Dear St John the Apostle Community,

Let me share with you my favourite of the many, many memes floating around at this time. This one represents my thoughts perfectly as I reflect on the term we have just experienced. It's all in the face! I love that there's a recognition that what has happened was very unexpected but that also there's a big smile to say we've survived and we're optimistic about next term.

So with the term ending today we wanted to finish with a moment of closure and joy during what is a challenging time for everyone. It was lovely today to see so many of our families at our Easter Drive-Thru where we were able to pass on some Easter eggs to our students.

Many of our staff have been commenting this week on how much we miss having the students with us and today was a reminder of that.

Amazing stories from Other Catholic schools!

Every teacher in every school across Australia seeks to do their very best to support their students as we all move to remote learning. We are all in the same business of creating welcoming school communities that help every student to grow and learn.

During this rapid period of change, our ACT/NSW Catholic school Principals and Catholic Education representatives have been holding daily Zoom meetings with each other to work through the many issues that arise in this new context.

During these times I have heard amazing stories of the work that has happened in each of our Catholic schools across our Archdiocese. Our schools are full of staff who are creative, generous, up for a challenge and love their job!

Our Catholic schools are committed to looking for ways to provide the very best opportunities for our students to continue their learning as part of a supportive and caring community, no matter what the circumstances.

Keeping our community strong

While we have missed seeing our students and their families we know that they have also missed seeing each other and their teachers. It's lovely to hear how children have contacted each other through parents' Face Time apps and other means.

Last week we were ready to launch our live sessions within class groups when Catholic Education requested we pause to support us with a secure platform for working with students and introduced all schools to Microsoft teams. All of our staff were provided with training throughout this week to learn about it.

We have great plans to re-build that connection between students, teachers and parents next term.

• Every class will hold a scheduled live video session every day with their teacher.
• Every student will have a regular live check-in with their teacher.
• Every class can participate in instant posting to 'chat' with their teacher.
• Our Performing Arts, Library and Kitchen Garden teachers will hold regular live sessions to talk about the tasks they have set for students and for students to share their learning with others.
• We will hold some scheduled live sessions for parents to connect with staff and each other and share ideas.

Our Executive Team will also hold some live sessions for all students to participate in for fun and sharing.

At the Community Council meeting on Tuesday evening (held using Zoom) the members of the council wanted to ensure that parents who are feeling isolated and wanting to connect with each other to share ideas had an easy option to do so. In this time of being isolated from each other we know how important it is to feel like we are not alone and we have others to call on for advice. A number of year level Facebook groups have popped up, initiated by parents, with the purpose of providing support and help for each other. While these are not run by the school we're really pleased to know that parents are supporting each other as well in this time.

If you know of any Facebook groups that have popped up for this purpose and are happy to share the link to connect please feel free to email it to me (Matthew.Garton@cg.catholic.edu.au) and I will be happy to share it to your year level group through Schoolzine. Thank you for caring for each other.

We look forward to sharing many creative ways for sustaining our community next term and keeping us all connected.

How will we support students with more complex needs in a remote learning environment?

Our very committed Inclusion team have been exceptional in re-structuring the model of support they are offering to students remotely.

All of our Inclusion Assistants have adjusted the hours that they are working next term to spread them out so that many students can be supported everyone morning  through remote connections. They will either be checking-in with individual students to provide support for tasks they are completing or they will be running small groups with intervention in Sounds-Write and reading. 

The Inclusion Team have also set up a special Google Classroom for the students they support as an additional space to access help and resources. Stewart McDonald, Student Welfare Officer, has set up a Google Classroom that allows various students to access the same support and connection he has been offering at school. I have the privileged position of being able to access all of the Google Classrooms and seeing their wonderful work with students.

Rebekah Brown, Assistant Principal/Inclusion Teacher, has been exceptional in coordinating this change. She has continued to undertake assessments with students, making sure that access to support and direction remains on track. She will be emailing all families in the coming days about how they will be supported in remote learning.

Staff working remotely

Our staff have been very, very committed to setting up our school and students for success. They have remained at school throughout this time to ensure that everything is as ready as we can get it.

During next term we also want to give our staff the opportunity to work remotely to ensure their own and their family's health is also protected. All staff, other than those who have personal circumstances that place them at significant risk and must remain at home, will be working remotely for part of each week. They will continue to provide the same online learning program and support. They will simply do it from home for a part of the week. You are still welcome to contact them in the usual manner through Seesaw and email. We will have all teachers let you know when they will be working remotely so you know not to ring them at school on those days.

The first week of Term 2

I just want to remind everyone that Monday 27th April is the ANZAC Public Holiday in the ACT. There is no school.

With the completion of the Microsoft Teams training this week Catholic Education will set up the classes during the school holiday period. The first day of school, Tuesday 28th April, staff will all be at school transitioning their classes and Google Classrooms into the Microsoft Teams environment. There will be no remote learning program that day. 

We therefore expect that the remote learning program will begin on Wednesday 29th April. We look forward to its launch.

Student supervision during Term 2

Thank you to all who registered their students for supervision at school for one or more days due to them being an essential worker and not having any other option available to them. We have registered your needs and organised suitable supervision for them on these days and you will receive an email with more details.

We hope you all have a lovely Easter time. We hope that the school holidays are an opportunity to breathe and rest for families in some way.

We look forward to seeing you all (online) for the beginning of next term.

Kind regards,

Matthew Garton, Principal