CHHS Learning from Home information for parents and students

General

All NSW schools have been directed to move to remote learning starting 16 August. This document summarises important information and organisation for Coffs Harbour High School parents/carers and students. In general:

· Learning from Home commences Monday 16 August – only children of essential workers or those unable to be supervised at home should attend school. All other students should be learning from home

· The school canteen is not permitted to operate and is closed

· Masks are mandatory at school for students and staff, indoors and outdoors. Masks remain mandatory on all school buses.

· Parents are not permitted on the school site, except for collecting take-home work packages. This means that any parent meetings for this week have been cancelled and will be rescheduled or followed up by phone.

· Any students who attend school are not permitted to leave school grounds during the day, including seniors. The intent of the lockdown is to keep people at home. We will have minimal staff at school and would appreciate parents/carers assisting with this

Learning from Home

Staff will need a short period of time to re-plan lessons for remote learning. We will have a gradual start on Tuesday and move into full remote learning from Wednesday onwards. Our primary method for delivering remote learning will be via Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams. We appreciate that not all parents/students will have access to Internet or computers and so we will provide some limited take-home work packages to assist these students. We do not expect students to complete the same amount of work at home as they would at school. We recommend approximately 50% of the learning time students would normally have at school (i.e. around 3 hours per day). There is no set timetable, as students need to share resources and work in with commitments at home. Our planned timeline for implementing remote learning from home is as follows:

Monday 16 August:

· No school-delivered remote learning. Parents and students are directed to the Department of Education - Learning from Home Hub for Monday at: Parents and carers (nsw.gov.au)

Tuesday 17 August:

· Students commence some activities learning from home via Google Classroom/MS Teams - We will email all parents/carers and students with the link to the Coffs Harbour High School Learning from Home hub first thing in the morning. Students with computer and Internet access will commence online learning

· Initially, all Year 7 to 11 students will be asked to complete a short check-in activity so that we can quickly assess who is able to connect to online learning.

· Remote learning will focus primarily on core curriculum areas.

Wednesday 18 August

· Online learning continues

· Hard-copy school Learning from Home packages available for collection from outside of school front office between 10 am and 3 pm. Parents are permitted to enter the site for the purpose of picking up these packages.

Thursday 19 August onwards

· Learning from home continues to end of week and into the following week if the lockdown is continued. We will update the learning from home hard copy packages once per week, available from Wednesday of each week until school returns to face-to-face learning.

Learning From School

The aim is to minimise the number of students at school and hence the amount of people travelling and mixing, to prevent the spread of COVID. However, we acknowledge that a small number of students may need to attend school, even in a High School setting, where their parents are essential workers. Students need to be aware that behavioural expectations are no different to normal schooling. In summary, learning from school will involve:

· Minimal staff onsite. All staff will be working from home unless asked otherwise

· Roll call in the main quad each morning

· No canteen at school - students need to remember to bring their own lunch

· Masks are mandatory at school for students and staff indoors and outdoors

· No parents onsite, apart from work pickup

· Years 7-11 students will be rostered into classrooms with social distancing and access to computers. Year 12 students who attend will go to library

· Students will complete Learning from Home hub activities initially and then school learning activities from Tuesday onwards (i.e. the same work being completed by students learning from home). Students attending school are expected to complete their work in class.

· Normal classes will not run, and we will most likely have to collapse classes into smaller groups. Students will be supervised by casual teachers while their normal classroom teachers are supporting learning from home.

· No sport

· Normal recess and lunch times. The main quad will be the only playground area – no oval, hall, front of school or library – unless significant wet weather.

Year 12

We will undertake additional communication with Year 12 students to try to reassure them and give them as much certainty as we can. Teachers are expected to support students directly through Google Classroom/MS Teams, emails etc. We acknowledge that Year 12 students will be quite stressed at the likely impact of this lockdown. We want to reassure Year 12 students that they will be supported and not disadvantaged. To that end, please note the following:

· Trial HSC exams have been suspended. If we are permitted to resume the trials, then we will need to determine whether we have alternate tasks or exams (take/send home or face-to-face). We will ensure students are given at least one week’s notice before recommencing any school-based exams/tasks.

· Only students completing HSC practical project work will be permitted at school under strict rostering and conditions. Students will be limited to 2-hour sessions once per day and no more than 4 days a week. Given the number of practical project subjects, we are anticipating 2 days per subject (2 subjects/groups on one day, then two subjects/groups on the next and then repeat cycle), starting Tuesday. We will be in further contact with students when we finalise this roster with teachers.

Communication

· All general outbound communication to parents and students will come from the principal via email. All communication will be replicated on our Facebook page.

· Teachers will communicate with students as much as possible through Google Classroom/MS Teams. They will use official Department of Education student and staff email as a secondary form where necessary

· Head Teachers may also send subject-related emails for whole year groups out to parents via email

· Parents may receive phone contact from staff if we have concerns for the participation or wellbeing of their child.

· Inbound communication from parents will be directed to the school for general enquiries, or to teachers for specific subject-related enquires. Parents will be able to access email addresses for teachers on our school remote learning hub, when it goes live on Tuesday, so they can contact class teachers directly.

Useful contacts for parents and students

· Department of Education Learning from Home hub: Parents and carers (nsw.gov.au)

· NESA advice to HSC students: Coronavirus advice | NSW Education Standards

· School email: mailto:coffsharb-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

· School website: http://www.coffsharb-h.schools.nsw.gov.au/

· School Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/coffsharbourhigh

· School phone number: 6652 3466

Learning from Home update for parents and students (16/8/21)

Office hours

Our front office is open for the purpose of taking phone calls between 8:30 am and 3:30 pm. Parents should not attend the school in person, except for collection of work-from-home packages on Wednesday (see below). Any scheduled face-to-face meetings have been cancelled. We will contact parents if these need to be rescheduled on return to school.

Explaining student absences

Parents do not need to explain student absences during the lockdown. Any student not attending school is automatically recorded in our attendance system as being in “flexible attendance” – which does not count against a student as an absence.

Digital learning

Our school digital Learning from Home Hub will be available for students from Tuesday morning. The first task that students will need to do is to complete a short 2-question check-in so that we can determine who is able to access online learning. Students need to do this before they complete any other work on Tuesday. This check-in is being run through the Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams set up for each subject area as follows:

· Year 7 - Mathematics classroom check-in

· Year 8 – History/Geography (HSIE) classroom check-in

· Year 9 - Science classroom check-in

· Year 10 - PDHPE classroom check-in

· Year 11 - English classroom check-in

Work packages

We are in the process of compiling packages of work for parents to collect where their child does not have access to technology or Internet and so cannot complete digital learning tasks at home. The packages will be for one week of learning and will be available between 10 am and 3 pm on Wednesday. Parents will be permitted onto the school site for the purpose of collection of work. The work will be in tubs, labelled by Year group, on a table outside the school front office (Nile Street entrance). If the lockdown is extended, then we will continue this weekly pick up of work each Wednesday.

Loaning devices to students

If it becomes clear that the lockdown will continue for some time, then we will implement a process of loaning devices to students who do not have a computer at home to work on. Removing these devices from their charging stations and preparing them for loan to students is a lengthy process and we need to be sure that the lockdown will be extended before we take this step. The devices will only be of use to students with Internet access at home. If students do not have a computer or Internet access, then they will need to work from the work packages collected from the school.

Learning from Home update for Year 12 (16/8/21)

Dear Year 12 parents/carers and students

I am writing to provide a further update for Year 12 students. I want to reassure students that we are doing everything we can to ensure that no student is disadvantaged in relation to the HSC. At this stage, the HSC exams are continuing as normal this year, with a slight delay already factored into the timetable. With this in mind, we are continuing to help prepare students so that they can do their best in these exams.

All trial exams have ceased for now. There has still been no update in advice to schools at the time of writing. The school will have the choice of setting some form of alternate task or of estimating marks. Our main consideration is that whatever process we follow must be consistent and fair to all students. We will preference alternatives that are as close as possible to a “normal” exam so that the change for students is as minimal as possible. When we determine what we are able to do we will inform all students and parents and provide enough notice that students have time to prepare. Please bear with us as we seek further clarification and develop a reasoned and fair course of action.

There are several students who are completing HSC subjects where they have to submit major practical projects for marking. We are permitted to allow these students limited access to school to complete these projects. Student are limited to 4 days per week and 2 hours per session. In line with these requirements, we have developed the following schedule of sessions for students starting tomorrow:

Tuesday

· Industrial Technology Wood - Periods 1/2 (9:10 am – 11:10 am)

· Textiles and Design - Periods 3/4 (11:40 am –1:40 pm)

Wednesday

· Visual Arts - Periods 1/2 (9:10 am – 11:10 am)

· Music - Periods 3/4 (11:40 am –1:40 pm)

Thursday

· Textiles and Design - Periods 1/2 (9:10 am – 11:10 am)

· Industrial Technology Wood - Periods 3/4 (11:40 am –1:40 pm)

Friday

· Music - Periods 1/2 (9:10 am – 11:10 am)

· Visual Arts - Periods 3/4 (11:40 am –1:40 pm)

Teachers will be on site for these lessons. Year 12 students from these courses are permitted to attend school at this time only and should report straight to their normal practical classroom. Attendance is not mandatory, we are doing this to assist students, but I would strongly recommend that students make the most of this opportunity if they have yet to complete their work.

I will continue to keep students and parents updated as we progress through the week.

Thank you

Peter South

Principal - Coffs Harbour High School

Learning from Home update for parents and students (18/8/21)

General

We have had a steady flow of parents today picking up work packages for students, which is great to see. However, we have several students who have not picked up a work package and have also not connected to the online learning. We appreciate that not all students will access and complete work at the same time and so teachers will continue tracking student participation in learning as we progress with learning from home. Where there is a concern, teachers may make contact home via phone to see if there is an issue and if there is anything we can do to assist. Teachers have been asked to ring during work hours only. Parents/carers need to be aware that, for privacy reasons, teacher phone calls may come up as an “unknown number”.

Year 12

The school executive staff met today to determine our plans for Year 12 in the coming weeks. We are wanting to give some certainty to students, which is difficult in these uncertain times. Our priority is to provide a consistent school-wide response that is fair and equitable to all students. This means that we cannot offer alternate tasks at home that rely on computer and Internet access when not all students have reliable access and a place to complete work. Our aim, therefore, is to try to have proper trial HSC examinations or else provide an estimate, rather than cause undue stress to students by rescheduling alternate tasks. We want to keep students working and focussed on the upcoming HSC exams. In summary:

• Trial HSC exams that were scheduled for Week 6 this term have been re-scheduled for Week 9 of this term for all subjects except English (who were able to complete their trial exam normally)

• Week 10 of this term will be used for marking and feedback to students

• Teachers will continue with teaching content or undertake revision for relevant courses up until the end of Week 7 of this term.

• Week 8 of this term is set aside for students to focus on revision/study for the Trial exams and teachers will focus on supporting revision in this week

• If NSW schools have not returned by Week 9 of this term, then we will abandon Trial exams and students will receive a revised assessment schedule with either an assessed exam mark or the exam excluded from assessment and weightings for existing tasks redistributed. Should trial exams not happen, students will be sent their trial exam to work through with their teachers as an at-home revision task, not an assessment task.

• Year 12 reports will be put on hold, with revised deadlines in Term 4 to be advised

• The Year 12 Graduation Assembly will be postponed to Term4 with details to be advised

Year 11

We are hoping to run Year 11 Yearly exams in Week 10 of this term (rather than the planned weeks 9 and 10). If schools have not returned by Week 10 then the Year 11 exams will be rescheduled to Term 4 Week 2 and further information will be provided to students and parents.

Years 7 – 10

Staff have been asked to put formal assessment tasks on hold for now during lockdown. If learning from home continues then teachers can still issue assessment tasks to students to do as non-assessable work-from-home tasks or they can be delayed until return to school.

Peter South

Principal – Coffs Harbour High School

General

You would by now probably be aware that the lockdown has been extended into next week. I believe that the Premier has also today announced that greater Sydney will have their lockdown extended by a month. By decoupling Sydney from regional NSW there is a chance that we may return to school sooner in regional areas, but nothing is certain at this stage and so the school is continuing with planning and implementation of remote learning for all students.

Take-home work packages

We have had a good uptake on the take home packages and now that we are heading into next week, we will have another set ready to hand out from Wednesday morning.

Teacher feedback on take-home work

We have established a process for providing feedback on student work completed at home offline as follows:

• Parent labels each piece of work with their name, year, and subject.

• Parent drops off the work in the blue tub at the front office labelled “Completed school work drop off box”.

• Head Teachers will collect work (once per week) and organise teachers to mark work/provide feedback.

• Head Teachers return work to the front office for parents to collect. We are requiring staff to work from home as part of the lockdown requirements. This means that the process for providing feedback to students completing take-home work packages will take longer and it may be one to two weeks before feedback is available. If we return to face-to-face learning at school in the interim, then teachers will supply this feedback directly to students in class.

Following up on students who have not engaged in learning at home

If, at this stage, a student has either not collected a take-home work package or has not connected to online learning, then we have begun a process to contact parents to check that the student is well and if there is anything we can do to assist them.

Thank you for your ongoing patience and support

Peter South

Principal – Coffs Harbour High School

Learning from Home update for parents and students (26/8/21)

General update

The government have today announced that stay-at-home orders for regional NSW have been extended to at least midnight Friday 10 September, meaning all regional schools will continue under Level 4 restrictions. This means that the school will be continuing current remote learning operations for at least the next two weeks. There will be no significant change in operation. We will continue to deliver remote online learning via Google Classroom and MS Teams. Some staff may also utilise Zoom or MS Teams for video meetings with students. We will continue to make hard-copy work-from-home packs available for collection from the school each Wednesday.

Moving into next week, we will increase our level of contact with students and families where there has been little or no student engagement in remote learning (either hard copy or online). This contact will be done sensitively as we realise that this is a difficult time for students and parents/carers and that there are a range of issues that might impact students being able to participate in remote learning. We have reduced the approximate indicative time commitment to around 3 hours per day, to recognise that students may be sharing learning spaces and technology with other siblings and parents/carers learning/working from home. However, as the lockdown lengthens, it is even more important that students keep up with their work across all their subjects. From experience, because remote learning lacks the regulation of a school timetable, students may find it difficult to self-regulate their time. They may tend to focus on subjects they enjoy and ignore subjects they find difficult. Here are a couple of hints to assist parents and students to regulate their learning from home:

· Students follow their normal school lesson timetable for each day. This would involve doing at least 30 minutes work for each subject/period they would have in a day. They could do this at any time in the day and in any order, but by the end of the day they should be able to tick off having done the work for each subject they would normally have at school that day.

· If a student would normally have sport or a practical workshop subject then they could do a similar activity, like some physical activity outside or helping with practical chores around the house such as cooking, cleaning, gardening, looking after pets, etc.

· If parents want to get further information on what their child is being asked to do in Google Classroom, they can request access to their child’s Google classroom as a “Guardian”. This gives a parent some limited oversight of the work their child is being asked to complete. To request guardian access, a parent only needs to email the class teacher. Email addresses for teachers are available from the school online learning hub at: https://sites.google.com/education.nsw.gov.au/chhslearningfromhomehub/home

It is expected that tomorrow the government will make further announcements regarding longer term return to school plans, and I will continue to keep parents informed. Thank you to parents and students for your ongoing patience and support.