Message to Parents - Week 2

I hope you and your family are keeping well and are adjusting as best you can to this very new way of living. We have completed a full week of Home Learning and hopefully you have all survived with your sanity still intact! I just wanted to check in with you as we begin a new week to show some solidarity and support! I know it has presented many challenges, for staff and families alike. We had a lot of issues with our main platform Education City, which have now hopefully been resolved and it is expected to function much more smoothly this week. 

Thanks to everyone who responded with feedback, we will be taking all your input on board as we move forward. We've had a few questions around how much time should be spent each day on work, how much content needs to be covered and I'd like to address this by reinforcing the following messages with you.

There is no proven way of doing this, we are in unprecedented times and circumstances for each family can be very different. Some of you are having to manage your own workload on top of supervising your child's Home Learning, others are managing with maybe 3 or 4 children all working at different levels and having to access computers/tablets at the same time. Some of our children are very self motivated and can't wait to do their tasks and would be happy to spend all day working on them, other children may find it difficult to sustain concentration at home and getting them to complete their tasks can be very challenging.

All of these factors will play a part in determining how much/how little content your child will manage in any given day. All we suggest is that they do some daily Literacy, Numeracy and Reading tasks. These can be taken from their packs, using Education City or from some of the ideas in the Weekly Class Tasks. You may have found another resource that you are using, which the children are enjoying and engaging with. If it works for you and your child then that's what you go with.

It is very difficult to be prescriptive in what our children do at home; the resources and activities we provide are there to help assist you in engaging your children in some form of learning. Please use them as best you can, adapt them to fit in with your own circumstances and don't worry about whether you are doing enough/too much. Whatever suits you and your family is what is best.

Don't allow this work to become a point of friction or tension in your home, this is a difficult enough time for everyone, we are more concerned for your family's emotional health than any academic work. Remember, it is just as important for our children's development to be engaging in other activities like playing, painting, drawing, helping with chores or planting in the garden. Ensuring some daily physical activity is also vital for our children's well being.

If you require any advice or information, please do not hesitate to contact your child's teacher or myself and we will try our best to assist in any way we can.

I will finish by reminding you of some of the key points I shared with you from another Principal, in my letter to you before we started this journey, they are:

This is not ‘homeschooling.’ This is an unprecedented emergency situation impacting the whole world.

You are, and always have been, your child’s primary educator. It is your right to decide what or how much schoolwork your child does, if you feel it’s better to spend the day baking or watching TV, then that’s your choice. There is nothing to stress or feel guilty about.

You are doing enough. You are loving your children and supporting them through a difficult time. Look after yourself. Minimising stress is vital in a time like this for mental health. Don’t let this be something that stresses you, accept that this is out of your control. 

Our children will come back to school and we will pick up from where we left off, all we ask is that you do your best in the meantime to maintain some routine of Home Learning and remain sane in the process!

Take care and God Bless

Ms Savage