Filter Content
- Principal's Message
- How to Support Your Child to Write
- Positive Behaviours for Learning Strategies During Remote Learning
- Self Compassion and Self Talk with the St Paul's CatholicCare Counsellor Doreen Waddington
- Attendance and Roll Marking
- How to support your child to read
- Feedback for Remote Learning
- PM eCollection and Sora Reading K-6
- HELP needed
Dear Parents and Carers,
As we conclude another week of remote learning and adhere to further lockdown restrictions the staff at St Paul's continues to keep the community in our prayers and thoughts. It has been reassuring to witness the trust, understanding and compassion amongst the community, during a time in which we are being continually challenged and tested. Our students are safe, supported and are learning and this is thanks to the collective efforts of our parents, carers, grandparents and staff. Through the week I have had the opportunity to sit in Grade Zoom meetings and watch and listen to our students engage with their peers and teachers, asking very thoughtful questions about their learning. This is a daily opportunity for our students to connect as a community and I am very grateful to those parents and carers who ensure their child is engaging in the daily Grade Zoom sessions.
Throughout this week Stage Leaders have met with their Stage teachers to unpack the data gleaned from the Remote Learning Parent and Carer Survey. Teachers have modified learning and teaching experiences and daily Grade Zoom meetings as a response to the feedback from parents and carers. Please continue to provide teachers with feedback so that we can continue to improve our processes and structures to scaffold and support our students.
There are three additional pages in this Week 6 Remote Learning Newsletter which include:
- Information and a video including tips for parents and carers when supporting their child whilst writing
- Positive Behaviour For Learning Strategies During Remote Learning
- Self Compassion and Positive Self Talk
Further information regarding the above new inclusions can be found in this newsletter.
Please note that if your child is going to be onsite for any day in the next 2 weeks please complete the Student OnSite Attendance Google Form
I would like to express my deep gratitude to parents and carers, the St Paul's students and staff for your continued support as together we journey through our sixth week of remote learning and we continue to hold everyone in our community in our prayers.
Yours in Faith and Learning,
Michelle Rodwell
Principal
Finding the right time to write with your child at home can be tricky, especially if you have other children. Scheduling a specific time each day and establishing a routine with your child will help improve your child’s Literacy. Please see the following information for some tips and tricks about writing with your child.
A number of parents have shared with staff that keeping their child motivated and engaged in remote learning can be challenging. Below are some strategies and tips for keeping your child engaged, interested and focused during remote learning.
Ensure the learning space at home remains in place
- Organising the learning space each afternoon for the next day will help your child be ready to learn each morning.
Keep your family routines going
- Be flexible with the Daily Learning plans and make it work for your family. Change the order of learning tasks if needed and support your child to get the work done when it works for you.
- Younger children need more structure, so make sure to let them know what to expect. Use the Daily Learning Plans to help plan out the day.
- Have your child follow a routine as if they're going to school, e.g. getting dressed, brushing teeth, etc.
- Movement and brain breaks are really important, especially for children with learning and attention difficulties, so make sure to build those in and break work into smaller pieces if needed.
- Plan to take a break with your children, have fun together.
Take time to review expectations
- Go over the PB4L expectations- this is what the school expects during online learning.
Set some expectations of your own as well. When can your child expect to spend time with you? When should they avoid interrupting you? What can they do in their downtime? Come up with a list of "must-dos" and "may-dos" together to cover the essentials and activities of choice.
In the video below the St Paul's CatholicCare Counsellor Doreen Waddington talks about the importance of self compassion and self talk during lockdow. Self-talk is what we say to ourselves about ourselves. We use self-talk all the time. Sometimes we say things in our mind and sometimes we say it right out loud. But when things go wrong, we often forget to be kind to ourselves, and our self-talk becomes very judgemental. And sometimes we don't even realize we do it.
If your child is learning from home it is a requirement that you complete the attached form to indicate this by 10 am daily.
If your child needs to be at school then the supervising staff will complete attendance.
If neither of these roll marking options is chosen then you will receive a notification at 3 pm that day to state your child has an unexplained absence. Please ensure that you inform the school if your child is sick and will not be accessing learning on that day.
Finding the right time to read with your child at home can be tricky, especially if you have other children. Scheduling a specific time each day and establishing a routine with your child will help improve your child’s Literacy. Please see the following information for some tips and tricks about reading with your child.
Please find an informative video providing parents and carers with ideas and tips to support your child with reading compiled by Mrs Belinda Evans and Ms Shari Allison.
As you are aware we are using Seesaw and Google Classroom to provide learning experiences. These platforms allow teachers to give feedback on items of work.
Guidelines are in place to ensure that feedback across the grades is clear for the students.
As a parent you need to be aware of the following:
- Many teachers will be working offsite. This means someone other than your class teacher may provide feedback to your child. Minimal teaching staff are onsite. They supervise stages or grades on a rotation basis and support the children to complete the Daily Learning Plan.
- Feedback will be done between 9:00am and 3:30pm to encourage children to stick to regular routines. Do not worry if your family schedule does not allow the child to work at these times. The teacher will see it when they log on next.
- Feedback is not instantaneous.
- If your child is using Seesaw all posts must be approved by a teacher. If it says pending approval this means a teacher has not yet seen this work. Once approved a teacher has seen this. Not all posts will be given a comment by a teacher.
- The Daily Plans will highlight which elements of work that need to be uploaded.
- The Daily Plans will also indicate which activity will be given feedback. The teachers will be looking at two things the child is doing well and one thing they could improve on or adjust. This is what we call two stars and a wish. There will be one of these a day. ⭐️⭐️?
We thank you for your continued support in assisting your child to learn.
There are many benefits of reading daily and the St Paul's Staff would like to thank our students who are reading daily. All Remote Learning Daily Plans include reading as we recognise and value the importance of reading. Research proves that students who read more will have a more extensive vocabulary, improved concentration, better understanding of sentence structure, greater reading comprehension skills, more general knowledge picked up through their reading experience, and a higher level of creativity and imagination.
Reading just 20 minutes a day gives students a huge advantage to their overall learning and achievement. This is why it is essential that your child is reading each day during remote learning. As you are aware every child in Kindergarten to Year 3 now has had access to the PM eCollection. We strongly encouraged all children in Kindergarten to Year 3 to access the PM eCollection each day during remote learning.
Please take a moment to read the Information for parents and at-home users document, it provides important information on how to access and utilise the PM eCollection eReader. Each child in Kindergarten to Year 3 has their own personalised login. If you can not locate your child’s individual login details please contact their classroom teacher or contact the school office for support.
Children in Years 5 to 6 will continue to access Sora— The Student Reading App. SORA provides access to a digital library with thousands of ebooks and audiobooks. Years 3 & 4 have just been given access to SORA. Today parents will be sent unique usernames and passwords for access to SORA. Check your junk mail in case the email has gone here.
The benefit of SORA is that it contains books listed in the Premier's Reading Challenge.
To access these ebooks you will need to Download the Sora App from the App Store: (tip: if you search for the app, type Sora by OverDrive) https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/sora-by-overdrive/id1376592326?mt=8
SORA is also available through a browser: https://soraapp.com/welcome
This video tutorial will help you setup and use Sora. http://overdrivedow.weebly.com/getting-started.html
Understandably, many questions may arise and it is hoped that frequent school communication via Compass, assists you in clarifying your concerns. Teachers will respond to communication in a timely manner during school hours (8:00 am – 3:30 pm) only.
Requests for technology support can be made via the form below.
Telephone (02) 42 562 772
Email Office info@spapdow.catholic.edu.au
