This morning the State Government has announced that families are encouraged to keep their children at home if they have the capacity to do so. The majority of our parents have already been doing this, so for them nothing has changed this term.
The Government recognises there will be families who need to send their children to school to continue their learning during the next two weeks. These may include:
- Children of parents and carers who need their children to attend school to maintain employment.
- Children who live in families with aged relatives.
- Children where it is safer for them to be at school.
What this means for those children still at school is:
- Next week: 30 March – 3 April, children who attend school will be taught as normal.
- The following week: 6 – 9 April, children who attend school will be supervised. How this looks at Richmond will depend on how many children are at school that week.
All Richmond parents have received at least one Connect notice from their child’s teacher containing information about work that may be completed at home. Additionally, as advised in my 23 March update, the Education Department’s learning at home resources are also available to all parents on their website under the learning at home tab.
I know some children are powering through their ‘home’ work and others are simply trying to regroup as a family unit in this new world. Please do what you can manage, as we all adapt to the ‘new normal’.
My staff are preparing remote teaching resources for use in term 2. I don’t know exactly what term 2 will look like yet in terms of possible physical attendance for some versus online learning, but I will keep you updated as the Government makes these decisions.
On-line learning at Richmond will continue to be via Connect, which is the Education Department’s secure communication channel.
I have added a link to Connect on the home page of our school website.
I have put the Connect manual under the information tab on our website.
Lara will happily reset your account quickly and easily on request.
With 420 students from K-6 to cater for, I’m grateful to parents for resisting the temptation to email staff for bespoke work packages at this stage. We will approach this, as always, as a team and communicate with everyone together.
Please for now, ensure you are at ease with Connect, continue to read my updates on our website, look out for Connect communication about work from your child’s teacher, and check out the Education Department website resources.
There are lots of things that we are fine tuning so that we make this as simple as possible for everyone. Thank you so much for bearing with us in this period of rapid change and conflicting announcements. We all really appreciate it.
Stay safe, and again thanks for your support in this transitional period.
Lisa Dentith