KEARNS PUBLIC SCHOOL ST LAWRENCE AVENUE

KEARNS NSW 2558 Ph: 02 9820 7039

Principal: Margaret McLeod Assistant Principal: Rebecca Phillips

Relieving Assistant Principals: Penny Draper & Anne-Marie Knott

27/3/2020 Dear Parents/ Caregivers, You have indicated that your child will be working remotely online. We will communicate with your child and provide learning activities for him or her to do at home, using Google Classroom, as our main online platform. Staff will communicate through Google Classroom. For families, please note the normal communication methods such as SkoolBag, email and the Facebook page will also continue to be used. How can you help? Just as you always do, continue to love and support your child. Parents are encouraged to:

Establish routines and expectations

Define a space for your child to work in

Monitor communications from teachers

Encourage physical activity and / or exercise

Check in with your child throughout the day and remember that your child’s teacher and other teachers (Mrs Knott, Mrs Shankar and Miss Henderson where appropriate) will be available to help

Keep your children connected, whilst practising ‘social distancing’; however, reinforce your rules around their social media interactions.

Attendance Recording It is vital that students and parents approach remote learning in a similar way to regular school attendance, just as they would when we are operating on site. To reduce stress and anxiety, we will be using a flexible timetable for all students and attendance will be justified by completed daily work. When teachers notice a student is not participating in remote learning, they will call parents after two consecutive days. This process will allow us to stay connected as a community and ensure that we have several processes in place to keep track of how students and families are going. Student Responsibilities Students are encouraged to:

Establish or follow a daily routine for learning

Identify a safe, comfortable, quiet space in their home where they can work effectively and successfully

Be online each day via Google classroom to check for information and feedback from teachers

Complete tasks with academic integrity and honesty

Do their best to meet commitment deadlines

Communicate proactively with their teachers

Student Wellbeing

Parents are urged to be mindful that being confined inside for a long time can cause stress and conflict for any of us. Our students place great emphasis on their interactions with their peers and will be impacted by ‘social distancing’.

Some suggestions for looking after your child during this time may include:

Taking the opportunity to talk to your whole family in a developmentally appropriate way about whats happening. Understanding the situation will most likely reduce their anxiety and allow them to be critical consumers of information surrounding the health crisis

Helping your child consider how they have coped with difficult situations in the past and reassuring them that they will manage this situation too. Reassuring them that reduced peer to peer contact will not be permanent. Suggesting they take a break from following regular news updates as overthinking will not be helpful in the long run.

Reminding your child to exercise regularly. Options could include jumping on the trampoline, home exercise or yoga. Exercise is a proven way of managing stress, low mood and depression.

Parent monitoring We encourage you to start and finish each day with a simple check-in. These check-ins should be a regular part of each day. Please be aware that some children will struggle to work in a remote learning environment; some may struggle with too much independence or lack of structure and check-ins may help keep them on track. In the morning you could ask:

What are you learning today?

How will you be spending your time?

What resources do you need?

What help do you need? In the afternoon you could ask:

What did you learn today?

Identify one thing that was difficult. Either let it go or come up with a strategy to deal with the same problem if it comes up again.

Consider three things that went well today. Why were they good?

Are you ok? Do you need to ask your teacher anything? Do you need help to make tomorrow more successful?

These questions will help your child reflect on their day and help them organise themselves. Teacher communication Teachers may communicate with your child during this period of time via Google classroom. You are able to contact the school via telephone or the school email account. Teachers will be available during school hours to provide support, feedback and to answer questions. Please encourage your child to, where able, collect all their questions and ask them in one go. Please avoid multiple emails and phone calls in the same day. Managing screen time Screen time refers to the amount of time a user spends on a device to access on-screen activities. There are limits as to the amount of time everyone should spend online, but the amounts and the rules for screen time vary by age. Video conferencing and social interactions using video do not count towards screen time. The following recommended screen times (excluding video conferencing) are based on the recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics:

Ages 2 to 5: 1 hour, broken into sessions of a maximum of 30 minutes. Age 6 and above: no specific screen time limits, but screen time should not affect physical activity and

face-to-face interactions at home and school. Consistent limits on screen time are also very important.

Some screen time activities such as online socializing and gaming can be very immersive. Make sure that non-school activities are limited in length. Digital citizenship

We recommend that you take the time to explore issues of digital citizenship and online safety link below and then discuss these with your child. It is important that during this period of remote learning that we maintain safe and responsible use of information and communication technologies. This includes appropriate use of digital platforms, privacy and information protection, respectful communication and how to deal with online issues.

https://www.digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au/ We acknowledge that every family is unique and will operate on different routines and structures. The outline provided is intended as a guide to support you at this most difficult time. Please contact the school directly if you have any questions or concerns. Kind Regards, The Executive Team