Hello friends and welcome to Term 2!! I hope you have had opportunity over the Easter break to rest, relax and enjoy some wonderful times with your family. 

Our newsletter today begins with a beautiful prayer and reflection commemorating ANZAC Day celebrated last weekend. I thank Emily Capper and and some students for their input with this.  Like all things currently , we continue to present, acknowledge, commemorate and share things in a different way-  Significant church events and seasons and special occasions will certainly not be forgotten.  

Thank you to you all for your support and appreciation as we continue diving into Remote Learning, especially with the addition of Microsoft Teams.  Thank you for your efforts helping log on to this new platform-   teachers who have already facilitated a video conference  have loved seeing all their class together again.  As I have mentioned a few times this week, although we are physically distanced from each other, we are still very much together as a community. 

Much continues to be written and spoken about in the media in regards to education and students returning to school full time. Coming back to teaching and learning this week, my focus continues to be on our students and their families, regardless of whether this may be remote learning at home or at school.  I have made a welcome video for each student which will be posted on seesaw tomorrow.  I am certainly missing all our students that are not physically here, and look forward to their return in the future; however I am also appreciative of all the communication channels we currently have to stay together.  I am also extremely proud of,  and grateful for all our staff are currently doing to ensure effective Remote Learning. Their flexibility, commitment and patience continues throughout all the confusion and uncertainty.  They have had to not only flip their teaching methods and learn rapidly significant new IT skills, but are ensuring daily communication to both students at school and those at home.  Each day also compromises of face-to face support, creating teaching videos, class video calls, timetabling for the next day and lesson preparation and reflection. 

Assessment and reporting may be very likely different for this Semester.  Nationally there are decisions currently being made around what should realistically be included in Semester 1 reports.  At a local level, Principals are waiting anxiously to see what this may look like for our teachers and students, and I will continue to keep you informed about this.  We hope to still hold parent/teacher/student conferences in Week 8, whether this be physically at school or through a video conference channel.

Once again, please do not hesitate to contact myself or teachers for any concerns or clarification.  I will continue to communicate important information and changes as they happen.

With every best wish for a holy and peace-filled week ahead with your beautiful families,

Philippa