Messages from Mrs Clark

14^th July 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

Following on from my message yesterday, I would like to provide you now with some further details of our transition back to flexible and remote learning.

As you are aware, this week, all Victorian schools were provided with five Student-Free days from 13th-17th July. This has meant that the start of Term Three will be moved to Monday 20th July for our students. The staff, this week, are working on-site to prepare for whatever the next stages of Term Three may be. In taking this step, we are continuing to follow the guidance of the Government and the Chief Health Officer. This is obviously an unprecedented step in response to unprecedented circumstances. I greatly appreciate your support as we navigate our way through these ongoing and challenging times...again.

We are currently still awaiting further advice from the Department of Education and Training (DET) but for now I can provide you with this information:

All students who will be learning from home will undertake the Donvale Primary School Flexible and Remote Learning program from Monday 20^th July.

All students are expected to be learning from home, except for students on days when they are not able to be supervised at home and no other arrangements can be made, any student with a disability, and vulnerable children. On-site learning will be provided but only for students in these categories, for the purpose of providing continuity of teaching, learning and support. Students who attend on-site learning at the school will be supervised by either a VIT registered teacher (most likely their own class teacher) or a staff member with a Working with Children Check.

If you fit into one or more of the categories above and intend for your child/ren to attend on-site learning, you must complete the application to do so via the link below and submit no later than this Thursday 16^th July 4.00pm. This will allow the school to plan for their supervision for next week. You must complete a new application each week for your child/ren to continue with the on-site learning. A new updated link will be sent out to parents at the beginning of each week.

https://forms.gle/YTG5vLji6ESucYEr8

Students who need to attend school will be undertaking the same Remote Learning as students who are learning from home and will be supervised to do this, with strict social distancing guidelines adhered to. Students who attend school will not be taught a different program from those learning at home.

During this week, you will receive communications from your child’s class teachers. They will be outlining and clarifying the learning programs they are planning for your child/ren over the coming weeks. The format for this will be very similar to the remote learning delivered last term, including the implementation of our ‘DPS Learning Hub’. There will, however, be some tweaks made as we follow up with the feedback received from our parent community and from what we know has worked well and not so well. For example, one change will be that Specialist classes for your child will all be taught on a designated day. Specialist and class teachers will clarify this further with you over the coming days.

I’m sure you appreciate the complexity in planning such a teaching and learning program and attempting to meet the huge amount of varying needs across our community. I ask that you please be patient and understanding; we will communicate with you as much as possible and as the need arises. Please be assured that our staff are well prepared for this scenario and are spending this week looking at our next stages in the remote learning journey and responding to student, staff and parent feedback. Through their amazing commitment during last term, teachers were skilled up in online platforms, practised in classrooms, technology was tested and many issues were resolved. I am so incredibly proud of what Donvale PS achieved in Term 2. A term that was unlike any other that Education has ever seen and one in which the staff and students (and parents) of Donvale PS have stood up and performed in a way that many schools can only dream of. Our community has been so positive and supportive about the remote learning experience and what was provided to the children of our school.

I will continue to communicate via Compass and encourage you to join the schools Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/donvaleps/ where we will continue to circulate other information and try and keep some normality for the children as well.

A reminder that students attending school will undergo a daily temperature check on arrival. If over 37.5, the school will be asking parents to collect the child and keep them at home, seek medical advice and not return to school until the temperature is normal and the child is in full health.

If you have any correspondence that is urgent and important, please contact me via my email or school phone (see below) and I will respond as soon as possible.

I thank you for your ongoing kindness and understanding. This will most certainly be a time we reflect on for many years to come. Hopefully recalling these challenges we faced allowed for a great deal of quality family time and the maintenance of the health of our family and friends.

Please stay home, stay safe and take care of yourselves and each other.

Regards,

Lena Clark

Principal

Lena.Clark@education.vic.gov.au

Ph. 9842 3373

13 July, 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

As you would be aware, the Victorian Government has made some significant announcements in relation to arrangements for schools in Victoria for Term 3.

Based on advice from the Victorian Chief Health Officer, Victorian Government schools in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire will have specific arrangements in place for Week 1 of Term 3 as outlined below. Schools will then move to remote and flexible learning for students in Prep to Year 10 from the start of Week 2.

It is very important to note that the advice from the Victorian Chief Health Officer is that schools can continue to operate. The Victorian Chief Health Officer has also provided advice about the health measures that should be taken by staff and students, and we will be following these.

The purpose of these changed arrangements is to reduce the number of these students – and their parents and guardians – moving across metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire in order to reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).

It is, however, also important that face-to-face teaching be maintained for some students. This includes students in Years 11 and 12 (and Year 10 students who have VCE studies or VCAL strands in their learning program) because of the importance of enabling all students to continue or complete their senior secondary certificate, either VCE or VCAL.

It is important that students in specialist schools have full access to the expertise of the teachers and support staff in those schools in face-to-face settings. We also need to support families where parents and carers cannot work from home, and others who need the support that on-site provision enables.

To provide further assurance, our school, along with all other government schools in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, will be conducting temperature checks of all students at the start of the day. If your child does have a temperature, you will be asked to collect them from school.

The new arrangements are set out in detail below.

Monday 13 – Friday 17 July

Monday 13 – Friday 17 July are pupil free days for students Prep to Year 10. These pupil-free days will enable our staff to prepare for the change to remote and flexible learning from Monday 20 July.

We will provide an on-site supervision program for students who need it during this week. This program is available for students where parents/carers cannot work from home and no other arrangements can be made and for vulnerable students.

To assist our planning, if you need this program, please complete the attached form accessible via the link; https://forms.gle/gytk8ZYXBtVYWB6h6 and return it to us as soon as possible. Please note, this form is relevant for this week only.

These same arrangements will be in place across schools in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire.

Monday 20 July on

From Monday 20 July, our school will be moving to remote and flexible learning. This will be for all students apart from the following:

· years 11 and 12 students and Year 10 students for their VCE or VCAL programs

· students enrolled in specialist schools

The following students are able to attend school for on-site supervision, but will also undertake the remote learning program:

· children of parents/carers who cannot make suitable arrangements to supervise children at home, including children of teachers in government schools who are required to return to work on-site

· vulnerable students

· students with disabilities who choose to attend on site.

We will follow similar arrangements to those we put in place for remote and flexible learning in Term 2. Later this week, I will forward to our parent community, a link that must be completed and submitted by 4.00pm Friday requesting onsite attendance for your child. A reminder that your child must fit into the above criteria to enable them to attend on-site learning.

The Department has a range of options for you to continue to support your students in their learning, available at the Learning from Home website education.vic.gov.au/homelearning.

The latest information about coronavirus (COVID-19) and schools is on the Department of Education and Training website: education.vic.gov.au/coronavirus

The Victorian Chief Health Officer has confirmed that the use of face masks or coverings by adults or children is not recommended in schools at this time. As has always been the case, students who wish to wear face masks in school and in going to and from school may do so.

And, finally, a reminder that if you, your child, or a family member develops symptoms of a fever, chills or sweats, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose, loss of smell or taste, you should get tested at a coronavirus (COVID-19) testing facility and stay home.

This is vitally important to keeping our school community safe.

If you would like health information from the Department of Health and Human Services, you can visit dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus

I will continue to communicate with you as soon as we receive further information.

Yours sincerely,

Lena Clark

Principal

Lena.Clark@education.vic.gov.au

Dear Parents / Carers,

Welcome to our Donvale PS At Home Learning Hub. We hope that this will be useful in providing you some information to help make remote learning successful! We thank all parents for being open to the concept of remote learning and ask you to also be patient and aware that we too are learning something extremely new in an extremely short period of time. Having said that, the challenge has prompted some really innovative and inventive ways in which to approach teaching and learning, not just remotely, but moving forward in person as well!

To give you some background on teaching and teachers: the classroom experience is dynamic to say the least and cannot really ever be replicated online or remotely. Parent helpers will have some degree of understanding as to the busy atmosphere of a Reading, Maths or Writing lesson and the degree at which teachers engage with students on many levels in order to ensure learning happens. Teachers will conference, create goals with students, give feedback to multiple people at once and also to individuals one at a time, while at the same time teaching skills in a lesson. Teachers plan for a multitude of learning levels and multi-task incredibly well in order to manage such a changeable landscape in every lesson, every single day. Teachers plan for multiple subjects each day and over the week. Active and engaged teaching means that we are constantly managing small and large groups of children simultaneously in their learning.

In teams, our teachers plan and work collaboratively to create lessons. They analyse data (data not just from assessments but data from student conferences, student notebooks and other class work) to create individualised work for your children. In their own planning they hone down to the class and individual level to cater for differences in the classroom. They change things on the spot if they need to in order to accommodate new learning or change tasks to suit individual needs as they teach.

Remote Learning - What does that mean?

Remote learning is learning that happens off school site, in the family home with guidance from teachers and with support from families.

Realistically, remote learning cannot completely replicate the classroom experience, particularly as human connection is fundamental to the teaching and learning experience for primary school children… and for many of our jobs as a society in fact. It’s a changing landscape but our teachers have planned some rich tasks that will continue learning for all students, whether it be online or offline. One of the advantages of being at Donvale Primary School is our unique online learning platform from Foundation to Year 6. Those of our families/students who are a part of our iPad and / or See Saw programs will have access to feedback from classroom teachers in English and Maths through the week and check-ins as well. There will be tasks for all students every day that can be supported by families at home. This document will outline some of the practices we are engaging in at Donvale Primary School.

We note that every family is different and every family has their own routines. It’s up to you how you manage the learning day. As parents, your main goal with remote learning is to set up a regular routine, so that everyone knows what is going to happen each day. Here are some suggestions for the children:

· Set up a comfortable learning area on a table or a desk in a common area of your house. Make sure you have plenty of light to see what you are doing.

· Maintain set wake up times, e.g. 8.00am. Eat a nice breakfast, go outside for a bit of a play if you can and avoid technology. Chat about your plans for the day.

· Aim for two or three learning blocks per day.

· During the learning blocks, complete work that your teacher has provided to you. Technology should only be used for learning during this time.

· In between learning blocks, do physical activity, have play time, creative time or do helpful jobs around the house for mum or dad. Go outside, do craft, draw, play Lego, play board games. Bake, sing, dance, make movies. Use playdough, work in the garden, cook, design and build something. It’s up to you!

· Eat well and enjoy your meals together as a family.

· Read to a parent or a sibling once a day.

· If you play video games, use the internet or watch TV, agree on set times per day. Be cyber-safe and only use technology in sight of your parents or guardians.

Remote Learning - When?

Remote learning will happen on school days (not the holidays and not the weekends or curriculum days) between the hours of 9.00am and 3.30pm as per school hours. We can appreciate that with so many different family situations happening that your hours and school hours may not always completely align. With this in mind teachers have planned by and large for a flexible learning environment, allowing all families to also have some flexibility as well.

Teachers will be available for class related work with your children from 9.00am - 3.30pm as per any other school day. As per any other school day, teachers also have planning time, meeting times, lunch, breaks and other duties (such as leadership duties etc) that are also taking part behind the scenes. From an administrative perspective all teachers have multiple roles they are fulfilling, including - like yourselves being parents of children who are remote learning themselves, carers for elderly, dealing with illness and dealing with many of the same issues that you will be at home.

A typical day will begin with a morning message to the class from the class teacher. This will either happen through the Google Classroom or See Saw platform (to the parents). The message may be in the form of a written message, a video, or a voice message and outlines the day for our students. We have left those decisions to the individual preferences of the teachers.

From there teachers have either sent home learning packs with a suggested timeline of the day (and week) from which students and families can begin to plan the learning day or they will post learning tasks for students online. Parents and students will also have access to our online Learning Hub which contains all levels of learning planned by the teachers including the specialist areas of Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Physical Education, ICT and Mandarin.

Learning Packs

Students have been advised to take home some of their books, best fit reading books, pencil cases and other essential learning items over the holidays. These packs have been factored into learning provided for the day.

Learning Outline for Students: Timetables and Schedules

Teachers will be engaging with learning and teaching online from 9.00am to 3.30pm - Monday to Friday.

Part-time staff (Performing Arts – Mrs Keep, Visual Arts- Mrs De Stefanis and Mandarin teacher – Mr Kho) will be engaging with the learning platforms and communication on their designated work days – Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Physical Education and ICT teacher, Mr Hogg, will be on daily.

Integration Aides have been assigned to classes and individual students.

Administration, including Mr McKinlay, Mrs Bryant, Mrs Cheeseman and myself will be online during work hours and available by school phone contact.

By approximately 9.15am, class teachers will send out a bulletin of some kind – video, audio, bulletin on either Google Classrooms, See Saw. Student attendances will be documented as per usual.

This message has the objective of checking in for the day. There may be a:

· Welcome to the day

· Outline of learning for the day

· Reminder about student conferences or feedback that is happening during the day

· Check in

The message will give some key learning objectives for the day.

Some expectations for learning:

Daily learning

1 x Reading - which could take the form of independent reading, comprehension activities, visualisation activities etc.,).

1 x Writing - which could take the form of the continuation of their work through the writer’s cycle, editing, publishing, grammar, spelling etc.,

1 x Maths - which could take the form of a game, rich maths task, maths sheet, etc.,

Over the week there may be some structured and some unstructured lessons - for instance there may be a task for writing that is extremely directive. On the same day there may be a Reading class that is more about consolidating skills (a narrative writing class coupled with independent reading with sticky notes).

Weekly Learning

· 5 x specialist classes (1 per subject) - PE, ICT, Mandarin, Art, Music

· Integrated projects

· Well-being tasks (Resilience Project)

· Spelling, grammar, other.

Feedback and Conferencing

We are extremely fortunate that our 1:1 and BYO iPad program allows us to check in for feedback daily with our senior and middle school students. We are extremely thankful to have this technology at Donvale PS. We have, as a learning team invested much time and energy into implementing a well-rounded remote learning program for your students. Through this, we can discuss work with students and we can ask children to submit work directly to us as well.

The timeline for remote learning across Victoria is for the duration of Term 2, at this stage. During this time, we have decided for ease and workability that Goggle Classrooms and / or See Saw is our main platform for feedback for students and COMPASS for parents.

Does this replicate completely what happens in the classroom? No, and nor should we expect this to. This is a good way to make contact and continue learning and keep everyone engaged.

Some ways in which feedback may occur from teacher to student:

· annotating work

· providing verbal feedback via voice message one student at a time.

· writing comments on See Saw about work

· class discussions and check ins

· One to one discussions on See Saw / Google classrooms.

Some ways in which feedback may occur from student to teacher:

· students recording themselves reading a book and uploading it to See Saw

· students creating a voice message reading or explaining a maths program

· using an affiliated app (such as Explain Everything) and uploading this as a drawing and explanation to See Saw to explain learning

· Making an imovie to demonstrate learning.

· Receiving feedback from their teacher, making the changes and re-uploading work.

Program for Students with a Disability and feedback:

Integration Aides have been added to individual groups with the class teacher and student, giving them the ability to discuss work and well-being.

Books Available Online

We encourage you to borrow audiobooks or eBooks from the local Library through the eservice most offer.

Health and Wellbeing Support

Parents can email their child’s classroom teacher or either myself or Mr McKinlay if you have any questions or need any support.

We will stay connected by COMPASS and we encourage you to share your experiences, ideas and photos.

The following websites may also be helpful:

DET website https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/department/Pages/coronavirus.aspx

DHHS website https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus

Kind Regards

Lena Clark

Principal

Clark.lena.e@edumail.vic.gov.au

Dear Parents,

A Donvale PS teacher (Mr Peter Reiter) forwarded the letter below to me and we both felt that it would be something worthwhile in sending to our parent community. It is a letter from a school principal (I wish I could claim that I wrote it – but I didn’t!) Just some very sage words which may help you get through the coming weeks and possibly months. A reminder, that the children are on end of term holidays. They have all been working hard during this first term of school and need a break as I’m sure you do too.

Stay well.

Lena Clark

Principal

"Dear parents with school aged children,

You might be inclined to create a minute by minute schedule for your kids. You have high hopes of hours of learning, including online activities, science experiments, and book reports. You’ll limit technology until everything is done! But here’s the thing...

Our kids are just as scared as we are right now. Our kids not only can hear everything that is going on around them, but they feel our constant tension and anxiety. They have never experienced anything like this before. Although the idea of being off of school for weeks sounds awesome, they are probably picturing a fun time like summer break, not the reality of being trapped at home and not seeing their friends.

Over the coming weeks, you will see an increase in behaviour issues with your kids. Whether it’s anxiety, or anger, or protest that they can’t do things normally - it will happen. You’ll see more meltdowns, tantrums, and oppositional behaviour in the coming weeks. This is normal and expected under these circumstances.

What kids need right now is to feel comforted and loved. To feel like it’s all going to be ok. And that might mean that you tear up your perfect schedule and love on your kids a bit more. Play outside and go on walks. Bake cookies and paint pictures. Play board games and watch movies. Do a science experiment together or find virtual field trips of the zoo. Start a book and read together as a family. Snuggle under warm blankets and do nothing.

Don’t worry about them regressing in school. Every single kid is in this boat and they all will be ok. When we are back in the classroom, we will all course correct and meet them where they are. Teachers are experts at this! Don’t pick fights with your kids because they don’t want to do math. Don’t scream at your kids for not following the schedule. Don’t mandate 2 hours of learning time if they are resisting it.

If I can leave you with one thing, it’s this: at the end of all of this, your kids’ mental health will be more important than their academic skills. And how they felt during this time will stay with them long after the memory of what they did during those weeks is long gone. So keep that in mind, every single day..."