Changing Circumstances

As I’m sure you can all imagine, it has been a hectic few days prior to me writing this. The NSW Government’s decision to place specific areas in the Hunter in lockdown at 5pm on Thursday, whilst always possible, still came suddenly. Sometimes the Department of Education receives a ‘heads-up’ from the Government about changing circumstances which is passed on to school principals and allows us to be ready and prepared with communication drafted for our community. Unfortunately, given the urgency of the situation this was not possible on Thursday. Principals learned of the lockdown at the same time as the general public did via the Premier’s live daily media conference at 11:00am.

Although we had previously planned two weeks’ worth of learning so it was ready to use should a snap lockdown be announced, the logistics of organising staff, communicating with the community and setting up procedures to provide clarity for all members of the school community has taken a little time.

My sincere thanks to all families that have sent us encouraging messages and for your overwhelming support with keeping children at home on Friday. We appreciate your support and patience as we readjust to learning from home and all of the challenges that come with that.

For obvious reasons, this edition of the newsletter is dedicated to providing further information about the current arrangements for students learning from home, with detailed guidance for specific aspects of school life. My apologies in advance for the length of this information. Hopefully you can find a quiet place with some time to read and digest this information.

Zoom Q&A

I have scheduled a Zoom information session for parents and carers on Monday 9 August at 3:30pm. In this session I’ll provide a brief update and am happy to answer any questions families may have about learning from home. The meeting details are as follows:

Join Zoom Meeting

https://nsweducation.zoom.us/j/65461299529?pwd=TnFRMVZJSVpEYTBlaXlSUm1DNDJaUT09

Meeting ID: 654 6129 9529

Passcode: 095086

You will need a registered Zoom account to join the meeting. Please join me if you can. 

A final word on the Olympics

By the time you are reading this, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will nearly be over and the closing ceremony only a few hours away. In my opinion, these Olympics have been every bit as good as those that have gone before them and the Japanese people can feel proud of how well they have run them given the challenges they faced. There have been so many special Olympic moments over the last 2 weeks that I would not do them justice if I tried to capture them with commentary here, so I won’t.

Perhaps I could leave you with something that has really struck me more and more as these games have worn on and that is how great are the names of the Aussie teams? It’s at the Olympics that we best get to support the Dolphins, Matildas, Olyroos, Kookaburras, Boomers, Opals, Hockeyroos, Stingers, Sharks, Cyclones, Aussie Spirit and added in 2021 the Irukandjis. It’s been an awesome 2 weeks and loads of fun supporting our Australian athletes.

Thank you for indulging (or putting up with my passion) and the comments made in this space over the past term. Only 16 sleeps until we can do it all again for the Paralympics!

Have a great week

David Holland

As of 5:00 pm Thursday 5 August, all Hunter schools including Lambton PS entered Level 4 operations with students learning from home from Friday 6 August and continuing until midnight on Thursday 12 August. Parents and carers are asked to keep their children at home. The government has not defined what an essential worker is, but assistance with keeping as many children at home as possible is required. No child will be turned away from school. 

As has always been the case, any student or staff member who is unwell should not attend school. If their symptoms are those consistent with Covid-19, the person must have a Covid-19 test and return a negative result prior to returning to school. Parents and carers must share a copy of the negative results with the school via the school email prior to a child returning to attend on-site.

Any student in attendance at school that develops symptoms while at school will be contacted by school staff and must be collected immediately. Parents and carers whose children are attending school are asked to have a plan in place to collect your child should this situation arise. Results are to be emailed to lambton-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au 

The Department of Education states that schools are to provide learning from home materials to students through hard copy, online or a blend of both. Schools are to employ a range of innovative practices to make sure all students have access to the appropriate materials to continue their learning from home.

At Lambton Public School, teachers will prioritise the delivery of learning via online tools.

• Google Classroom has been selected as the preferred platform. We acknowledge that not all students can consistently access learning online in the same way and therefore families will also be able to collect paper copies of assigned work in the form of a weekly pack from the school office or may have one emailed to their chosen email address.
• Teachers will plan in such a way as to provide a balance of activities that can be completed online and in other forms.
• Students who are completing work on hard copies, should aim to return it for marking and feedback by Friday each week.

NSW Health current advice states: all staff must wear a face mask or covering at all times including when working outdoors in all schools operating under Level 4 restrictions – this includes in playgrounds and on school grounds. While at school, masks or face coverings are required for students in Year 7 and above.

At Lambton Public School this means that all staff are required to wear a face mask in all common areas such as the admin block and library, when working with colleagues in all spaces, and when supervising students both in classrooms and in the playground.

Staff are not required to wear a mask when they are alone in an office or classroom. Primary aged students are not required to wear a mask but will be supported to do so if they wish to. 

The Department of Education guidelines state Schools are expected to keep in regular contact with all students and their families as part of their wellbeing check-in. At Lambton Public School this means:

A member of the teaching staff will attempt to make phone contact with each family once per week, each week with our initial priority being to the families of students that do not appear to be engaging in learning.

Teachers will check-in on students’ progress, offer support, troubleshoot any issues they are experiencing and check in on the wellbeing of the students while learning from home. Usually, this will be the child’s class teacher, however from time to time it could be another member of staff. 

Students that are learning from home are required to engage with activities set by their class teacher in order to be deemed as attending school. The Department of Education’s roll marking and student attendance guidelines states that: A student may be counted as attending school if there is reasonable evidence of participation in learning from home.

We understand that each family’s circumstances are not the same with respect to access; some students may be learning from home using Google classroom, and some using paper copies; and some may be sharing a device with another person in the home. However, all students need to be engaging to the best of their ability with the learning that has been assigned.

If there are extenuating circumstances at home, that impact your child’s ability to engage with learning from home, please discuss this with your child’s class teacher. We will strive to be as understanding and supportive as we can be.

For those of our students that are able to access their learning in the Google Classroom, we will ask our teachers to be available online between 9:00-9:30am and 12:30-1:00pm everyday to answer questions and clarify misunderstandings for students. Where possible, this is the best time for students to seek guidance and feedback from a teacher. Questions posted outside these times may see some delays in students receiving a response. Please note that because we still provide supervision for those students attending onsite, there may be some days in which your child’s class teacher is not available and another teacher checks in with the class in their place. 

Each class teacher will aim to schedule at least one whole class Zoom meeting for students per week. These will be an important component of the week for students to stay connected with school, their friends and their teacher. Students will be informed of these meetings via their teacher in the Google Classroom and we will endeavour to notify parents of upcoming class Zoom meetings on Skoolbag for those families whose children are completing work on hard copies. Also, the teachers will be careful to schedule their class meetings at different times of the week, so that if siblings are sharing access to a digital device, they have more chance of joining the Zoom meeting with their teacher.

We would appreciate if parents could support their child to join these sessions as often as possible. We would ask that for these meetings, the students are dressed appropriately before connecting. 

If the lockdown happens to extend beyond a single week, the teachers will be on the lookout for excellent student work. This applies equally to learning in the Google Classroom and learning done on hard copies.

Students selected to receive awards will be acknowledged before classmates online with physical certificates then to be mailed out to them during the next week. 

Due to the small number of students attending on-site, from Monday onwards and until further notice, all students will exit via the Kiss and Drop gate in Armstrong Street. Collecting children via Kiss and Drop is still the preferred collection option for those children not attending OSHC but being collected by a parent. If you are collecting your child on foot, regardless of whether they would normally exit out the front or back gate, we would ask that you collect them from the Kiss and Drop gate from Monday onwards. Previous communication about physically distancing from other adults and wearing a mask while waiting outside the school, still applies. 

With students more active online with learning from home, the department has provided a number of resources for families to help parents and carers stay informed about safety online. The best place to access these is on the Department’s website here: https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/learning-from-home/teaching-at-home/using-technology . There is also information about Google Classroom and accessing the Department’s online resources.

Just a reminder that the advice to schools and families gets updated regularly. The most up to date information about Covid-19 guidelines for schools and Learning from Home can be found on the Department of Education’s website at: https://education.nsw.gov.au/covid-19 . For the latest information from NSW Health in relation to Covid-19, exposure sites and local cases, please visit: https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19

The Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC) will end shortly.
Students need to have completed the challenge by the closure date of 3rd September. 

Students from Years 3-6 are required to enter their books online themselves, then bring the completed form (with parent signature) to the library. 

If they need assistance, they can come to the library at 2nd half lunch. 

K-2 children have already completed the challenge at school through enjoying a wide variety of Premier’s Reading Challenge books in the library and in their classroom. Their PRC books have been entered online for them. 

Happy Reading Everyone

Mrs Quinn

Teacher Librarian