Dear Parents

 

We are thankful that all learners will return to school tomorrow and are excited to hear how they have used their time in lockdown. We recognise that some of our students will come back really enthusiastic to see their friends and teachers, whilst others may be a little reluctant.

To reset all of our learners, students will spend the day with their classroom teacher, working on culture setting and our school and classroom expectations. Teachers will be incorporating the personal and social capability skills and critical and creative thinking processes into learning tasks.  This will give students an opportunity to revisit learning relationships, friendships and how they work independently and together throughout the day to persevere, problem solve, ask questions and improve their understanding of prior or new learning.

Moving forward into next week, students will have tasks that are designed to build their learning confidence and sense of self within their classroom and community group. An example of such a task would be problem solving in a small group to encourage the development of strategies used when working in challenging situations (asking questions, using manipulatives, making a plan, generating solutions, listening to peers). These tasks will also depend on students' interpersonal skills as they listen to understand the speaker and strengthen their ability to articulate their thoughts clearly. 

Whilst we continue to focus on the curriculum content, we cannot stress to our parent community how important it is to focus on the skills and thinking processes we use to move through our everyday experiences.  When students are given opportunities to solve problems and have a go with modelling and an encouraging word from their parent/s, they are more likely to build a confident, empathetic, optimistic and hope filled sense of self. 

A reminder to parents that earlier in the term dates were published for parent involvement on and off site.  We draw your attention to the newsletter and recommend that you use this to identify which events have been cancelled, postponed or reorganised to continue to build opportunities to engage our parents in their child/rens learning journey.

Thank you again for supporting your children throughout this last period of remote learning

Treasa Barwick

Deputy Principal – Learning and Teaching