By Amy McBeath | Posted: Monday April 6, 2020
You may be wondering what this term is going to be like as we start the term inside our bubbles. Rest assured the staff has spent time over the holidays planning for this.
Firstly it is important to acknowledge that each of our families will be experiencing this time differently and because of this, you will have different expectations of how you expect your child to complete their learning at home. Some of you will want your child to stick to a strict schedule, some will want small amounts of work that are manageable while juggling a household, and others will want to use the time to teach important life skills.
We are also aware that some of our families will have parents working from home, parents who work in essential services, and parents who have plenty of time to work with children. Some families will also have multiple children needing to share devices and complete their work. For these reasons, it is imperative that first and foremost we are looking after our children's wellbeing and of course our own too. The children are going to remember this time for the rest of their lives and it is so important that they have a positive mindset and are keeping active relationships and active bodies.
Keeping all of the above in mind, teachers have made plans for children to be learning at home. We have worked together to ensure the content is similar within each syndicate and does not put too much pressure on parents to become teachers. Remembering that our middles are aged between 6 and some soon to be turning 9 they will need some support at times.
Term 2 officially starts on Wednesday the 15th of April. We will be meeting on Google meets at 11 am. We will meet online using Google meets at this time each day of the week. All of the middle classes are meeting at this time so that other children can meet with their classes at other times. We will use this time to catch up with the children, share news, talk about what we have been doing, read a story and to talk about our inquiry with the children.
Our children have been using Google Classroom at school, although we do not expect them to be proficient in this. I have spent a bit of time adjusting the topics and items in Google Classroom so it may look slightly different from the way students are used to seeing it. Notices and general discussions can be found in the 'Stream'. Children may want to (with support if needed) add to the discussion to find out what their classmates have been up to. At the top of the 'Classwork' section, you will find a topic labelled 'Important Links and Resources' which has links to the websites children can be using at home. I know lots of children have already been busy working on maths challenges on Prodigy and Mathletics, and reading through books on Epic. Please let me know if you need reminders of any passwords for your child. Next week and each Monday following, there will be new topics added with a collection of activities that children can be working on at home.
Finally please remember to keep in touch via Seesaw as our messages will be sent through this app. Seesaw can be downloaded as an app onto your phone. This is a good way to make sure you receive notifications when new messages and activities are posted. Some of you are already using this regularly and it has been wonderful to see what the children have been up to.
Kind regards,
Amy McBeath