Congratulations to all our families who have continued to stay focused and engaged amidst the changing climate of Melbourne this week.
We would like to acknowledge the outstanding work you are all doing – and thank you for your continued commitment. We know, that for some families, the new restrictions may present a different array of pressures, demands or family emotions and stress. We are here for you all, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Tuesday Planning Day
On Tuesday, teaching teams met (virtually) to unpack key curriculum priorities for the remainder of this term. Our focus was on reflection and consideration of the following key areas:
DIFFERENTIATION: How are we extending and supporting our students remotely?
ASSESSMENT: What evidence of learning are we collecting to track student growth?
WELL-BEING: How might we continue to connect students with each other?
VULNERABILITY: The provision of additional support - academic and/or social/emotional?
STUDENT AGENCY: How can we promote the efforts of our students and further support them to learn with and from each other? What could virtual student to student feedback or peer support look like?
As of today, only staff members supporting the onsite supervision program will be at school. All other staff members will be working from home, managing the balance of home life, work life, children learning from home, toddlers needing sleeps, Zoom meeting times, team planning and the list goes on – we understand how you might be feeling, we are feeling it too. We continue to appreciate the positive feedback and words of thanks that we receive.
Celebrating Learning
Our whole school has Poetry fever, and we are delighted by the different videos and writing samples being shared across the school.
Stay tuned as we work towards a whole school virtual poetry celebration this term.
Live Lessons are up and running, with a huge uptake of the optional live Specialist sessions such as P-2 virtual choir and 3-6 drawing that were offered this week. Outstanding work all, and many thanks to our brilliant teaching team for their planning and facilitation of these sessions.
VISUAL ART ZOOOOOM!
Mrs Prockiw & Mrs Hellier were delighted with our turnout from Grades 3-6 yesterday for our first ever live Zoom lesson! It was great to see everyone, and work together (yet apart) on our cartooning skills. We watched a great cartooning tutorial together, and we sketched as we followed the step-by-steps in the video. We then decided to do a cartoon portrait of Mrs May & Mrs Ancrum in light of it being Principal's day on Friday!
Here is the link if you would like to draw along too at home:
If you tried to join us, but zoom wouldn't let you in because we had reached 100 participants, we really do apologise. We are working hard to fix this problem!
Keep creating everybody, and don't forget to upload your work into your shared folders!
Next week is National Science Week. Our Level 2 students are becoming budding science researchers, exploring different states of matter (solids, liquids and gases). Check out some of the learning shared in this week’s newsletter. Well done to Will and Henry Stott who worked as a team to showcase Henry's discoveries about scientific research. (See link)
Permitted Workers and students onsite
Thank you to our families who have adjusted their applications for student on-site attendance in accordance with the changing circumstances as part of Stage 4 restrictions. The ultimate goal is to reduce movement across Metropolitan Melbourne. As such, movement to and from BBPS, and within our school, has been drastically minimised.
The criteria for students that can attend on-site is as follows:
children whose parents are permitted workers.
vulnerable children in out of home care, children known to child protection and other agencies and children the school identifies as vulnerable
children with a disability who also fit one of the above two categories.
Please consider if your circumstances have changed, based on the new restrictions and details in regards to the first criteria: children whose parents are permitted workers. Children are eligible to attend onsite only if BOTH parents are permitted workers who continue to work onsite. In other words, if there is a parent working from home children are required to stay at home.
Wellbeing
Don’t forget to join us and Martin Heppell from The Resilience Project today at 6:30pm for a timely reminder about how we can be looking after ourselves – and our children’s – wellbeing. Martin will be sharing some reflections and useful strategies that support the whole family. Zoom link details can be accessed via Compass. We know that we are all short on time, so don’t try and find the time, but rather, make the time for this session.
If you feel that your family, or you, would benefit from some additional support during this time – please see the letter from our resident OnPsych Counselor- Renate Hoffman. She provides some useful information and tips.
Stay safe, stay well.
Bev and Kim