COVID-19 PRINCIPAL'S UPDATE - 10 APRIL 2020
Dear Families,
Greetings to all of you as we enter the Easter weekend. It is my hope that you are well and that your children have enjoyed the first four days of their extended Term 1 break.
As you know, this past week, all Teachers and Teacher Assistants worked remotely for the four full days Monday – Thursday, off site at home, and have very successfully trialed the use of our online tools for our professional learning, team planning, meetings, and practice teaching.
When we re-commence school on Monday 27 April we will commence Term 2 with confidence, and commitment. We are anticipating that most families will be able to keep their children home and we will have a percentage of those families of essential workers and those unable to provide supervision, who need ready support for their children from the College so they can go to work.
Important Family Needs Survey of Off Site and On Site Learning
On Wednesday next week, 15 April, a survey link will be emailed to all families. It is vital that every family at the College completes this survey by 9.00 pm on Friday 17 April.
We need to identify which students will continue to learn at home, and which students will need to have their learning supervised on site.
Completion of this survey will be fundamental to our capacity to organise appropriate supervision by our casual relief staff who will support any students who need to be learning onsite at Dominic in Term 2.
Holiday Break Training in our On-Line Platforms for Students and Parents
Next week, we have organised for parents and students to access training in the platforms we are using for remote learning in Term 2:
- SEQTA Engage and SEQTA Learn
- Microsoft Teams
- Seesaw
Small group training will be available through Microsoft Teams during the Term 1 holiday break. Training for up to 4 participants at a time will be offered each day from Wednesday 15 April to Friday 24 April at the pre-scheduled session times below:
Parents & Students Daily
9.00 am – 9.30 am
9.35 am – 10.05 am
10.10 am – 10.40 am
10.50 am – 11.20 am
11:25 am – 11.55 am
12:00 noon – 12.30 pm
Mr Willem Logan, an IT Teacher who has joined the E-Learning Team will conduct the training. Will has previously taught at Dominic full-time and has been contracted back to the Dominic staff. Please use the following link to book a 30-minute training session with Willem:
Willem will schedule a Microsoft Teams meeting with you. He will call you through Microsoft Teams at the start of your selected session time.
Ongoing Support
If you have any support questions or requirements in addition to the above training and tutorial information, please email the E-Learning team directly at elearning@dominic.tas.edu.au
Parent & Teacher Meetings – Term 2
Parent and Teacher Interviews will be conducted next term and have been moved to Week 3 of Term 2 from Monday 11 May - Friday 15 May 2020. This change also enables us to monitor how each student is coping with remote learning.
Parents have already been advised about the process for booking appointments through the Expectations Report email on last Wednesday. Interviews will be run remotely through Microsoft Teams and schools across Australia have already utilized this framework most effectively.
Parent and Teacher Interviews will be undertaken with greater flexibility and will include at least one afternoon to 6.30pm. SOBS bookings open for parents and guardians to make bookings with teachers from 8.00am Thursday 30 April and will close 10.00pm Sunday 10 May.
Family Mail-Outs during Term Break
Student Attendance Procedures, Expectations of Students, Guidelines for Students and Parents in our Remote Learning Environment and Student Timetables will all be both mailed and emailed to students and parents in the second week of the term break.
Much thought and energy has gone into these materials – they are the result of excellent collaboration by many staff. When you receive these, we would be grateful if you go through these carefully with you child; teachers will do this as well. Students will reach and maintain high standards if they can mentally and swiftly adapt to this new model.
The new section of our College website to support our families during the pandemic while their children are learning in a remote learning environment, will be launched by the beginning of Term 2.
Mid-Year Assessment & Reporting Term 2
The requirement to facilitate effective assessment of learning and reporting on student achievement is a legislated requirement by the Australian Federal Government. Individual schools or ‘systems of schools’ do not have the authority to make decisions about abolishment of assessment of learning and reporting on student progress.
At the meeting of the Australian Education Council, two days ago, on Wednesday, 7 April, the continued delivery of school education for all students during COVID-19 was re-affirmed and furthermore, the Council stated that: “Student progress will continue to be monitored and assessed by teachers, with progress reports provided to parents and guardians, noting that existing assessment and reporting processes may have to be adjusted to accommodate broader changes to the teaching and learning environment.”
This position is indeed welcomed by the College and parents can expect our ongoing assessment of learning and reporting on student progress at the end of Term 2 as usual.
Preparation for On-site Model of Remote Learning
At this stage, we anticipate that the bulk of our students will continue to learn at home, with Teachers and Teacher Assistants overseeing this learning.
We are developing a model of appropriate, on-site learning support and supervision by ƵƬ Relief Staff who are familiar with our students and our procedures. They will provide facilitated support to any students who need to be learning, following their remote program, onsite at ƵƬ in Term 2 according to current social distancing requirements.
We anticipate that our on-site, K-10 educational program will be run out of the 7-10 Savio and Guzman area, utilizing the classrooms and recreational areas in that part of the College.
Our Deputy Principal, Mr Stephen Casni, together with our K-10 Administration, Coordinator Ms Erin Spencer are leading the development of this framework. Information and details about the on-site leaning model will be forthcoming in the final week of the term break.
We continue to extend our deep appreciation to all essential workers who are members of our school community for their dedication to our capacity to remain operational and functional as a city. Every citizen should be grateful for your ongoing support commitment.
Student-Free Staff Professional Days in Term 2
An additional Professional Learning Day for Teachers and Teacher Assistants has been scheduled in Term 2.The best use and timing of this day has been considered by the College Leadership Team.
With a continued commitment to hold a remote Staff Spirituality Day for our staff mandated accreditation on Friday 5 June, just before the long weekend of the Queen’s Birthday, we have planned to hold our additional Professional Learning Day on Thursday 4 June, in Week 6.
This will allow teachers to be involved in moderation of student work samples and Common Assessment Tasks in Grade levels and in Faculty teams in readiness for reporting.
This means that students will have a mid-year break from the intensity of remote learning from Thursday 4 June – Monday 8 June. At this stage, if there are no directives regarding facilities closure, from the Tasmanian Government, families will be able to access care and support on Thursday and Friday 4 and 5 June on site at the College through Discovery’s Vacation Care Program.
The College Feast Day – Term 2
The College’s two Feast Days are priority days on our annual calendar. They celebrate our identity and mission. We would like to explore holding this special day remotely on the final day of Term 2, Friday 3 July. For various reasons, we won’t hold it on the Wednesday. We are hoping that we can come together as a community and be able to pull this off in a different way.
Reading over the Holidays
As our Director of Teaching and Learning K-10, Mrs Selina Kinne, has indicated, there is no better way to spend chilly autumn days while students are staying at home during the holidays than to read a good book.
Selina has reminded us in the College Newsletter, that while we are not able to travel and enjoy being out and about, we can journey to amazing and wonderful places when we read a book.
We would love to share on our Facebook page photos of our students enjoying reading and recommending great books to read. Send your photos to newsletter@dominic.tas.edu.au
Commitment to Safety
We need to make every effort to socially distance and stay in our own homes and become even more vigilant about hygiene practices. Our lives and our community depend on each and every one of us doing the right thing. Please be cautious and be vigilant.
Families can expect to hear from me in the last week of the term break with any further updates.
Conclusion
As I write, we have 111 cases of the Coronavirus in Tasmania and we have community transmission. By all predictions this will worsen. It is Good Friday around the world and we have never felt the suffering of Christ so intensely.
This is a time of both deep sorrow and abiding hope and we need to hold fast to the Easter message inherent in the Resurrection during these difficult times.
May all in our community feel the loving presence of God this Easter and may you feel God come to you in daily experiences of the resurrection in your families and homes.
My best regards, gratitude for your ongoing support and prayers,
Beth Gilligan
College Principal
A Catholic School in the Salesian Tradition
