Dear Parents, Guardians and Carers,

Thank you for the feedback regarding the class meetings that are being held each morning. I know the teachers are valuing the opportunity to catch up with their grade, and from what we are hearing, so are the families. If you are experiencing difficulties logging on to the meeting please let your class teacher know and they can help you to problem solve the issue or ask someone else to give you a call to talk you through it if they’re not sure.

Small group sessions will start to roll out over the next week as well and will provide the opportunity for more targeted teaching with groups of children.

The 100 days of Foundation celebration was a big hit last Thursday. The children and teachers enjoyed the online dance party. Thank you to the teachers for thinking creatively and coming up with a great alternative.

Again, I am including a reminder regarding on-site supervision. There are specific guidelines released by the State Government regarding remote schooling. These state that, all students who can learn from home will be required to learn from home, except where:

• My/Our child is not able to be supervised at home and no other arrangements can be made as l/we am/are unable to work from home
• My/Our child is vulnerable and I/we am/are requesting they attend on-site Remote Schooling
• My/Our child has a disability and I/we am/are requesting they attend on-site Remote Schooling based on parent choice.

The intent behind this is to ensure the safety of staff and students in schools, by limiting who can attend. If you are working from home, have a day off work, aren’t working at the moment, are studying, or have access to alternative care arrangements, then your child cannot be accessing the on-site supervision.

We are trying our best to limit the number of adults on site to meet government guidelines however, we need your help with this.

If your child needs onsite supervision and meets one of the above criteria then you must send in the intentions each week by Friday 8pm so we can ensure correct ratios. The intention form for next week must be received no later than 8pm Friday 14^th August. It is included in the newsletter and also in the notes section of the app. A late notification after this time may result in your child(ren) not being able to attend as extra children effect the staff- student ratios.

I will be including a regular section in our newsletter with ideas for managing anxiety and improving the wellbeing during Remote Schooling. Todays article is by Michael Grose and speaks about helping children overcome COVID induced anxiety. It includes links to other websites that may be of benefit as well.

Finally, I am sure you have heard on the news today that Lavalla Catholic College have had two confirmed cases of COVID-19 and are closed for an environmental clean. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the staff and families at the school.

Stay home, stay safe and keep wearing those masks!

Jodie