Dear Parents and Caregivers

Our deepest and sincere thanks to you all for all the messages of thanks and support (and chocolates!) that we have been receiving this week. They are appreciated beyond measure, more than you will ever know! On behalf of the staff, from the bottom of our hearts, simply…thank you!

Remote Learning Plan

As outlined in detail in my email to parents yesterday, from Monday we are enacting our long-term remote learning plan (which is available on the Connected App). From Monday, students should be kept at home where possible. There was a clear intent from CEWA that where at all possible, if students can be kept at home e.g. if there is one parent working from home, they should not attend school. On Monday, students should work on their suggested daily activities provided by their teacher. Teachers will take Monday to prepare activities for the remainder of the week and these will be uploaded by 9am on Tuesday morning (via Seesaw for K – 4 and via Microsoft Teams for Years 5 & 6).

Monday 6th to Thursday 9th April will now be student free days, hence no activities will be provided for these days, however parents may choose to continue the suggested daily activities with their children if they would like them to continue their learning.

The school will remain open for the children of healthcare and essential service workers who have no alternative than to send their children to school. An email outlining the arrangements has been sent directly to those parents today (and is available via the Connected App). If you did not receive the email, this means that we have not received notification via our survey and we are not expecting your child next week.

For those attending next week, please remember to bring your remote learning pack to school if one has been provided by your class teacher (in the junior primary years).

Term Two

At the moment, we received no information regarding when schools will commence for Term Two. However, we will continue to send out our weekly newsletter and communicate via email for urgent updates.  

Should our remote learning plan be required to continue into Term 2, we will seek feedback from parents and review our plan with a view to moving into the extended shutdown phase.

Online Meetings

This week has been a steep learning curve for staff in terms of online learning. This week we trialed our first online meeting using Microsoft Teams! Staff found this to be a fairly seamless experience and we have now had two online briefings, and another is planned for Monday morning. This has allowed us to implement social distancing and has meant that staff could join the meeting from home or watch a recording at a later date. Our sincere thanks goes to Mrs Jemima Saunders who came back from her long service leave to assist us with this.

Bishops Religious Literacy Assessment (BRLA) Cancelled

For students in Year 3 and 5, please be advised that the BRLA has been cancelled for 2020.

Bricks4Kidz Cancelled

Please be advised that the Bricks4Kidz after school club has been cancelled until further notice.

Updated Library System

This term we have invested in a new and updated library system. Thank you to Mrs Vicki Stenning who has expertly guided this process. Thank you to all the parents who have offered to cover library books over the school shutdown!

Indefinite Cancellation of Masses

The Archbishop has now cancelled all Masses, including Sunday services until further notice. Please see the ‘Faith for the Journey’ section of this newsletter for information regarding online Masses.

We wish all our St. Michael’s families every blessing during this time. We will miss you and will be praying for you and look forward to seeing your smiling faces again soon! Please see below for my tips around teaching your students at home (from our remote learning plan). And remember, you are their parents and we are their teachers. We are still here to guide their learning, whether it be remotely from school or from home. You are not alone in this!

God bless and stay safe

Dr Siobhan Galos
Principal
principal@stmichaelsbass.wa.edu.au.

• Be kind to yourself
• Don’t panic, all students are in the same situation and they will be okay. In education, each day we meet children where they are at in their development and tailor their learning accordingly. We will continue to do so when they come back to school.
• Establish a daily routine – this is key!
• Don’t over do it! When children return to school we want them to still love learning. Make sure their learning is age appropriate – let the information provided by the class teachers be your guide.
• Include quality family time in your routine as well as some independent work time and some quiet time to retreat to your own rooms.
• Some online educational games are great when you really need to get some of your own work done.
• The most effective way to embed learning is to teach it to someone else, so get your older children to assist younger students e.g read aloud to each other and assist each other with their work. Remember, through Kagan Co-operative Learning, St. Michael’s students are familiar with coaching each other!
• Don’t under-estimate how much students can learn from home activities such as: they learn oral language, taking turns and strategy through board games, mathematics (such as measurement) through cooking, problem solving through puzzles and so on.
• Include household chores in your child/ren’s daily routine or as ‘homework’ to reduce your stress such as making their beds, tidying their room, doing dishes.
• Give them some choice in their routine and with their learning. Have lots of breaks especially if there are getting fatigued.
• The most important thing during this time will be your family’s mental health. Make this a focus! Your child/ren’s teacher will provide you with suggested resources for this. Model self-care. This is also where the inclusion of the following in your daily or weekly routines is vital:
• The Arts – music, dance, art and craft
• Fitness
• Outdoor activities
• Play
• Oral language is the foundation of all learning so talk to each other!
• Reading is also a key foundational skill. If you do nothing else, READ, READ, READ!!

Finally, we are here to help. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to your child/ren’s teacher!