developing the skills of life-long learners.
This week, in response to feedback we have altered the timetable slightly. So please check carefully.
If you are still having difficulty joining our Zoom meetings, please contact the school.
Please Note 5/6H will schedule their time on Tuesday around our High School Transition meeting (this only involves teachers and not students). Please see Seesaw for the update.
Our Term 3 Parent /Teacher interviews are going ahead. These will be held during week 10 and provide an opportunity for you to discuss your child’s progress. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, all interviews will be held via phone. More information on how to book will be distributed towards the end of this week
Our Literacy and Numeracy packs are designed to provide students with learning material for the fortnight; these are distributed at the end of our even weeks (this Friday) ready for learning the following Monday.
In between our fortnightly packages we provide students with additional learning material which covers our other Key Learning Areas, such as science, PE and CAPA. We do this for two reasons, 1 it breaks what would be a very large pack into sections, so we don’t overwhelm our students or parents and 2 it gives our students something to look forward to halfway through our learning cycle.
Today we have some engaging STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) activities, as well as a cultural task designed by our Aboriginal Educator Mr Newham. We will submit information we gather from this task, as part of the National Bird’s in Backyards count which takes place in October, so remember to post your work on Seesaw or bring it back to school when we return to face to face learning. Our third grid is called Social Tasks, which I know parents love because it includes tasks such as pack away all your toys, make your bed and help with the washing up!
These grids have been uploaded to Seesaw and Skoolbag and are also available for collection from the school office.
This coming Sunday is when we traditionally celebrate Fathers’ Day, which we like to call DUGS Day! Dads, Uncles, Grandfathers and Special Cares Day. To help families celebrate we have put together a matrix of activities / ideas our students can do to show someone how much they are loved. It is designed to be inclusive of all family structures and particularly for those who maybe spending this Sunday away from or without loved ones. This matrix has been uploaded to Seesaw and Skoolbag.
As part of a community project, we are working with First National Edgeworth who are providing care packages for the residents of Hawkins Masonic Retirement Village. Details of what each stage are doing will be posted on Seesaw and if you would like to be a part this great initiative, please drop any completed artworks in the school’s mailbox (which is at the front of the school) by 4:30pm on Monday 6th September.
We were so impressed with our young scientists and the experiments they conducted during Science week, as well as the way everyone engaged with our Book week activities. If you haven’t seen our students at work, jump onto our Face Book page!
Although we are not at school, we are always on the lookout for students who are displaying our school expectations of Respect, Responsibility and Strive. Our merit certificates which we hand out during our Friday assemblies are now being posted on Face Book. Hard copies will be given to students on our return to school.
Regrettably, but understandably, the decision has been made to further postpone the Hunter Primary Athletics Carnival scheduled for Tuesday 14 September. An alternate date has not been set at this stage.
Matific is launching a new learning experience for students. You may have already noticed this take place in preparation for the September release.
It still contains all the amazing learning games Matific had previously but it just looks slightly different. Students now have the option to create their own Avatar when they log into Matific for the first time.
When we receive more information from Matific regarding the new learning experience we will pass it on to families. Until then if you have any issues please contact the office and a technology team member can help support you.
If you have a child or know someone who has, who will be starting Kindergarten in 2022, now is the time to complete the necessary enrolment forms. Please contact our school office to ensure your child is on the list as we are currently planning our orientation program.
If you have already completed the necessary paperwork keep an eye out for your official invite to Kinder Orientation 2022. Our planned program runs over 4 weeks, allowing students to familiarise themselves with our school, our staff, and our procedures. We have set aside the following dates
Tuesday 26th October 2021 Tuesday 2nd November 2021
Tuesday 9th November 2021 Tuesday 16 November 2021
If Covid-19 restrictions prevent us from running this program, we will endeavour to meet the needs of our 2022 Kindergarten children and their families through on-line communication.
You may have seen in the media last week, encouraging reports based on 2021 NAPLAN results which highlighted that despite the interruptions to learning in the last 18 months due to Covid-19, students have not ‘gone backwards’ but have actually maintained their learning. The national testing authority ACARA released this specific statement last week: “The global COVID-19 pandemic has had no significant impact on students’ literacy and numeracy achievement at the national or state/territory level, according to the NAPLAN 2021 summary information released today”. NSW Education Minister, Sarah Mitchell, added “Once again, NSW students are achieving above the national average in all five domains, at all year levels”. Given the challenges faced over the past 18 months, this is encouraging news indeed.
We wish to remind parents that we do have some school laptops that can be borrowed by students to use while Learning from Home; however, you’ll need Wi-Fi access at home to access the internet. If you require a device, please email, or call the school.
Early in this and previous newsletters we mentioned attendance and the need for us to see evidence of learning, for students to be marked as Learning from Home. This is a directive we have been instructed to follow and is not included to cause additional stress.
Once again if you have any concerns about your child’s learning or wellbeing, please contact us. We know how challenging it is to keep your children on track at home, motivated, engaged and to still juggle the other important responsibilities you have as parents or carers, not to mention your own work commitments.
The longer we are learning from home the more concern many of us have that our children will regress. Please be assured that every single child is in the same boat and they all will be ok. When we are back in the classroom, we will bridge any gaps that may have developed during the At-Home learning phase. Teachers are experts at this, and our 2021 State NAPLAN results are a testimony to this.
Our students are aware of COVID-19 and the implications it is having on them and their families. And although the idea of Leaning from Home- No School may have been welcomed in the beginning, most will be starting to miss the routine and normality that school provides and especially the social side of school.
You may notice an increase in behaviour issues. Whether it's anxiety, or anger or protest that they can't do things they want to. This is normal and expected under these circumstances. Kids need a lot of love and reassurance right now and it is better to find ways to enjoy your time together than argue about schoolwork. Don’t mandate hours of learning time if they are resisting it. When they are ready you can try again.
At the end of the day everyone’s mental health is more important than academic skills. Find other ways to learn together, go for a walk together, talk about the things you see, cook meals together, take virtual field trips. Taronga Zoo and many of our wonderful museums have opened their doors and invite you to join them on digital platforms. Read a book together or watch a movie and discuss the plot and characters. Children feel our constant tension and anxiety and when this is over, they aren’t going to remember the learning they did while they were at home, but they will remember how they felt.
Don’t give up on learning but don’t sweat the small things.
