NEWSLETTER

What’s On? April:

Autumn HOLIDAYS – Mon April 13th to Friday April 24th

TERM 2 April: 28th – First day of Term 2 for students

School will continue to remain open for business as usual for the time being. Please do not hesitate to call the school if you would like further information. Please contact the school if your child is unable to access work from home and we will do our best to support you in any way we can.

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK Welcome! Welcome to the Week 11 Newsletter! It has been an ‘interesting’ term as staff have modified their practice to meet the needs of students whether at school or at home. A big ask!

A HUGE thank you to our amazing staff who have embraced this challenge and run with it, continuing to be effective, supportive, calm and professional in all they do! Another HUGE thank you to our parents and carers who have also risen to the challenge and supported their children’s learning through providing a structured ‘working from home’ environment. This has been a difficult time for all involved but you should all be very proud of the calm and responsible way you have managed this tricky situation.

Learning Continuity: Teachers have been working hard to ensure that students are able to complete their work as usual. This has been through working online, completing paper based learning (learning packs) or by attending school.

W E E K E N D I N G T H U R S D A Y A P R I L 9

Term 1 2020 Week 11

Moving in to Term 2 School will continue to remain open for business as usual for the time being. The school will send out a text message and Facebook post if this situation changes. Attendance Marking attendance during this time when many children are learning from home is problematic, however the Department of Education has set guidelines for this and they are as follows: o Students who are working from home and have

engaged with the teacher throughout the school day will be marked as ‘F’. This is for ‘flexible’ learning and is not counted as absent on the roll Ways that children can engage with their teacher might include: Joining a Zoom class meeting Submitting work, or responding to a teacher, via

Google Classroom, Class Dojo or via email Sending a photo of your child at work to the

school mobile (0458 422 000) Submitting completed learning packs weekly

will cover all school days in that week o Students who are working from home and have

NOT engaged with the teacher throughout the school day will be marked as ‘A’ Absent.

o Students attending school will be marked ‘P’ present.

o Parents who inform the office that their child is sick will be marked ‘S’. If a child has more than one or two sick days a doctor’s certificate will be required to mark them with an ‘S’ on the roll.

o On rare occasions a student may be granted leave, however in the current climate there are minimal reasons for granting leave for students.

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Latest Advice on Attending School The NSW Government has updated its advice on school attendance. Parents are encouraged to keep their child at home, however if a parent would like to send their child to school then they are definitely allowed to do so. This is for all parents, even if there is supervision at home. Please see the latest government information on the home page of the school’s website. Student Wellbeing This is a very tricky time for children. They hear and see distressing things on the news and from friends and family about the pandemic. Above all during this time it is important that student wellbeing is supported. Therefore we would like to emphasise these points while students are doing Learning at Home: • Provide a structured day for your child – the teachers have sent home daily timetables,

try to stick to these. • Provide a quiet space for working • Don’t worry if your child needs help with work and you aren’t sure how to instruct them

– just get them to go on to something else, and they can email their teacher instead • Have plenty of breaks where children can move around, do something different and eat

healthy food. • If it all goes pear shaped – give them some time off and do something fun together

instead. They won’t learn if they are distressed or upset. l l h d h

K-2 Learning from Home Here are some pictures of work that students in Years K-2 have completed and sent in to their teachers. Students had to create their own planet and describe it using interesting adjectives and complete a character profile, among other things. Students also participated in a virtual excursion to Disneyland!

Playground Antics

What has been happening in the playground this week with less students? Some crazy things and some fun things and some fun, crazy things! Here are Xavier and Dante playing totem tennis, an oldy but a goody!

Xavier is a champion at double dutch skipping – expertly spun by Makayla and Annette.

Tunnels are appearing in numbers over in the sandpit. Skye managed to make a bendy tunnel which had a number of entrances!

Bentley and Braidan tried their hand at Mr Squiggle drawings.

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…And Finally! Congratulations to Sam Lawler and family who won the Easter Treasure Hunt today, and to Addison and Chelsea who came in 2nd and 3rd place. All those who participated will have found a special delivery in their letterboxes today! The staff of Holmwood Public School wish all our familes a happy and cheerful Easter, and a safe and relaxing holiday break.

Kind Regards, Melissa Tracy Principal

Chaplain’s Chat It has been a long term with a lot of changes and things to adjust to for everyone! It has been a good term though and I have enjoyed getting to know all the wonderful children and staff here at Holmwood.

The Holidays are here and hopefully will provide a welcome rest for you all. I just want to let you know about a few things I will be doing to continue connecting with and supporting you and your children during this time of lockdown. Firstly keep an eye on your letter box throughout the holiday break as I will be sending out a letter to the children, with a few small holiday treats in there as well! Next term I will also be keeping in touch with you and your children via Dojo for the K-2s and google classroom for year 3-6. I encourage students to check in with me on these apps as I will be running a competition (just for fun)! I will post quiz questions and riddles to solve on these apps and children can send back responses to me. When they do this they will go in to a draw for a small prize which will be delivered to your mailbox (I’m thinking I will do a prize draw every two weeks). Have a great holiday break and please do not hesitate to contact me here at the school if you have anything you would like to chat about.

Annette

PS: Welcome Bob the Garden Gnome to our HPS vegetable garden! Make sure you scare away any birds for us over the holidays!