Term 2 | Week 1 | 29 April 2020
“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He is risen!”
Luke 24:5.
From The Principal
Welcome back for Term 2! I trust you all enjoyed the holiday break and had some time to rest and relax with your family.
Lessons commenced yesterday for all students in Kindergarten through to Year 12 and our servers reported a frenetic day of activity with staff posting work, running Zoom lessons and responding to student emails and requests. While a vast majority of staff and students are learning and working from home, a small number of students who have parents working in essential services also returned to the College. The ELC also continues to operate with a small number of children attending each day.
As outlined in my latest community update, due to the positive situation regarding management of the spread of the virus, students will begin a transition process to return to face to face learning in the coming weeks. Year 12 students will return to full time face to face learning on May 11. Students in Kindergarten will also return on a part time basis during that week. In the weeks following we will slowly invite more students to attend the site with the hope that by early June, all students will be back on a daily basis. I must stress that all this is contingent on the health advice and cooperation of all stakeholders to ensure appropriate social distancing and hygiene practices to protect the health and safety of all concerned. More information about this process will be provided early in Week 2.
In the second week of the term break the heavy machinery moved in to begin the ground work required to prepare the site for the construction of the Multi Purpose Centre. In the coming weeks, the area that outlines the footprint of the building will be raised in readiness for construction to go ahead. Due to the uncertainty of the emerging Covid19 situation in mid March, the project was placed on hold, but I am pleased to say that we now feel much more confident about the situation and have moved into the ground preparation phase. This phase of the process will take approximately four weeks.
I would like to thank all those students, staff and families that joined with the College in ANZAC Day commemorations albeit via social media and through family based services. It is wonderful to see so many families participating in such a significant community event and recognising all those men and women that have risked or lost their lives so that we may all live in such a safe, free and prosperous nation. There were many contributions to our Facebook page and a wonderfully reflected and respectful tone to every initiative that was undertaken. Lest we forget.
We look forward to another happy, successful, and learning filled term.
Mr Robert Tobias
Principal
Off The Deputy's Desk
The simple things in life are often the best! This was an advertising line for Kellogg’s Cornflakes when I was a boy. However, it probably rings true with regards to the holiday that we have just had. Hopefully you each got the opportunity to enjoy the simple things in life whilst in isolation via cooking, playing games, cards, walks on the beach, cycling, gardening etc. Most importantly I hope that you had the opportunity to connect with your children and to spend some great quality time with them.
ANZAC Day was certainly different this year and I thank all the members of our College community who got outside onto their driveways at dawn last Saturday. It was actually very moving in a lonely sort of way. We had some great responses to our ANZAC Day Service that Mrs Middleton so ably put together.
Certainly the start of the new term brings us hope that we can cautiously begin to bring students back to school in a staggered manner and we will provide parents with the details of our plan in the near future. However, for the time being we are fully committed to using online learning to provide continuity of education to your children. Whilst this will not look and feel the same as what we are used to we have all had to be agile and adaptable as we have scrambled to modify our practice to suit the evolving situation. More than ever we all need to work together in partnership to ensure that our students do not lose academic momentum.
This means that there will be some tough times at home where parents will need to ensure that their children have submitted work, engaged cheerfully and respectfully in Zoom lessons and the learning materials provided for them. Our staff are certainly looking forward to the day when everyone will be together back at school but unfortunately this time is coming but not yet. Until then we all need to make the most of the situation and make lemonade out of the lemons that we have been given.
We will be continuing to make welfare calls to families and to give the best support that we can whilst our students are working remotely. We also have appreciated all the feedback both positive and negative that we received over the first few weeks of remote learning. We will continue to review of processes and procedures in light of what we believe than can assist our students with their learning and welfare at this time.
Parents of Year 10 students should note that the Year 10 Meningococcal Immunisations that were set down for 11 May have been rescheduled to Monday 27 July. All other gatherings, sports, cultural events, assemblies etc. are cancelled or postponed at this stage and we will let you know if and when events are rescheduled.
Mr Darren Parks
Deputy Principal
Term 2 Week 2
Tuesday 5 May: Friends of EAC Meeting-TBA
Term 2 Week 3
Tuesday 12 May: Primary Chapel-via Screencast
Wednesday 13 May: Secondary Chapel-Via Screencast-Students can watch the Chapel either today or Thursday.
Thursday 14 May: Secondary Chapel-Via Screencast
Chaplain's Chat
Welcome back to Term Two, where everything and nothing has changed!
Firstly a thank you to those who tuned into our Facebook page over Holy Week and Easter, and for those who made contact to comment or ask questions. I am thinking that this has great potential as a way for me to keep in contact with parents, and the website too of course. My real hope is that you will have seen how God is in all the ordinary places! Like my scruffy old lounge room with the dog barking and the trucks going by! Or my kitchen…and one day I filmed in a corner of my bedroom because it was the only quiet place in the house!
It was in no way intentional but as I reflected, that’s just like God…in all things, all places and at all times.
In more great news – we are still in the season of Easter! We are still celebrating our risen Lord, and at church (well, couch church, lounge room liturgy or home worship….) we have been hearing the stories of Jesus post resurrection appearances with his disciples. This year they have a very particular resonance to them; as the disciples were behind locked doors, in fear of their lives, many of us have felt somewhat locked in, for some this has been a very fear filled and uncertain time.
I think we have been fortunate in Australia and particularly in our part of it; however, it has been an Easter and school holiday unlike any before. You know it is an odd time when going to the supermarket is an exciting and somewhat risky activity!
As the disciples sat somberly, wondering what next, Jesus simply entered in. Doors were locked but Jesus walked among them. In this we are reminded that there is nowhere that Jesus will not go. And like the disciples, although our Easter, our relaxation felt strained and awkward this year, as we grieved plans canceled and hopes unfulfilled – even so, Jesus was and is with us.
For this is the meaning of Easter. Not merely bunnies, chocolate eggs and beautiful sunrises – but God who loves us in all times, all ways and all places is prepared to do whatever is needed to remind us of how deeply we are loved.
Jesus' death was not the end of his story, was not the end of the disciples story. Similarly, this Covid-19 break in our lives is not the end of our story.
As with the disciples, Jesus enters in to walk with us as we leave the closed in spaces, not just the physical spaces, but those places in our lives and hearts that need the light and love of God to shine in and lift us up.
THAT is the story of Easter! And we are all Easter people! Alleluia!
Peace
Rev. Sally
Screen Time and Isolation
How to manage your family’s screen time
Families are spending more time online during this period of time. Many sporting teams, music and dance classes have moved online which is making it more difficult to manage family screentime. ReachOut-Australia’s leading online mental health organisation have provided some guidelines to help families manage screen time.
Do a family screen audit
It's important that families work together to figure out the rules around technology use. It's great to start with an open discussion and do a screen audit of everyone's technology use together. Once you have done this, you'll be ready to set technology rules as a family.
What is a screen audit?
A screen audit is simply a process of examining our relationship to screens. Generally, an audit is done when individuals or families want to re-examine how frequently and for how long they use their screens.
If you're concerned about how much time your children are spending with screens, it's important to first examine how much time you yourself, and other adults in the house, are spending using screens each day. If you want to reduce the amount of time your family spends with screens, it's important to lead by example.
How to do a screen audit
A screen audit is best undertaken by the whole family together. A good way to start is to get everyone to respond to questions about their screen use. Some example questions are:
- How much TV do you watch per day?
- How much time do you spend on the computer for study or work purposes?
- How much time do you spend on mobile devices each day?
- How much leisure time do you spend online versus offline?
Get everyone to note down their responses to each question, and try to identify the times of day that the screen time occurs. Another way to conduct a screen audit is to create a logbook, where, over the course of a week, each family member logs the duration and type of their screen time.
Set screen time rules
Once you've completed the audit, it's time to look at the results, identify where changes should be made and determine how much screen time members of your family can engage in each day. Again, this should be done together as a family, as there may be some compromises to be made. Consider setting up family screen time rules, and ensure that all members of the family stick to them. Some ideas for setting rules are:
- Decide how much TV is allowed during the week versus the weekends.
- Decide whether computers and mobile devices are allowed in bedrooms.
- Decide how much screen-based leisure time is allowed per day.
- Decide whether to set times of the day where screen time isn't allowed (eg: at the dinner table, when guests are over, or in the morning before school or work).
After a week of following the new rules, check in and see how it's going for everyone. Have you found that you are doing other things together? Is everyone feeling happier and more connected? There may need to be a few tweaks until you get it right, but there could also be fewer arguments and less stress for your family about technology.
While your teenager might not thank you at first, replacing technology and screen time with other things of interest to them and reminding them of the longer-term benefits will increase your chances of success.
Remember: the eSafety Commissioner provides a range of advice to support families with keeping students safe online during the Covid-19 pandemic. This can be found at: https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-issues/covid-19/advice-parents-carers.
Mrs Amanda Middleton
Director Secondary School
Primary News
Welcome Back to Term 2!
We start Term 2 as we left in Term 1, with all classes being held online via the Seesaw app. This term, the teachers have added a blog component to share selected students' work with their classmates. This is just like they would in class. See it as a virtual pinboard where they take pride in their work or take inspiration from the efforts of their peers. There will also be a helpdesk desk setup for any questions the students may have.
As a connected parent you may wish to turn off or modify the notifications you receive as you may find emails or alerts from Seesaw are clogging your inbox. To do this, open your family Seesaw app, click on your Parent initials in the top left hand corner, select your account settings and make the change in the Manage Notifications section. You can choose to receive notifications once per day, never or for every addition to their portfolio.
You would have also read in previous communication that we have dedicated Wednesdays in Primary to catching up on unfinished work, practising their instruments, completing open ended inquiry task in areas such as as Science and HSIE or, for Kindy-Year 2, choosing optional activities from the activities grid provided by your child's teacher.
We continue to be impressed by the wonderfully creative responses we receive from the tasks that are set and urge the students and parents to keep up the great work.
Mr Wayne Cross
Director Primary School
