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Parents and carers I am being told that the numbers of students attending our school each day is too high and we must make a concerted effort to bring those numbers down.
"As you are aware there is a health crisis in Sydney, with confirmed cases in the Blacktown Local Government Area. The request that children learn from home is a NSW Health public health order, not a school-based request. All children are requested to learn from home.
Parents must keep children - of all ages, across primary and secondary schooling and early childcare - home if they can. Students will be supported to learn from home. Schools and early childhood education and care services, including Out Of School Hours Care services are open for any child that needs it. Thank you for your support.
The NSW Department of Education has some great resources to support studentslearning from home. There are also some helpfultips and toolkitsfor parents and carers. Make sure you tune in to the#EducationLIVEsessions at 10am daily or catch up on past videos.
The NSW Department of Education continues to work with NSW Health to support the continuity of education in our schools.
Please visit the NSW Government website for more information on the current stay-at-home orders."
Difficult times ahead for us all. The school is open but operating on skeleton staff. We appreciate all that you as parents are doing to ensure we all comply with Health and Education directives. I know this year the virus seems to be costing more of our livelihoods and thus our wellbeing. Please take care of yourself and your families first.
We ask only that you do what you can in regards to Learning From Home. The staff have compiled work around our Key Learning Areas with the focus on Literacy and Numeracy. I also know that most parents are also working from home so attention is often divided. A half hour spent with your child working together is far better than two hours with students and parents struggling to cope.
We also realise technology is not always available in families, hence we have tried to incorporate pen and paper activities. It really is a balancing act for us all.
For the next four weeks we will still be learning from home, the executive team are working on organising some form of IT connection between class teachers and students. We have set up Google Classroom for all grades except kindergarten, and would like to see our students logging on and using this platform. At present we estimate we have about 30% engaged.
Please contact staff, we are here to assist in any way we can!
Take care, we do miss you all. Thank you for your support as always.
On a sad note we farewelled one of our colleagues during the holidays. Mrs Robin Lockie passed away after a long and brave fight with cancer. Robin was here since 1994 and was a wonderful teacher and friend.
We also said Goodbye and Thank you to our amazing cleaner Pat Crowe who has been at Blackwell for 28 years. Pat will be sorely missed as will her cooking. She makes the best carrot cake!
And finally, we welcome Isla Louise Reed born last Wednesday at just 34 weeks and weighing 2.6kg. Mum and bub are still in hospital but we are happy to report that little Isla is growing stronger every day. Congratulations to Kim and Chris on their precious arrival. We look forward to meeting Isla in the near future.
"During school closures, if you are having difficulty and feeling stressed with the added pressure of now being teacher to your child /children please remember:
You don't need to replicate the school experience, don't try to be your child's class room teacher, just keep being the teacher you ALREADY are. We trained for years to teach the way we do just the way you trained to parent the way you do.
We couldn't take over your job overnight, you won't be able to do ours. So, read with your child, cook with your child, garden with your child, enjoy nature with your child. Play with your child, make things with your child and above all, keep being the kind, calm role model your child needs during these challenging times, this is how you teach. Keep doing you. Your child is learning from you every single day."
Kris Hudswell
PRINCIPAL
NEWS FROM THE DEPUTY PRINCIPAL
Dear Parents,
What a changing fast paced busy 2 weeks of Term 3 that we’ve had.
Learning From Home looks like the new norm...
Just a few updates – the outside filming of our Virtual tour and the use of a drone in this, was postponed to beginning of September. This may be changed again, if our lockdown keeps going. I will keep you informed of any changes. Those students who were involved in Term 2, will be involved when we go ahead with this filming.
Learning Support Team – Mrs Del Carmen, Mrs Weaver, Mrs Reynolds, Mrs Coard, Mrs Naglic, Mrs Wrigley and myself are available to speak individually with you. We are more than happy to help support you to support your child/children. All of us in the team have contacted parents to invite you into Google Classroom. A code has been sent for you to join the group. Most of us have been in contact with the parents of the students we are supporting. If you haven’t been contacted, don’t worry, a phone call will be done in the next few days.
I would like to encourage you to join the classroom and do the work assigned. This work is at a level that your child will be able to work from and revises prior learning. In learning support, it is important to have lots of revision and to practise reading sounds, sight words, passages etc each day. This work is not designed to be too hard and covers the work that has been done and to begin the new work for this term. I encourage you to post completed work on the Google classroom site or email the teacher who supports your child. All this work helps support your child in accessing and doing their classroom work.
Mindfulness/Wellbeing – In these stressful times, our wellbeing is important, for you as parents, for your child, and for us teachers.
Students - Please access the Mindfulness pack that is included with this newsletter. This is a weekly pack of mindfulness activities and explanation for your child to complete throughout the week. This is the basics of what is being taught in our “Peaceful Kids” program. For those of you who had joined this group, please ensure you work on this pack weekly.
Parents – The Department of Education has many resources for you to access on their website. I have included links that may be helpful for you in supporting anxiety with your child, talking to your child in these times, self care and more. Beyond Blue, Emerging Minds are the suggested sites.
Please email me if you need any support whatsoever.
Do take care, and it will be great to see everyone face to face when all this passes.
Good luck and Happy Learning from Home.
Judith Wilson
DEPUTY PRINCIPAL
Our administration staff are working hard to assist you wherever we can with Learning from Home. Most importantly, helping you access the information you need to get you through this challenging time.
We have tried to make this information accessible across a number of different platforms:
1) Our school website - all COVID updates and Stage Learning From Home information can be found under Stage and Wellbeing information
2) The CLOSED Facebook groups ( teachers are updating this information regularly) and our Public Page.
3) SZAPP - instructions
and of course producing hard copies for families who cannot access these platforms.
Please keep us updated with any changes to your contact information. Whether that be changes to your home address, email address or phone numbers, it is really important we have accurate contact information at this time.
We will continue to work to assist you during these times and answer your questions as best we can. Take care.
WEBSITE
https://blackwell-p.schools.nsw.gov.au/
SZAPP ALERTS
CLICK HERE FOR HOW TO GUIDE:
https://www.schoolzine.com/szapp-installation
https://www.facebook.com/blackwellps/
If you have any problems, please see the front office.
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