Thursday's Tidings - 23 April 2020
Term 2 - Week 1
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Welcome to our first online newsletter. It has certainly come just at the right time and the capability to send messages efficiently to all of our families is very valuable.
Firstly, thank you to all parents who are supporting their children at home. There has been an excellent response to the Student Resource Packs with over 95% of the packs collected. For those working through these packs at home, your child/ren’s teachers are checking in by phone each week. The online links and instructions for students (and parents) are all available from the link below and teachers will continue to email to keep you informed.
The students attending school are also working through the same resource packs. All students spend the morning session with their classroom teacher. Following the first break, students are grouped together and supervised by designated teachers and teacher aides.
Weeks 3-5
Present advice is that schools are operating with the majority of students learning from home and only the children of essential workers attending school. This is in place until Friday 22 May. Over the next week teachers will be using the time they are not with their students to prepare the next set of Student Resource Packs for Weeks 3, 4 and 5. There will be another pick up day on Tuesday 5 May. Teachers are also using this time to call parents to offer feedback and to answer questions. Thank you for continuing to check your emails as this is where teachers will let parents and carers know when they will be calling.
Supporting Your Children At Home
As the term progresses and students work through the resources in the packs, keep in mind the recommended time allocations:
English - 45-60 minutes each day
Maths - 30-45 minutes each day
Science - 30 minutes each day
HPE/other - 30 minutes per day
These are suggested times. Break up the sessions and importantly, remember that if tensions are rising (yours or your child’s!) that if some work is not completed, this will be ok. There is no ‘right way’ to do this learning at home - the best answer is to whatever works for your family. Check out our Facebook page where some families have been sharing their learning at home.
DAILY Attendance Contact
With the majority of students learning from home, schools are required to make DAILY contact with families to confirm learning arrangements. We have streamlined this process by sending an early morning SMS text message to all families. Please respond with a simple YES or NO to these messages as quickly as possible EVERY day.
- reply YES to confirm you are an essential worker and your child/ren will be attending school today
OR
- reply NO to confirm you are not an essential worker and your child/ren will be learning from home today.
If the YES or NO option does not apply for any particular reason on a certain day, please phone the absence hotline on 5480 2166 and leave a detailed message eg if your child is sick or you have an appointment and your child will not be learning from home that day.
Please note that if we have not received a reply by 9.30am, you will receive a phone call from one of our wonderful teacher aides to confirm your famiies situation. If we are still unable to contact you, your child/rens absence will be recorded as unexplained.
If your child attends school, we still require a response to the daily text message. Of course every morning the school checks who is physically attending as well. We appreciate your understanding and assistance with this process.
Welcome To Our New Staff
This term Gympie Central welcomes our new Head of Curriculum, Leesa Vacher. Mrs Vacher has joined our team after previously working at Sunshine Coast schools in both classroom and HOC roles. Her experience will be invaluable around the school and she has already been made to feel welcome by the staff and students.
our new Chappy has been appointed following Chappy Lynch's departure from Gympie Central last term. Leanne Warrener is excited to be joining us here at Central and is looking forward to supporting our school community. Leanne will be starting with us in May.
Hygiene
Our cleaners are always doing a great job keeping the school clean. The school has also utilised additional cleaning hours to ensure high traffic ‘touch points’ are cleaned daily. These areas include door handles, toilet areas, playgrounds and computer keyboards. Social distancing is in place in classrooms, additional hand soap is provided in every learning space and teachers continue to remind students of the need to distance themselves during class and playtimes.
Continue to take care and we all look forward to getting back to the familiar routine.
Warm regards,
Glenn Cafferky