Dear Parents and Families,

Welcome to Term 3.

I hope you and your family had the opportunity to enjoy the break from routine over the holidays.  Even though we all probably felt frustrated by the fact we had only just got all students on deck for a few weeks then had to start holidays, it was really important to pause and have some non-school time.  Unfortunately I get the sense that I'm a little like Bill Murray in that classic movie 'Groundhog Day' the way things are going at the moment with growing concern around COVID-19.

Last term we all were confronted with the joys and challenges of Remote Learning, and even though we have no clear advice from Government about where the current situation will lead we need to be sensible in our approach.  As adults we need to be agile and ready to respond to change in our lives, while at the same time ensuring our responses do not negatively impact on our children.  Parenting is such a rewarding thing, but also a real juggling act that is the real challenge at times.  If we have to move back into a lock-down scenario I know we will take advantage of the lessons learnt from last time.

This newsletter includes some important information about key topics, inlcuding information about changes to upcoming events.  We had planned on moving Parent-Teacher Interviews up to Week 2 with the teachers really keen to hear from parents about what they learnt about their child during Remote Learning, as we have already had such positive feedback about how much more informed and empowered parents felt.  As reports are distrbuted this week we encourage parents to reach out to the classroom teachers if they still felt the need to catch up via phone.

The Semester 1 reports will have a different structure due to the impact of Remote Learning.  I'm sure some families have friends or family members at other schools so may have seen different report styles and content over the past month.  As a school we made the decision to try to give parents more information than was set as a standard by the Victorian Government.  To enable this to happen we created a timeline that allowed teachers to continue writing reports until the last day of term, compared to the Semeter 1 report drafts normally completed at the end of May.  Can I thank the staff for their willingness to adopt this generous approach even though last term saw a significant rise in their workload as it was.

Finally, an update about the building program .... the fence is down, the builders have left and we have started the shuffle across.  As different technical and communication systems become operational we will then complete the move over to the new Admin area.

Wishing you a great finish to the week, take care and stay safe.

Dave