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Welcome back to Term 2 at Stanmore Public School. I hope you had some quality family time over the school holidays, amid the work commitments that many of you were no doubt juggling.
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It is a start of term like no other any of us have experienced. Usually the school is filled with children, teachers and parents recounting holiday experiences and classrooms are abuzz with new units of work being commenced. This week, however, the school site has remained quiet and sparsely populated, while in homes across our community students, parents and teachers are hard at work taking on the massive task of keeping our students learning moving forward remotely.
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The staff and I are grateful for the efforts that our school community is making to stay home where possible, and for the fantastic support and efforts of parents, most of whom are juggling their own work commitments, in managing our students’ learning at home. I believe you would share my gratitude and admiration for our teachers and support staff, who have worked hard over the holidays and throughout the first week back to create new, refined Learning From Home Plans and deliver instruction and support for our students. Our teachers are continuing to work hard to refine and improve their practices to provide quality instruction and feedback to students, and reduce pressure on families learning from home.
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This term, we have designated activities as ‘essential’ and ‘optional’, in response to feedback from families that the volume of work and the expectations were set too high. Please do what you can to assist your child to complete their work, but keep in mind that maintaining positive wellbeing for students and their families is the most important outcome for us to achieve at this time.
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Our teams have increased the level of differentiation in the work they are setting where possible, aiming to meet the diverse needs and levels of learners in our classes. They are working hard to increase their skills and implementation of audio-visual teaching tools and videoconferencing to connect with students, provide instructions and teach content.
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From Week 3 (Monday 11 May) all students will return to school for one day a week. We are currently planning the structures and systems to make this possible. We are prioritising keeping siblings on the same day, ensuring every child is placed with their class teacher and catering for parents’ preferences.
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Next week, we will send you an email with your child’s assigned day and other important information. Please understand that we will not be able to swap days on request once they are assigned.
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Adults on the school site
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At Stanmore PS, we pride ourselves on being a community hub, with strong community engagement. That is why it feels so strange asking our parent community to stay away from our school site! However, at this time, it is what we all need to do to keep our staff members and community members safe.
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Health authorities advise that the greatest risk of infection in schools comes from adult to adult contact. To minimise this risk, we are asking all parents and carers to minimise the amount of time they spend on the school site, and minimise the number of areas they visit. Where possible, we ask parents to drop children off at the school gates and quickly depart. If you must come onto the school site, please do so quickly and follow social distancing guidelines from staff members and other parents.
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If you need to come to the office, please sanitise your hands before entering, observe the floor markings when approaching the counter, and limit to three people in the office foyer. Thank you for your understanding and support.
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During the school holidays, Inner West Council’s OSHC Service at at Stanmore Public School ceased, after a long and successful history here. I’d like to that Rochelle Payne, Joni Dunn and their team for the many years of quality care they provided to our school community.
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As you would be aware, TASK are now the sole providers of OSH Care at Stanmore PS. While student numbers are low due to remote learning, TASK are completing maintenance works in the OSHC buildings, and are continuing to run their service out of the Kitchen classroom. Please drop students off and pick them up from the Kitchen until further notice.
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Learning from Home Plans for Week 2
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Learning from Home Plans for Week 2 have been sent out this afternoon. A link to them on the website is below for your convenience.
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And in case you missed it, here’s my Principal’s Message video for this week:
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Principal’s Message May 1, 2020
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Stay safe, stay well and have a lovely weekend.
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Learning from Home Resources
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LFH Plans Term 2 Week 2
Learning From Home Plans Monday, May 4 – Friday, May 8.
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Zoom Login Guide
A guide to help students log in to Zoom using their school email address.
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Book Club
Book Club is running in Term 2, but it will look a little different!
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Parent Survey 2020
Please take 5-10 minutes to complete our 2020 Parent Survey.
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#IsoLoveYouMum Gift
Mothers’ Day gifts orders close shortly so order now before it’s too late. FREE delivery or collect locally.
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Trivia Night In - House 2 House
Join us next Saturday, May 9 for our inaugural Trivia Night In - House 2 House. This is a FREE community event organised by a group of school parents to bring school families together for a fun night of trivia over Zoom.
There’ll be guest hosts from the school community, including one round about Stanmore school hosted by our principal, Hugh Miller.
There’s limited space remaining for only 9 more teams. Registrations close this evening Friday, May 1. So, get your virtual team together and sign up now by following the link.
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News from TASK
This week, we started our full operation of out of school hours care in this fabo Stanmore community… where we began as a little homework club (5 kids and 1 educator) 7 years ago. It’s been a journey and we are IMMENSELY glad to be here. A big thanks to Inner West Council for all their years of service to the school community.
The kids who have been to TASK sessions this week have been AMAZING.
And we thank those parents who have made us feel very welcome in the last few days. While many children are still learning from home, TASK’s awesome team members have been working hard to give the old OSHC space some freshening up. Below are some pics to show you their progress.
To see more, follow us on facebook.
We can’t wait to get the kids in here for some fun and learning!
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Thanks for reading
“Life is under no obligation to give us what we expect.”
Margaret Mitchell
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