Dear St John the Apostle Community,

Thank you to everyone for working together to make the most of the situation we find ourselves in together at present. Parents, students and staff have been fantastic in troubleshooting issues, supporting each other and learning together.

There's great news at the moment about how we are managing COVID-19 cases in the ACT. After hearing this, it's easy to want to rush into sending everyone back to school but, as the ACT Government recognises, we're not out of the woods yet.

Please be confident that we will more than happily welcome a return to regular school attendance as soon as we are given the all clear by the ACT Government and Catholic Education. We have been trying to communicate regularly with everyone and as soon as we have some news in this area we will let you know.

In the mean time, keep doing the great job you are.

NEW Student Learning Centre website

Today we launched a new Student Learning Centre website to bring together the various platforms and sites we are using of as part of the Remote Learning Program. 

With the introduction of Microsoft Teams the feedback from parents, teachers and students is that it can be confusing to navigate all platforms. However, we know that one platform doesn't meet everyone's needs.

It is possible to access all the platforms through Microsoft Teams but some people have found that the links don't always work. So we have pulled together this site to enable students and parents to work in Google Classroom and other sites separately to Microsoft Teams if they wish. Students will need to use Microsoft Teams to message and video conference with teachers.

You can visit the Student Learning Centre by visiting our school website or by clicking on the picture below.

Please continue to call, email or Seesaw message your teacher if you need to clarify anything. We are more than happy to assist.

Catholic Education are also providing additional support through their helpdesk on 1300 232 448. I know parents have been using this line and found it helpful.

Loaning devices

We have loaned a number of devices to families and been very happy to assist in this way at this time. We are unable to loan anymore at the moment because we also need to use devices with students who are being supervised in their Remote Learning Program at school. Next week we'll re-assess the availability of any devices to loan out.

Assessment & Reporting

Despite our best efforts, our usual teaching & learning practices can't be implemented as effectively as they ordinarily would. This means that we aren't able to assess and report on student progress in our usual way as well.

During this time of remote learning, teachers are keeping records and making notes of student work and participation in order to continue building their understanding of the growth and learning of each student. They are just young children. They are not receiving ATAR scores or applying for university. They are just continuing their learning in a remote manner. Sometimes teachers of older students may nominate a task as 'an assessment piece'. This simply means they want students to know this piece is important and they are keen to get everyone's submission to look at how they went with it and determine what they might need to teach them next. That's all......no Pass or Fail, just do your best with the task.

Prioritising time, energy and tasks

We continuously get mixed feedback about the amount and type of tasks provided on each class' remote learning program. Some will say "Is that all, can I have more?". Others will say "We can't possibly get through all of it!" Some will say "We want more print out sheets" while others again will ask for more "real life tasks". Teachers are working very, very hard to try to accommodate for every child. It's important to recognise that one person's experience is not everybody's experience.

It's okay not get it all perfectly right. In fact, there is no right. To help everyone take their own individual approach at home, teachers have begun indicating which tasks are 'most important' and which tasks are 'good to do' if they have more time.

If you're finding it is too much. Please just support your child with the 'most important' tasks each day. That will be enough to continue their learning. With the increased check-ins via video conferencing next week students will be able to rely much more on school staff to understand what to do and less on parents.

Videoconfernecing

From next week, every class will have a video conference with their teacher at the same time every day:

Inclusion Assistants will also begin their small group check-ins with allocated students at scheduled times from Monday. They've made contact or attempted to make contact with all relevant parents over the last few days. They're really looking forward to working with students again.

We hope you have a lovely weekend. Please take the time to rest and enjoy some relaxed time together.

Thank you for you continued support. We miss you all very much.

Kind regards

Matthew Garton, Principal