Tuesday 31 March SS

Secondary Online Learning Update

Dear Parents & Guardians,

I would like to thank all parents who took the time to respond to our recent parental survey over the weekend, which strongly reinforced the great work our teachers are doing. The key message from you is that our staff are working tirelessly for your children and I thank you very much for recognising this.

I share the following results:

It is clear to me that many of our teachers are working well beyond what would be expected of them and therefore, we need to manage their workload and wellbeing to ensure, at this critical time, they are not overworked. We also need additional opportunities so that staff can come together to share best practices in online learning. You will be aware that state, and other private, schools are taking four full days to do this however, we are more advanced in our planning and therefore only require the equivalent of two day’s work. We have decided to split this time into four half days so that students maintain daily contact with their teachers.

As a result, next week teachers will be involved in professional learning.

Online face-to-face discussions will continue on Zoom or Google Hangouts from Monday – Thursday at the following times:

• Primary staff from 8.30am -12.00pm;
• Secondary staff from Period 4 to Period 7 with a dedicated timetable which will be sent out separately.

It is important to remember that outside of these times our staff will not be available for online face-to-face learning. Students can continue with other work or engage in other activities at home.

From Term Two onwards our current online face to face delivery will return. It is important to manage parent expectations of teacher workload. Parents should note that communication with teachers should be restricted to between 8.00am to 4.00pm each day to safeguard their wellbeing. In Term Two Secondary Students will:

• Continue to receive an outline of the following week’s lessons, video lessons and resource material which will be placed on SEQTA and invitations to Zoom meetings will be on Teams (SEQTA does not allow for interactive meeting invitations);
• Have attendance taken during Form lessons and all video lessons, staff felt this is important to help develop a school mindset for students
• Have video teaching two lessons for each of their classes; one of which will be the timetabled double period. The other lessons will be a variety of set book work, research, group work or online activity such as Education Perfect
• Be encouraged to use their long form lesson (Period 3 Monday) to map out their weekly work so they know which lessons are online and can be prepared for them.

We thank you for the additional efforts you are putting in to assist with your child’s online learning and as originally stated this is a team approach focused on providing your child with as seamless education possible.

Yours sincerely,

Craig Monaghan                                              Jannine Webb
Principal                                                            Head of Secondary