Dear Parents and Carers

At the present time, and into the foreseeable future, school is going to look different. We are so appreciative that our Good Samaritan parent community is making every possible effort to work with us in this unknown and uncharted time in education.

Over the last couple of weeks the learning plans have aimed to help you and your children adjust to this new idea of ‘school at home’. The period of adjustment is going to be different across all families, and we recognise that. As a school we do not want to place any additional pressure on families in what is a highly pressured environment at the current time. 

We do not want to place any confusion on ‘school at home’ so we are working to streamline the approach to accessing the work. This will all start to happen in Term 2. In the meantime, I have put together a few tips that may help you as you think of your family now as a ‘School Family’.

You are your child’s parent not their teacher so don’t think of yourself as a teacher. It’s going to be more of a coaching role - What Are the Qualities of a Good Coach?

• Being enthusiastic and showing enjoyment
• Being self confident, consistent, friendly and fair
• Having a good sense of humour
• Being a good role model

Let’s break that down a little more:

Being enthusiastic and showing enjoyment!

This is about learning together. Your children will need some one-on-one time but it won’t be all day. So for example, with their reading task you can read the book or have them read it to you or you can share the reading. Ask each other questions about what you read:

• What did you think of that story? I really liked…

• What did you learn from what we read? What else? What else?

• What did the story make you think about? It made me think about…

When your child has done some independent work ask: ‘Tell me about what you did?’ Show enthusiasm for what they have done/completed.

Being self confident, consistent, friendly and fair!

If you’re not sure of something that’s okay. Google is your friend so be confident in showing the children that you also need to look things up because you don’t know everything. Use this opportunity to show them how to find information whether that be through Google or a good old fashioned book! If you need to limit school at home to 2 hours each day at the moment then do that - an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. Your children will take ‘natural’ breaks. They will want to go to the toilet, they will want a snack, the dog will need a pat! It’s all a part of them getting used to the way they will ‘do’ school at home.

Show your children that you need to get work done as well - this is being fair and consistent.  They will have their time and you will need yours.