Dear Parents/Carers,

In the midst of a lockdown, we are all having to think differently about how we look after the health and well-being of our family members. Shopping for food may require alternate arrangements, exercise may look very different, and ensuring that the mental health of each family member is being attended to may require more careful consideration.

Our own spiritual well-being may need some extra attention as well in times such as these, especially if we are used to relying on a worshipping community. The following may be helpful for you:

• St John's Parish offers Mass online: link
• Mass for you at Home: link (produced by the Diocese of Wollongong)
• Podcasts:  Ripples (produced by the Catholic Education Office), Pray as You Go,  Sacred Space

Remote Learning

Our teachers continue to comment on the positive way that the children have been engaging with their tasks. Please know that we greatly appreciate everything that you are doing to support the children with their learning, especially for those of you working from home. I remind you that while we expect the children to take responsibility for completing tasks, learning from home will have its challenges, so allow them to take their time. 

Each teacher is pushing out a range of activities each day. For one of these activities, the teacher will provide your child with specific feedback about the work they submitted. For all other activities, the teacher may acknowledge the completion of the task without necessarily giving detailed feedback. This is reflective of what happens at school: a teacher would not give detailed feedback on every piece of work that every child does. Also, it is impractical for a teacher to give detailed feedback on potentially 150-200 pieces of work each day while also having to attend to the planning and preparation of tasks.

Please contact the office if you have any questions about remote learning.

Support for parents

Our school counsellor, Rita Maher, and myself are providing a Zoom meeting for parents and carers this Friday, 30 July, 9.30-10.00am. The purpose of the meeting will be to offer some suggestions about coping with remote learning and with supporting the mental health and well-being of you and your children. A link to the meeting will be pushed out on Compass on Friday morning, and a recording of the meeting will also be provided if you are unable to attend.

Class Zoom Meetings

The implementation of these meetings have been very successful so far. I hope that if your child has participated, they found it worthwhile. I would like to acknowledge our staff who ensured all the necessary protocols were put in place, and for being willing to give the meetings a go. In a recent report from the Victorian Student Representative Council in relation to the extensive period of remote learning they experienced in 2020, high on their list of things they missed was feeling connected to their classmates and teachers. We also received feedback from some parents about this very thing. Our Zoom meetings go some way toward helping this.  If you need any support with the meetings, please contact the office.

I continue to pray for all our families during this challenging time.

Paul Moroney

Principal