COVID-19 Part 1 (22 March - 17 May 2020) Fallen bicycles, Shortness of Breath & Remote Learning

It's about 8 weeks to the day on the 22 March when:

• the Victorian premier announced that schools will finish Term 1 earlier than expected due to coronavirus State of Emergency restrictions
• I lifted a fallen bicycle in the bike shed at school and sprained my chest. This action resulted in shortness of breath. With the growing anxiety around coronavirus, caring colleagues advised me to take a trip to the doctor. Fortunately the shortness of breath was only an outcome of the sprain and a reaction to some very strong hand sanitizer.

Corona virus scare in the bike shed

8 weeks later:

• Victorians can emerge from their isolation cocoon to visit friends and family – with a maximum gathering of up to ten outdoors and up to five visitors in homes.
• Our school families have completed 5 weeks of remote "home" learning from our school Learning Community Site. Here is an extract from Community Update #1

Remote Schooling / Home Learning Frequently Asked Questions 
Term 2 Community Update #1 ; Preparing for Home Learning - 5 Key Messages
As mentioned in previous updates, the staff have been working hard to support parents and families to make the transition to Home Learning for Term 2. All updates will be published here as newsletters this term. This means you can go back and access them easily. 
Go to this link and read Brooke's story - Home Learning ; One Parent Shares their Story
Frequently Asked Questions and Supervised Onsite Expectations
I have prepared a list of 15 Frequently Asked Questions FAQ in response to parent questions.
You can open the Shamrock update newsletters on any device.

• Our staff have become digitally flexible and learnt to teach in ways they would never have imagined "pre COVID -19". They supported each other to create instructional videos like this one from our Foundation team.

Prep Making Words Instructional Video
The #stpatsmbna Prep teachers prepared this video for the children during remote learning. Look out for special guest appearances from Tia and our principal Jenny Hawkins.

• Myself and 5 other staff have been working full time for 5 weeks onsite at school with the support of part time staff, supervising the 25-30 children of essential workers at school whilst 80% of families and our staff have taught and learnt in their homes.
• Zoom, the online video conference platform became the main form of communication for staff and student meetings, including staff wellbeing groups
• ZOOM IMAGE
• staff regularly telephoned parents and responded to emails. The home learning parent partnership was strengthened. Parents and carers developed a deeper understanding of the impact of dedicated teaching staff . This became evident through parent responses to the staff video "We're all in this together".

Staff Video (7 May)"We're all in this together" at St Pat's Murrrumbeena
St Pat's school staff and local community members (guest appearances include Citizen & 3 Little Bakers celebrities! ) come together to let school families know - "We miss you and can't wait until we are all back together soon @ #stpatsmbna "

• The SRC (Student Representative Council) videos provided an opportunity for our students to support the school community during the pandemic lockdown. The SRC students elected from Year 1 through to Year 6 provide a student voice and take on the role for a semester. I met with the students on a weekly bases via Zoom during their Home Learning lunch break and we began to create a series of videos. Here are some of the videos.

SRC Survival Tips #1 

The SRC focus in their first video is on our school core value - We are positive. The students offer our community survival tips for Home Learning and positive ways to survive these challenging times.

                                          Tips for the SRC as we prepare our second video

SRC Survival Tips #2 Stay fit and healthy

The SRC share some tips for staying fit and healthy with your family during Home Learning.

SRC Survival Tips #3 Indoor Activities 

SRC share some tips for fun games to play with your family. Stay safe and keep well.

• We developed our first Virtual Assembly #1 to share weekly awards and connect with the children and families. Here is the first one. I received a lovely message from a grandparent after an award recipient shared the video with them. Something to think about for the future, especially as a way to include family members who aren't able to attend assemblies

Virtual Assembly #1

We are all proud of the way our children, staff, parents and carers have flourished during #stpatsmbna Home Learning. Find out who received awards for demonstrating the core value of being positive. Listen to the SRC students share the ways that they have improved while learning at home.

Reflection on COVID -19 imposed change
For the first time, everyone across the world had to adjust their lives and change their way of living to stay safe from  COVID -19. We were all in a similar position and nobody had experienced these particular challenges before.
Our default is to avoid change. We feel safe when we are in control of the known; familiar routines and environment.
Images of patients on respirators overseas and increasing deaths with no vaccine are confronting.
When we lose control, it can lead to anxiety and fear, especially when the health and well being of loved ones is compromised.
COVID -19 is an example of a necessary change imposed on each and every one of us.
Imposed change is extremely challenging. We have very little warning, not much time to prepare for what seems like the relinquishing of control.

Change2flourish is and always will be a constant reminder that we have to believe there is a silver lining associated with all change.

When the going gets tough, our core values and beliefs, the essence of a familiar way of being can help us get through.

As a school leader and teacher, others are looking to us to help them navigate the choppy seas. I had to dig deep during this period to focus on two of our school core values in particular - we are positive and we support each other.

Every minute of every day in those 8 weeks, revealed new challenges. My motto was to take one day at a time. Meeting via Zoom with the SRC students and creating positive video messages to share with the community, the support of a tremendous team of staff and the love and care of family and friends contributed to not only surviving these 8 weeks but learning to change2flourish during this "unprecedented time".

Acknowledgements:

• To the staff of St Patrick's who rose to the challenge and showed that teaching is truly a vocation and that no mountains are too high
• To the parents and carers of our children who despite hardship and challenges within their only work and family lives, supported their children with the home learning activities on the Learning Community Site
• To Bill Martin and John Edwards from the Schools That Deliver Team for emailing a thought provoking article on dealing with thunderbolts with a reminder to hold tight to our vision and our core values.

Home Learning ; One Parent Shares their Story

Faith, hope and innovation at our school were key themes of my previous post. Please place your faith and hope in our innovative staff as we are assure all families that our children will flourish with Home Learning this term. Let's focus on the core values our children live out at school as we support each other with a positive mindset at home.

On Sunday 22nd March, the Victorian Premier announced that schools would close early, almost a week before Term 1 was officially due to end. The global COVID-19 pandemic was unfolding. Every few days new restrictions were introduced until home isolation became the norm for most of us.

Fortunately, at the end of Term 1, our teachers had prepared and uploaded Term 2 Home Learning resources on our Learning Community Site. We wanted to be ready in case school wouldn't resume. At that stage, little did we comprehend the full meaning of the national "Stay Home and Stay Safe" slogan.

On Tuesday 7th April, just before Easter, we were officially told that schools would remain closed for Term 2. Immediately our staff responded. We held a Zoom leadership meeting and began to review and prepare detailed plans to ensure a smooth and supportive transition for our community to Home Learning.

In the interim, I received a number of emails from parents with questions, concerns and worries over and above the COVID-19 challenges already impacting families. To support parents and hopefully allay any anxiety, I responded with a Frequently Asked Questions FAQ tab on the Learning Community Site. Our staff have indeed been working hard behind the scenes. 

Amidst these communications, I received an Easter blessing. It was an encouraging message of hope in the form of an email from a parent, Brooke, who trialled our Home Learning resources with her children during the holidays. Brooke was happy for me to share her story to help encourage and support other parents. Brooke is a mother of two children, Evie in Year 3 and Chloe in Prep. Just as Brooke said to her daughters.. "this will look and feel different to school", we cannot and do not intend for you to replicate school learning at home but together we can create a supportive Home Learning environment that works for your family.

Here is Brooke's story..

I made sure that the girls are aware that we are continuing to do their schoolwork daily, but that it will look and feel different to their classrooms. It’s sub-structured, so I ensure that we still go for a walk or a quick bike ride. I utilise Cosmic Kids for yoga classes, and I know there are other resources to keep the kids active inside when its wet and cold. I also incorporate learning, so they aren’t even aware they are learning i.e. cooking, getting them to get the specific ingredients, use their maths skills etc…… or I may make up a scavenger hunt out in the backyard and they need to tick off their items from their list.

The night prior, I set all of us up for the following day. I will go through what they have completed and what needs to be actioned and make an outline for the next day. I make sure that Evie incorporates reading every day and she completes her daily diary after she has read. She will spend 20-30 mins reading and may do this over 2 parts of the day.  She is organised. We have her weekly spelling words so each day she writes these into her book and practices and on Friday I do a spelling and dictation test with her. Evie is also attentive and makes time each day for her writing. I normally get Evie to complete these tasks when I am working one on one with Chloe, as I know she is more than capable and completes these successfully. Chloe, who obviously in Prep needs support, especially in terms of reading and understanding words, phonics and pronunciation.

We have been working on the year level documents provided on the school Learning Community Site which provide good guidance. As Evie is self-sufficient and motivated she can complete her maths tasks, and when Chloe is working on something independently, I will then sit with Evie and we go through this. We identify if she didn’t understand anything, work through and then correct her work. Besides writing and maths, some days we allocate the other tasks such as narrative writing which Evie did a great job on. She drafted this, we discussed it and when she was happy, she wrote it into her book.

I am also allowing them time to be creative. They make up stories together and they both love drawing and colouring so I give them that opportunity and it breaks up the day for all of us. I have been using FUSE and they have good resources. I think keeping the children involved too is important as they can then take ownership. I know Evie would specify if there was something, she wanted to work on i.e. history work etc. For the Youtube clips they both watched these together and again it's just making the time to do this.  I ask them questions afterwards to gauge their understanding.

In terms of Chloe, Reading Eggs has been fantastic, she is really doing well on that. I am encouraging her to continue with this. She completes Reading Eggs and Sunshine Online daily for 30-60 mins per day and she is very keen which is positive. We have utilised Top Marks for her maths and again I follow up in everyday discussions to get her thinking. For me, the biggest concern with a Prep is ensuring they can read, so I am working hard on this, and trying to put things in place to help such as Reading Eggs. I am working on Chloe's understanding of phonic and the chunking of words, so we break them apart. I have printed Oxford wordlists and specific words that I have turned into my own cue cards/flash cards and daily I focus on 5-10 words and we go through these, pronouncing them, sounding them out so she actually understands them and then do a mini test at the end of it to gauge where she is at.

We read daily, and I was hoping we may be able to get some readers from school. She finished her scrapbook and loved this. I have other similar worksheets and books that she also completes. I encourage writing, she writes the alphabet fully for me, and is learning how to space out her letters and put them on a line. Chloe also writes the days of the week and she practices her name. I am just getting her to feel confident with her writing and again understanding her letters and words.

Other adhoc things I incorporate – puzzles, they love memory games, play – using their imagination, keeping them active, helping around the house, cooking etc.

Personally, I have found knowing what you want to achieve for the day makes it easier, as I then know what one child can do whilst I am focussing on the other. I break up the work spaces too giving them variety. Some days we are all on the dining table, other days they are working on the kitchen bench or I have one in the other lounge room where I can see reading and then focussing on the other so that both get the attention they need.

What do the girls think of Home Learning ?

Evie shares, “Despite missing being at school and seeing all of my friends I am enjoying being at home and learning with my Mum & sister. It’s a different type of learning, but we are making the most of it and Mum is making it enjoyable for us both”.
Chloe said, “I miss my friends, but I am trying to learn how to read and keep doing my work. Mum helps me with writing, and I love Reading Eggs and Sunshine Online!” 

Brooke said to me, "I can understand that there are many parents feeling anxious about the term, it’s not always easy juggling it, but having the guidance we have been given via yourself and the teachers, and so many great resources out there it alleviates some of the stress."

Here is a link to a few extra resources Brooke accesses with her family.

Thanks to Brooke for sharing her story and photos of her family in action.

Every home setting will naturally be unique to the family living there. You will be able to support your children's learning in a way that works for your family. Please understand that our experienced and approachable staff will be with you all of the way and we know that a strong parent school partnership supported by our core values will enable all of us to adapt to this new way of learning and change2flourish.