Dear Parents and Caregivers
Welcome to AEP for the current lockdown.
We acknowledge that circumstances have changed dramatically over the last week, and our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in our community during these trying times. We wish to assure you that we are committed to delivering learning for our students throughout this period. The Year Five Teaching Team has been working hard to enable this, preparing for alternative learning by creating different teaching and learning opportunities. We have had to be creative, flexible and utilise a range of digital platforms to achieve this.
In preparing our approach, we aim to keep as much consistency for our families and students as possible. We understand that each family context is different and encourage families to engage in the content to the extent they can comfortably manage. As our community engages in alternative learning, we will be looking for constructive feedback from families so that we can modify our teaching plans and resources to best meet your needs.
This email provides some information on procedures, measures and expectations to assist you in managing ‘learning from home’. We ask you to please work cooperatively with us as we navigate through these uncertain times. We are all learning and adjusting to this new model together. We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.
Who can be on the school site?
From now until further notice, all students will be learning from Home, except for students in the following categories:
- Children of essential workers on days when they are not able to be supervised at Home and no other arrangements can be made. Essential worker means any worker who must continue to attend their workplace for essential business during this time.
- Vulnerable children include children identified by schools or who: are currently receiving services from Child Safety, including children who are subject to a child protection order or are subject to a youth justice order.
- Children in designated Indigenous communities.
Where a student is learning at Home, the parent or carer is responsible for the student’s safety and wellbeing at Home or elsewhere.
Will the children on campus be with their usual teacher?
Student learning will be set and monitored by their teacher. The child’s teacher may not be the teacher who is directly supervising your child on the school campus. This will depend on the number of students on site as we still need to respect all social distancing measures. Your child’s class teacher (unless they are on leave) will be the staff member that you communicate with about your child’s learning.
Will the children learning at school have an advantage over the children learning from Home?
All children learning on-site or from home will have access to the same learning content and will be set the same tasks. Therefore, the children who are on-site will have no advantage over those who are at Home. All learning is aligned to the Australian Curriculum. The only difference will be that the children at Home will be supervised by their parent/s, and the children at school will be supervised by a teacher.
How do parents deliver lessons while they are working from Home?
We understand that parents may be working during the day while at Home.
It’s important to note that parents are not required to deliver lessons— the teachers continue to be responsible for the curriculum.
For parents supervising their children, 2 to 3 hours of learning each day will typically be plenty, with a range of additional activities that will be provided to keep children engaged.
How will my child receive learning materials in Year 5?
Daily (by 8:40 am each school day), we will email both parents and students the daily plan, including lesson overviews, instructions, and materials. The scope of the work will include activities that can be completed independently, collaboratively (with others in the Home) and with some guidance from an adult. It will also utilise applications from the Microsoft Office 365 platform, specifically Sway, PowerPoint and Teams. Students will not be only working on their devices. Textbooks and other print resources will be utilised during this period. Students have subscriptions to several online platforms where they can engage in a variety of independent activities. These include; Homework Hound, Padlets, Year 5 website, Literacy Planet, Maths Online and the Australian History Mysteries website. Students know their usernames and passwords to all these sites.
Year 5 Student Expectations
To maintain the routine, it is suggested that students follow the daily plan provided each day. Understandably, no day will be the same, and you will have other responsibilities at home. Use our timetables as a guide to help structure learning. Please note that we (teachers) will only be available for answering questions during school hours, and it may take us up to 24 hours to answer a question.
Each school day, students will check-in between 8.30 am and 8.50 am on TEAMS.
- This is how we will monitor daily attendance.
- If your child is sick or will not engage in schoolwork for family reasons, please notify the school by phone or email or via the Parent Portal as we are still monitoring attendance.
- Engaging in Online/Video Conferencing through Teams– students need to be in a common place in their home environment. Students may not take part in video conferencing from their bedrooms. When using Teams for video conferencing, the background must be blurred. Consider using headphones/earphones to block background noise. Students must be fully clothed when engaged in video conferencing. The same rules regarding the classroom environment also apply in the virtual classroom. Poor or unacceptable behaviour will carry consequences. When posting online, all posts must be appropriate for an educational purpose. Do not post personal comments or images.
Attendance- Lessons
- Students should fulfil their learning as outlined by the teacher each day.
- Students are encouraged to maintain balance and be mindful of their wellbeing by taking appropriate breaks for lunch, drinks, rest breaks, exercise, prayer etc.
- Plan short breaks away from devices every 30 minutes.
Learning at Home
- Where possible, set up a quiet and comfortable workstation at Home, which is distraction-free.
- Students are expected to complete set work to the best of their ability.
- If students have any questions, they should use the conversations section in Teams to tag their teacher or by sending an email.
- Students must meet learning and assessment due dates and are responsible for making sure their work is submitted in the correct format (as outlined by teachers).
Learning from home in TEAMS – parents
Year 5 Parent Expectations
Supporting your child at Home
As always, we work in partnership with parents/caregivers to ensure continued growth in our student’s academic, spiritual and pastoral welfare.
In supporting your child’s learning, we ask parents/caregivers to support us with the following:
- establish daily routines, expectations and goals with your child.
- Ensure your child is engaged in each lesson- this could include active listening, asking questions and completing set work.
- Your child must wear appropriate clothing when video conferencing in Teams.
- Communicate with teachers through email (if needed) during normal school hours.
- Discuss with your child that the same rules regarding the classroom environment also apply in the virtual classroom. Poor or unacceptable behaviour will carry consequences.
- Where possible, provide your child with a quiet and comfortable workstation at Home, which is distraction-free.
- Ensure your child blurs the background of any video conferencing class.
Daily Feedback and Communication with your Child
In the morning and during the day -
What are you learning today? How are you going? How do you know? How can you improve? What do you do when you get stuck?
In the afternoon -
What did you learn today? What was challenging? What went well today? Even better if? How did you connect with your class community?
Can I see what my child is learning when online?
Yes, other than accessing Teams with your son/daughter on their device, Microsoft Teams
has a free mobile/desktop app and can be accessed on any device. If you wish to keep
track of how your son/daughter is progressing and contributing to their online learning environment ask for their log in details and sign in on another device simultaneously without any interruptions to see:
- Communication from teachers
- Upcoming Assignments and due dates
- Live/pre-recorded videos
The below links provides a quick guide to Microsoft Teams for new users -
Quick Guide to Microsoft Teams
Some further suggestions to make the transition easier for students working from Home:
- Remember that we (your child’s teacher) usually divide our attention between up to 30 students who all work at different paces and need different levels of support. At Home, two to three hours of learning each day will usually be plenty.
- Routines and consistency can be a source of comfort for parents and children alike, but keep in mind that your routine doesn’t have to be the same as a school routine. If you use a timetable at Home, make sure it’s manageable for everyone and flexible enough that you can adapt it as you learn what works.
- Home-based learning presents an opportunity for students to find out more about themselves as learners and to become more confident in self-directing their learning. Would you please encourage your child to take responsibility for learning and staying in touch with their teacher, their class, and their friends and community?
- If your child is finding a task difficult, make suggestions and answer questions, but try to let them figure things out for themselves as much as possible. Give them opportunities, where appropriate, to take control of their own learning.
- Remember, this is new for us teachers, too. You can help us succeed by letting us know if you’re unsure about something by emailing us. Please be mindful that we will only respond to emails during school hours and allow 24 hours for a response.
- Have regular discussions with your child throughout the day about their learning.
We look forward to working closely with you over this period of lockdown as we navigate the challenges of ‘at home learning’ together. The purpose of sending this through is to give you an idea of each school day. Please remember that a daily email with the day’s plan, instructions and supporting resources will be emailed to both parents and students by 8:40 am each school day.
If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher(s) via email.
Regards,
The Year 5 Teaching Team
Mrs Kerry Norman, Mr Lawless and Mrs Lisa Duncan
The school’s main learning hub webpage:
https://www.sfxonlinelearninghub.com/
VERY IMPORTANT
Monitoring of children’s use of online platforms eg Video Conferencing is the responsibility of parents. Please be aware that teachers will not be monitoring all video chats, posting and searching by students, therefore monitoring responsibilities always lie with parents when the children are not on the school site. Parents need to always be aware of what their children are doing online.
Some Home Learning Activity suggestions