Belair Public School Newsletter Take Just Pride Phone: 4952 1735, 34 Carolyn Street, Adamstown Heights NSW 2289 Email: [email protected]Term 2 Week 3 12 May 2020 Principal’s Message Greetings Everyone, I hope everyone enjoyed a lovely day Sunday with their families celebrating Mother’s Day. This week Belair will commence implementation of Phase 1 with students attending one day a week on their designated day. We really require your support to implement this phase in a measured and organised manner to maintain a safe environment at school as staff continue to be on a flexible roster. If you are able to do so, please continue to keep your child at home to learn except for the day they are rostered on. Children whose parents are not in a position to support their child's learning at home, such as essential workers, can continue to attend school any day that is required. These students will be supervised by a teacher who will continue to assist them work through the online learning scheduled by their class teacher. Students will engage in the same learning units that teachers plan through their digital classrooms to ensure learning for students attending school and working from home remains equitable. There will be two priorities for students during their day at school with an emphasis given to academic instruction, but also social engagement. In addition to classroom content presented in Google classrooms, time will be allocated to sporting, creative and performing arts and wellbeing activities. If you have borrowed a school laptop, please ensure your child brings it in on the day they are at school, along with their pencil case and headphones and any other requirements that class teachers have requested. To continue to help keep the school site as safe as possible and maintain the current social distancing rules, I request parents please drop off and pick up outside a designated gate that you have arranged with your children. Organisation to ensure this happens smoothly is: Morning kiss and drop off: Monday: Kiss and drop at gate then children make their way to the primary cola outside the library as was the case for the first two weeks. Tuesday – Friday: Kiss and drop at gate then K-2 children go to canteen cola, 3-6 to the primary cola outside the library CALENDAR OF EVENTS Term 2 May 11-15 Phase 1 return of students for one rostered day 18-22 Phase 1 return of students for one rostered day
I hope everyone enjoyed a lovely day Sunday with their families celebrating Mother’s Day.
This week Belair will commence implementation of Phase 1 with students attending one day a week on their designated day. We really require your support to implement this phase in a measured and organised manner to maintain a safe environment at school as staff continue to be on a flexible roster. If you are able to do so, please continue to keep your child at home to learn except for the day they are rostered on.
Children whose parents are not in a position to support their child's learning at home, such as essential workers, can continue to attend school any day that is required. These students will be supervised by a teacher who will continue to assist them work through the online learning scheduled by their class teacher.
Students will engage in the same learning units that teachers plan through their digital classrooms to ensure learning for students attending school and working from home remains equitable. There will be two priorities for students during their day at school with an emphasis given to academic instruction, but also social engagement. In addition to classroom content presented in Google classrooms, time will be allocated to sporting, creative and performing arts and wellbeing activities.
If you have borrowed a school laptop, please ensure your child brings it in on the day they are at school, along with their pencil case and headphones and any other requirements that class teachers have requested. To continue to help keep the school site as safe as possible and maintain the current social distancing rules, I request parents please drop off and pick up outside a designated gate that you have arranged with your children. Organisation to ensure this happens smoothly is: Morning kiss and drop off: Monday: Kiss and drop at gate then children make their way to the primary cola outside the library as was the case for the first two weeks. Tuesday – Friday: Kiss and drop at gate then K-2 children go to canteen cola, 3-6 to the primary cola outside the library
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Term 2
May
11-15 Phase 1 return of students for one rostered day
18-22 Phase 1 return of students for one rostered day
Afternoon pick up: Children will be walked to the gates (that you have pre-arranged with them) by teachers. Please observe social distancing rules of 1.5m when assembling outside the gates waiting for your children. The trial of Zoom live online meetings with teacher and classmates yesterday was very successful overall. There were a few glitches and not all students were able to join the meeting for one reason or another but we anticipate this will improve for the next meeting (Monday Week 4) after this practice run.
Again, thank you to the school community for your ongoing support. As we move into Phase 1 teachers onsite will have small groups of students to teach face to face as well as continuing to maintain their Google Classroom for students that are working at home. If your child is present at school they will receive feedback from the teacher they are working with at school in person (please remember that not every student will have their own class teacher on the day they attend). Be assured that all work within Google Classrooms will be checked, however written feedback may not always be provided as teachers negotiate working with students onsite and at home.
We are all looking forward to seeing our students return a day a week from this week as we are missing them immensely and I know they are missing being at school also!
Kind regards, Kathie Colley Principal (rel)
Belair Learning from Home Learning Platform We have developed a platform as a means of simplifying access for parents as you work across a number of grades to utilise the learning activities and resources available to support learning from home. Over Term 2, learning units will be delivered via this mode as we work through the 4 phases proposed by the Education Department to see our students gradually return to school. Hence, to ensure equity, all students will be working through the same learning packages whether at school or learning from home.
The link for the home page is : https://sites.google.com/d/1eJseI17wyNvP33PAOzdMS6Dmka153Xxq/p/1aSYTQIZ0T8hOld5w3Else6fKky0M5XFM/edit
The home page is like arriving at the school gate; each student needs to move to their classroom by finding their class teacher (click along the top menu) who has prepared some exciting learning activities via logging into the student portal. Those students that receive support from the LAST- Learning and Support Teacher, also have access to lessons from those teachers just as they would do if attending school.
Schools will remain open for students who need them and no child will be turned away
Bring a packed lunch and water bottle
Keep your distance
Parents and carers, stay in the car for drop offs and pick ups
Visit education.nsw.gov.au/learning-from-home to support your child’s learning
Follow health advice and keep your child home if they are unwell
For full details, visit education.nsw.gov.au/managed-return
Phase 1
School Canteen and Uniform Shop Reopen Week 3
Week 3 will see both the uniform shop and the canteen re-open in some capacity.
The uniform shop will be open on Monday, 8:45am to 9:30. We ask that you use the Flexischools App to order uniform items and observe social distancing regulations when lining up on site to collect items. There will be no cash transactions available, Flexischools orders only.
The canteen will operate with an adjusted menu on Tuesday through to Friday. There will be no sales over the counter at break times and lunch orders need to be placed through Flexischools as the canteen will operate in a cashless capacity. Please do not send money to school with your children. There is a copy of the adjusted menu at the end of the newsletter.
Absence Notifications: Student attendance when working from home Just a reminder that the school is required to monitor student learning from home so it is important that students/parents sign in to their Google Classroom each day. If your child is working from home their attendance code is entered as F - meaning flexible attendance which doesn't impact on their attendance record.
We will continue to mark the roll for students present at school each day. If your child is sick or not engaging in school work from home on any school day for any reason, please notify your teacher or the office via Skoolbag App so your child’s attendance code can be changed accordingly.
As most parents are keeping children at home during the current circumstances we have disabled the SMS messages to communicate absences via the Skoolbag App to avoid you getting unnecessary SMS texts as a reminder they are not at school.
Kotara High School Year 7 2021 Enrichment Class Kotara High School has extended the date for the Year 7 2021 application form and the test by 2 weeks.
• Applications are now due on Friday 12 June 2020 (Term 2, Week 7) • The test will now be administered on Tuesday 30 June 2020 (Term 2, Week 10)
This information has now been updated on the KHS website. Any students who have already submitted an application will be contacted about the extension.
ES1 Report Kindergarten students and families have continued to work hard on their home learning packages. A huge thank you to all our parents for your efforts over the past months. We appreciate the adjustments you are making to your daily routines to support us and your children. Kindergarten students had a great time interacting with each other in their class ZOOM meetings. Check out these photos of the different activities our students have been engaging with.
Teachers are looking forward to seeing students as they start to return to school this week for their rostered day this week. Stay safe and have a great week. - Mr Mort, Mrs Zervos, Mrs Bale Kindergarten Teachers
Stage 2 Report It’s been another HUGE week for our Stage 2 teachers, students and families this week. The learning experiences and work samples coming from our Google Classrooms are of the highest level and teachers and students are to be congratulated for their commitment to education and levels of resilience. I know that for some families, technology can be frustrating at times and the work/life/learning balance is really tricky at the moment. Just hang in there and keep communicating with your class teacher so that we can all support one another. Remember that “we are all in this together”.
Week 3 at school brings even more changes!!! I know that many students and their teachers are looking forward to the beginning of Phase 1 of return to school – 1 day per week on-site! Yay! This will be a great chance to connect with one another and to help iron out some of the problems some students are having with Google classroom learning. Teachers will revise explicit instructions on how to navigate online learning to support remote learning at home goes even more smoothly.
The content of learning will be the same for students next week whether they are learning on-site at school or remotely at-home. It may need to be delivered in slightly different forms but all students will be given the same learning opportunities and experiences regardless of the day they attend school or whether they continue learning from home. Similarly all students will be given the opportunity to participate in Zoom Wellbeing conferences regardless if they are on-site or at-home.
This week our learning showcase comes from 4JP. Included are:
* slides from our Mathematics unit on Fractions & Decimals
* slides from our research project on Caffeine (part of our Drug Education unit)
* an example of a digital Mother’s Day card from one of our thoughtful students
And finally, a shout-out to our Mums, hoping they had a Wonderful Mother’s Day on Sunday,
“Mothers are like buttons, they hold everything together”,
We are all in this together- Ms Pritchard, Mrs Jardine, Mrs Hadley-Helleur, Mr Baker, Mrs Bartel, Mrs Allars, Mrs Everard, Mrs Mounser, Miss Pollock & Mrs Keith Stage 2 Teachers
It’s been another great week of online working this week from Stage 3.
Week 3 has already presented a range of new learning opportunities for many teachers, students and parents. The Zoom wellbeing meetings were fun despite a few hiccups. We will iron out any issues this week and will continue to schedule Zoom meetings until the final phase of the return to school plan.
Teachers are looking forward to catching up with many of the students in their class this week. Students will continue with the same learning content as those at home but may complete the work in a different format.
Turn your ugly waste into a beautiful treasure with upcycled pot plants. Firstly, raid your recycling bin to find a suitable pot. Next decorate it with creative flair. Finally plant a seedling, a cutting or some seeds and help them grow. You may even wish to donate some potted treasure to the school gardens.
We’ve included a few ideas and pictures to inspire your project.
Mothers’ Day Celebrations
We hope all our Belair mums had a wonderful day on Sunday. Here is a lovely photo of one of our mums receiving a ‘Jar full of Love’ from her gorgeous daughter. Thanks for sharing this special photo with us.
