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YWPS Newsletter

Greetings From the PrincipalToday is my first day of working remotely from home, and I must admit that it’s an unusual experience; an experience that many of you are currently familiar with. At the end of the room that I’m working in, I’ve got yesterday’s washing hung out on the drying rack, and consequently my work room smells warm and soapy. Not like the offices at school or the classrooms that I’ve been in each day since term 2 began. I am missing the sounds of staff and children’s voices, phones ringing and the bell music on mute but still audible! Must get the PA seen to…

In preparing for today, I packed onto a memory stick every single file and folder that I thought I may need. Now that I’m half-way through the morning I can see my expectations of achieving all that I had planned were TOTALLY unrealistic. So I’m sticking to the things that are important and not urgent.

It has been wonderful to see our children so engaged in their online learning tasks. The leadership team are frequently checking in with teachers and seeing the lessons and children’s responses to them. We’ve watched all sorts of creative clips, from a PE movie that one child made, using chairs as fellow students and saying “that’s all I can do now because the storm’s coming”- camera pan across to big black clouds in the sky- to a funny and heartfelt happy birthday message from one of our Year 1-2 teacher’s in their dining room to a student in their class. Being every day at school, I’ve been assisting with setting up Webex meetings for children and teachers and aides. It’s amazing what we are all capable of achieving during this time.

Some stats you may be interested in: we have distributed over 175 iPads to students; 98% of our children are learning at home; between 15 – 30 children attend school each week; 100% of teachers are teaching remotely; over half of school staff are also parenting or supervising their own child’s learning at home; over 80 parents collected books and dice from school last Friday to use at home.

Survey – how are we doing? Coming soonI will be sending out a survey link tomorrow by Konnective to gain some important feedback from parents. Your feedback will help us to gauge student engagement, balance the learning tasks, and check channels of communication.

Whilst the school has been empty, all the sports line-marking has been redone, with extra downball courts put down too. I know how popular downball is! Cleaning is also going to be done of all the double-storey demountable windows. Some things just keep chugging along.

School Photos have arrived and we are working out how to best distribute these to families.

Keeping ActiveDaily physical activity boosts physical and mental health and improves wellbeing. It also helps with concentration, retaining information and solving problems.

A range of engaging, interesting and educative physical activity resources have been collated by DET for teachers,

Important Dates12th May • School Council

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parents and students. These resources aim to support students to stay active, connected to sport and involved in physical education whilst they are at home. For further information please see the FUSE Learning from Home Platform.

Resources include a four-week online football program called Kick it with Victory, developed by Melbourne Victory Football Club, in collaboration with the Department and School Sport Victoria. This free resource is available for teachers to use in their teaching plans or for parents to pass on to children to keep them active while learning from home.

Kick it with Victory features guest videos from Melbourne Victory men’s and women’s players and coaches, and daily training videos for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.

The program aims to achieve physical education and health and wellbeing outcomes for students, and covers topics such as:

• keeping students active during remote learning

• encouraging participation in sport

• building resilience

Week 1 videos are now available, with further videos to be uploaded on a weekly basis.

To access the resource, visit Kick it with Victory.

bluearth.org also have lots of fun activities for families to keep active at home

Please call us at the office on 9314 7714 or email yarraville.west.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au if you have any questions or need assistance.

Warm Regards,

Karen

Year 6 - 7 Transition for 2021All Grade 6 families should have received a Secondary Transition Pack for 2021. If you did not receive one, please contact your child’s teacher.The completed and signed Secondary Application Form, needs to be returned to school, via email, before Friday May 29th.

Camps, Sports, Excursion Fund (CSEF)Parents/Carers of students who are on the first day of Term 1 (28th January 2020) or Term 2 (14th April 2020) are an eligible beneficiary of either a Centrelink Health Care Card or a Pensioner Concession Card can submit an application to the school prior to the end of Term 2 to receive the CSEF payment.The benefit is $125 per eligible student and provides payment towards school camps, school excursions/incursions.If your family meets the above criteria and you have not already applied in 2019/2020 please contact the office to have an application form emailed to you.

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