Dear Parents/Caregivers
Virtue Focus: Generosity
Our virtue focus for this week and next week is Generosity. We spoke on Monday about how we can not only be generous with our possessions like money and gifts, but also generous with our time, our kindness, our smiles and our friendliness. Our students planned 3 things they would be generous with that day, and it would be a great discussion for you to have with your children how they have shown generosity this week.
We had a colourful week with St Patrick’s Day and Harmony Day, and our students also learnt this week about National Close The Gap day.
Covid 19 Update : HRSD at Home
Unfortunately the Covid 19 situation has not improved and schools are being asked to prepare for remote ‘home’ learning for our students. At this stage we have no information about any school closures but most authorities are telling us it is a matter of when and not if, and Catholic education WA have asked all schools to prepare remote learning opportunities for our students.
On Monday our teachers will be going through “HRSD SCHOOL AT HOME” packages, which includes some suggestions for daily routines and also some paper work packages.
Online learning
In the coming weeks we will also be organising some online learning resources for students who have access to technology, even if it’s just a phone. We will be organising subscriptions and logins for the many valuable online learning resources around such as reading eggs, study ladder, and matific, to name just a few.
We are very mindful however of the different circumstances for each family and are trying to ensure that no student is disadvantaged because they do not have technology at home.
Preparing our students
It will be important to start discussing the possibility of home schooling to your children soon to prepare them. They may be upset because they can’t see their friends for a while, or will miss out on sport opportunities and a number of other things they may miss about being at school. It is important to listen to their questions and reassure them that this will be just a temporary measure.
Our teachers will be discussing this with them on Monday, and going through our suggested home routines with them. You can find our suggested routines at this link here : HRSD SCHOOL AT HOME , and we will be giving out paper copies of this on Monday along with packs of work.
We are also keen to convey the message to all our students that our school staff will still be here to help and talk to them, whether it’s over the phone or via email.
What will a school closure look like?
We are preparing for how an extended school closure may work and more information will be given when we get more details from the government on what we are allowed to do if schools shut.
At this stage we are preparing contingency plans for whatever situations may arise.
One of our concerns is about our many parents who work in essential services and how a school closure may impact on them.
We envision a school closure will look something like this:
There will possibly be 3 teams, and we may rotate staff through different teams which will help with our own social distancing:
- An ‘at school team’ supporting students who may have to stay at school because parents are essential service workers, if the government makes this an option for schools as has happened in some countries.
2. An ‘away team’ either at school or at home create resources, answer emails or messages, phone or facetime parents/students, set tasks
3. A ‘community team’ – depending on the isolation/quarantine requirements and restrictions– some staff may be visiting families and delivering food/supplies or school work. It may mean we just drop stuff off at the door and don’t have contact but this will be one important way we can help our students, families and community.
There are already some families choosing to self-isolate for various reasons, and we have already provided work to those families and are very supportive if this is your situation.
However please contact the school and inform us if your child is absent, and we can send home work.
Please also note that we are NOT requiring medical certificates for absentee notes as we do not want to place any more pressure on our health care workers at this time.
If students are not at school they need to be at home
It is important to stress however that if your child is not at school and they are seen out in the community we will be asking for a medical certificate or some other reasonable excuse as this may be putting the rest of our vulnerable community in Derby and our local health system at significant risk.
Once again we appreciate your cooperation and patience as the Holy Rosary school community works together to care for the wellbeing, health and safety of our students, staff and wider community.
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me at school or by email at yvette.clifton@cewa.edu.au.
Best wishes
Yvette Clifton