Dear Parents

Welcome back to Term 3. I am very happy to join the wonderful community at STAPS. I come from the green hills of South Gippsland where I live on a small farm. I have many animals and breed Australian Shepherds as my outside school passion. I look forward to getting to know you all in the coming months.

I know that the situation in our state creates much worry in our hearts and minds. Please reach out if you need someone to talk too; friends, family, teachers, the leadership team here, myself, medical professionals or the Church. Sometimes when things seem dark we need a friendly voice to help us see the light and find our way forward. 

Our teachers have been planning hard over the past few days to improve the remote learning experience for families and children. You can find more detail about this further on in the newsletter. I would like to remind you of a couple of points though. You are supervising your child's learning not having to teach them. We know many of you will also be working from home and have your jobs to complete. If your child is finding the work stressful, hard or cannot understand the task please let the class teacher know what the problem is so that the work can be adjusted. 

The government set 3 hours as a suitable amount of learning to be done each day. This can be done in one block or spread out. You need to develop a timetable that works for your family situation. If your child is a fast finisher please encourage them to read. Research shows that children that read books each day have a bigger vocabulary and broader understanding of concepts. Perhaps find a book that you loved as a child and share that with your child. Reading takes us to a new and exciting place while we are confined in our homes.

My thoughts and prayers are with you all as you continue to work from home and prepare your children for remote learning. 

Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.  Romans 12:12

Kate Dourley