COVID-19 Update #16 – 28/04/2020

 

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Thank you again for your ongoing support in these uncertain times, as we know, things change from day to day, in fact hour to hour.

Please be advised that some of the information in this update was provided in the last update.  New information is in green.

Please be assured, we want our kids, back in school, and safe. We want our school staff, back in school, and safe. Everything we are putting in place is with safety in mind.

Everything in these updates is informed by information received, daily, from the Premier Mr McGowan, the Minister for Health Mr Cook and the Minister for Education.  In addition, via briefings from the Director General of Education.

Schooling

To assist you with your planning we have done the following:

‘Distance Learning’ or Classroom Face to Face

To assist you with your planning we have done the following:

If you are considering Distance Learning

  • Our on-line learning ‘Home Education Learning Packages (HELP)’ are live.  Please have a look on the Mindarie Primary School ‘Learning’ Hub – password is MPS2020
  • These packages will be available in hard copy on Monday March 27 from the front of the school between 10.00 am to 12.00 noon.
  • ‘Can do’ packages for each phase level (K-P, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6) will be available at the same time.
  • The Distance Learning guide has the suggested timetables for given year levels.  Note that these timetables are punctuated with ‘Brain Breaks’ and so forth.  As a student’s normal day at school is.
  • The resource pack for your family has been provided to support the students learning from home.
  • Teachers have set up Seesaw for their classes, this will enable regular communication with students.
  • Student will access Matific, Reading Eggs, Reading Express and Literacy Pro.
If your child will be coming to school for face to face learning.
  • When students arrive at school in the morning they will go to their regular classroom.
  • The ‘Home Education Learning Packs (HELP)’ content will be the content that teachers will teach for the first two weeks in Mathematics, English and Specialist subjects.
  • Dependent on numbers teachers will have their own classes for the majority of the day.  Please note this can only be established once we know numbers.  To provide clarity for example if we have 80% of students at school this will be our action, if we have 50% then we will need to review this, as we need to also be catering for ‘Distance Learning’.
  • These following teachers will not be teaching their classes due to issues – Mrs Kidgill (TA10), and Mrs Gill (TA27).  Mrs Kidgill suffered a brain aneurysm in the second week of the holidays and will be absent for the remainder of term two.  Our thoughts are with her and her family.
  • Mrs Williamson will be teaching TA 10 and Ms Clark will be teaching TA 9 full time. Mrs Atkinson will be teaching full time in TA 3. Mr Steel will be taking on the role of Junior Science. 
  • Student will access Matific, Reading Eggs, Reading Express and Literacy Pro, as they currently do and in line with what students participating in ‘Distance Education are doing.
  • Students will have access to specialist teachers, teaching in the student’s classrooms.  These teachers will be delivering face-to-face the same content that is included in the ‘HELP’ packs.  The only difference will be that this will be timetables through the teaching day as one specialist cannot teach a whole year level of students at the same time.
  • Students will be having ‘Brain Breaks’ and access to manipulable objects in their classrooms.  This will be dependent of hygiene regimes.
  • Dependent on numbers Education Assistants may be working in classrooms or supporting with the preparation of ‘Distance Learning’ materials.
Attendance

All students are required to participate in one or the other form of Education and their attendance needs to be accounted for.  If you opt to adopt the Distance Learning program, please advise us, in writing, if your child is ill and unable to participate on any given day.  Likewise, if your child is participating in the on-site program and is away due to illness please advise us of this in writing through the school website or Connect.

Drop Off and Collection

The Premier, Minister for Education and Minister for Health have been very clear on this.  Parents are not to come onto the school grounds.  In the last two weeks of term one we implemented this policy and our students are parents managed this exceptionally well.  I know that you will continue to do so.

  • All gates around the school will open at 8.25am.  Staff will open these and will be at these to monitor student’s arrival.  Parents therefore have a window of 20 minutes to effect drop.  Please make sure you physically distance at this time.
  • Pre-Primary and Kindergarten students are to enter and exit from the gate at the base of the stairs leading up to the Early Childhood yard.  This is at the western end of the basketball courts.  Early childhood teachers will greet the students at the top of the stairs. The exception to this is if you have an older child who can accompany your younger child to their class.
  • Parents are best placed to determine which other gates suit their families for entrance to the school.  Please ensure that your children know which gates they will be dropped off to and collected from. Please remind older children to collect younger siblings at the end of the day, if this is what is happening.
  • No scooters or bikes are to be ridden to school, this is because we cannot supervise access to the bike cage at the start and finish of the school day or be responsible for the cleaning of this equipment. 
  • All students must have left the school grounds by 2.55pm at the latest.
  • No use of the playgrounds before or after school.
The Mindarie Primary School office will be closed to parents. Access should only be for an emergency.  All  payments need to be on line.

Distancing During Break Times

  • Following recess and lunch breaks students line up in pairs at 1.5 distance each way.  Positions marked on the veranda to support this.  The line will start from the wet area doors and progress around the veranda.  Our verandas are 1.6 meters wide.  We will have in excess of 35 meters on each side of the blocks.
  • Students enter classrooms via the wet area doors, this is because these doors are wider and can be held open, allowing for distancing and also reduction of touch points.  Doors from the wet area into the classrooms will remain open during the day and will be the classroom entrance and exit doors. (Last term we had the external doors open, however with winter approaching this is not an environmentally friendly solution for the students or teachers).
  • At this point in time we are planning to split the students eating time at recess and lunch time to reduce the number of students on playgrounds and also to reduce the likely hood of students not self-distancing. Our breaks will look like this-
  • Recess – Siren sounds – Kindy, year one, three and five students eat in classrooms for 10 minutes at their desks.
  • Recess – Siren sounds – PP, year two, four and six students play for 10 minutes.
  • Then they swap.  Each year group gets 10 minutes play time. 10 minutes supervised eating, talking time.
  • Lunch – Siren sounds – Kindy, year one, three and five students eat in classrooms for 15 minutes.  At desks.
  • Lunch – Siren sounds – PP, year two, four and six students play for 15 minutes.
  • Then they swap.  Each year group gets 15 minutes’ play time.  15 minutes supervised eating, talking time.
This will mean that the half the students are back in class prior to the end of lunch and result in less ‘lining’ up.

Please note that we will make sure that class teachers build in more physically active time, within the parameters we need to follow, so children will not spend all day sitting at a desk.  We need to be clever in how we do this so there will be brain breaks, Go Noodle and so forth.

Please note that the above is also being discussed with teachers on Tuesday.

We will only use the following play areas.

  • Early Childhood Areas – Not the climbing equipment as cleaners cannot clean at a height above 1 meter off the ground and we have been instructed that this equipment must be wiped down.
  • Junior play area and grass area. Not the climbing equipment as cleaners cannot clean at a height above 1 meter off the ground and we have been instructed that this equipment must be wiped down.
  • Tiger turf and central quadrangle.
  • Senior play area.
  • No oval and Basket-Ball courts as these areas are open to the general public for use.
We will rotate year three / four and year five / six areas, week by week, so the students have variety.

Personal Health

This is a highly important aspect and needs your careful consideration.  All staff have been advised that if they are feeling unwell, for any reason, they are not to come to school.  This is for the wellbeing of our students and fellow staff members and ultimately your family’s health.

Sick children

  • If your child is unwell – keep them at home.
  • Notify the school, via email or through the school website, that they are sick and provide the school with information as to what you are doing for the child and the possible duration of the absence.
  • Do not return your child to school if they are still unwell.
  • Teachers will send home any children who complain of being unwell or present with symptoms of illness, such as a cough or sneezing.  
Please help us to keep everyone safe by not sending sick children to school.

Please note, whatever decision you make, regarding your child/children’s learning over the next eight days, we respect your decision and will support you.  If you had previously made the decision to home school and have now changed your mind, that is okay.  We just need you to bring the following back to school;

  • Their pencil case.
  • iMaths book.
  • Home resource pack (the one that went home in the blue bags).
  • HELP pack – collected on Monday.
  • Can Do pack – also collected on Monday.
  • It is essential that all students have their own drink bottle and hat.  Please check this with students daily.

We look forward to welcoming all of our students back to school at the start of Term 2, whether it be face to face or via Distance Education.

Kind regards
Barbara Bromley
28 April 2020

COVID-19 Update – 24/04/2020

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

I provided advice on Monday, in relation to the directions provided by the Minister of Education, Sue Ellery and the Premier, Mark McGowan.

At the time, I prefaced my advice and the direction Mindarie Primary School would be taking, by stating that we are in a pandemic and that things are changing daily.  I also indicated, that because of this fluctuating situation, I was not prepared to give any further on line updates until closer to the resumption of schooling, that being Wednesday April 29.

As you may have noted, since the update provided on Monday, Minister Ellery has provided more information, as has the Department of Education via a media promotion (on line, radio, West Australian). In addition, we had a Minister of Health Update, which will be sent in the attachments below to the update provided today.

Yesterday I also participated in a Webex meeting with the Director General of Education of WA, and today I am participated in a Zoom meeting, which focused on the intricacies we are facing; this meeting was attended by the president of the Western Australian Primary Principal’s Association and key senior Principals, some of whom have been working in the Department of Education with the response for schools to COVID-19.

When I posted the information brief on Monday, the school administration team and I had formed the belief, because we are in a pandemic, that things would change from Monday to Friday.  And they have.

This update is as up to date as I can make it. We will, as a school staff, be meeting on Tuesday April 28 (Pupil Free Day) to finalize the plans for the school moving into Term Two. At this time, we will generate another update for parents, as we are sure that staff may bring up questions and solutions to ensure that Term Two starts smoothly and safely for all on the school site.

Please be assured, we want our kids, back in school, and safe.

We want our school staff, back in school, and safe.

We are also very aware that we have children who cannot be back at school. They have conditions that prevent their return, such as diabetes or other medial conditions, or their parents have respiratory problems (in the severe area), family members may have immuno-suppressant issues, they may have elderly relatives residing with them and so forth. Families may also make the decision to keep children at home for other reasons, and this decision is supported by the school at every level. We respect this, hence these are the children we need to support at home, with ‘Distant Learning’.

I hope that I am being very clear, in this update, as to how Mindarie Primary will operate in the first few weeks of Term Two, 2020.  The plan can only be for the first few weeks as the Premier has stated that the plan for schools will be reviewed after the first three weeks.

Our plans will therefore be tweaked and modified, over the next three weeks, in accordance with the advice from the Department of Education and the Health Department.  Please note that the provisions we are putting in place are in relation to the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC); Minister Ellery, Premier McGowan and Minister Cook all refer to these as the basis for their decision to have schools open for term two.

Schooling

We know that the best place for our children is at school, in their classrooms, being taught by their teacher, and if we had a 100% return to school on Wednesday 29 that would be easy to implement.

We have however, many unknowns that are outside of our control.

What we do know is that on Wednesday March 18, when it became very clear that we were in a Pandemic, we had 140 students absent.  So, we had 80% of children in attendance.  A large number of the parents with children absent indicated that they were removing their children as a precaution, regarding COVID-19.  By Wednesday March 25, one week later, we had 48% of children in attendance.

Our great unknown, and something you can assist us with, is will your child be at school or at home.  Once we know this we can plan accordingly.

Please complete the brief survey, attached to this update, to advise us of what your plans for your child/children are. It should only take 20 seconds to complete. Please, if you have already let the school know, thank you. Could you please also complete this survey as well.

You can complete the survey embedded into the bottom of this email, or by pressing the link below:

‘Distance Learning’ or Classroom Face to Face

To assist you with your planning we have done the following:

If you are considering Distance Learning

  • Our on-line learning ‘Home Education Learning Packages (HELP)’ went live today.  Please have a look on the Mindarie Primary School ‘Learning’ Hub – password is MPS2020
  • These packages will be available in hard copy on Monday March 27 from the front of the school between 10.00 am to 12.00 noon.
  • ‘Can do’ packages for each phase level (K-P, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6) will be available at the same time.
  • The Distance Learning guide has the suggested timetables for given year levels.  Note that these timetables are punctuated with ‘Brain Breaks’ and so forth.  As a student’s normal day at school is.
  • The resource pack for your family has been provided to support the students learning from home.
  • Teachers have set up Seesaw for their classes, this will enable regular communication with students.
  • Student will access Matific, Reading Eggs, Reading Express and Literacy Pro.
If your child will be coming to school for face to face learning.
  • When students arrive at school in the morning they will go to their regular classroom.
  • The ‘Home Education Learning Packs (HELP)’ content will be the content that teachers will teach for the first two weeks in Mathematics, English and Specialist subjects.
  • Dependent on numbers teachers will have their own classes for the majority of the day.  Please note this can only be established once we know numbers.  To provide clarity for example if we have 80% of students at school this will be our action, if we have 50% then we will need to review this, as we need to also be catering for ‘Distance Learning’.
  • Some classes will not have their own teacher as those staff are on leave due to COVID 19 and it’s possible impact on their health. Some teachers will be working elsewhere due to some Administration staff being on leave.
  • Student will access Matific, Reading Eggs, Reading Express and Literacy Pro, as they currently do and in line with what students participating in ‘Distance Education are doing.
  • Students will have access to specialist teachers, teaching in the student’s classrooms.  These teachers will be delivering face-to-face the same content that is included in the ‘HELP’ packs.  The only difference will be that this will be timetables through the teaching day as one specialist cannot teach a whole year level of students at the same time.
  • Students will be having ‘Brain Breaks’ and access to manipulable objects in their classrooms.  This will be dependent of hygiene regimes.
  • Dependent on numbers Education Assistants may be working in classrooms or supporting with the preparation of ‘Distance Learning’ materials.
Please Help Us To Support Your Children

To help us to support your children we would really appreciate it if you could make a commitment to one form of educational delivery or the other for the first eight days; from Wednesday April 29 through to and inclusive of Friday May 11.  This will reduce disruption to students and teachers on site.

Attendance

All students are required to participate in one or the other form of Education and their attendance needs to be accounted for.  If you opt to adopt the Distance Learning program, please advise us, in writing, if your child is ill and unable to participate on any given day.  Likewise, if your child is participating in the on-site program and is away due to illness please advise us of this in writing, via.

Implementing the AHPPC Directives

Many of the strategies we have already implemented meet the recommendations outlined in the AHPPC directive.

Physical Distancing

As you are aware, this is the approach that the Government has endorsed as being the most effective.  As you will appreciate, having had your children at home for the past two to seven weeks, it is also one that is hard to implement with children, so we need to change our environment to make it easier to enforce.

Drop Off and Collection

The Premier, Minister for Education and Minister for Health have been very clear on this.  Parents are not to come onto the school grounds.  In the last two weeks of term one we implemented this policy and our students are parents managed this exceptionally well.  I know that you will continue to do so.

  • All gates around the school will open at 8.25am.  Staff will open these and will be at these to monitor student’s arrival.  Parents therefore have a window of 20 minutes to effect drop.  Please make sure you physically distance at this time.
  • Pre-Primary and Kindergarten students are to enter and exit from the gate at the base of the stairs leading up to the Early Childhood yard.  This is at the western end of the basketball courts.  Early childhood teachers will greet the students at the top of the stairs. The exception to this is if you have an older child who can accompany your younger child to their class.
  • Parents are best placed to determine which other gates suit their families for entrance to the school.  Please ensure that your children know which gates they will be dropped off to and collected from. Please remind older children to collect younger siblings at the end of the day, if this is what is happening.
  • No scooters or bikes are to be ridden to school, this is because we cannot supervise access to the bike cage at the start and finish of the school day.
  • All students must have left the school grounds by 2.55pm at the latest.
  • No use of the playgrounds before or after school.
The Mindarie Primary School office will be closed to parents. Access should only be for an emergency.  All  payments need to be on line.

Classrooms

Whilst the need to be distanced at 1.5 meters and been relaxed for the school setting we are still planning to distance students from each other as much as possible over these first four weeks.

  • Following recess and lunch breaks students line up in pairs at 1.5 distance each way.  Positions marked on the veranda to support this.  The line will start from the wet area doors and progress around the veranda.  Our verandas are 1.6 meters wide.  We will have in excess of 35 meters on each side of the blocks.
  • Students enter classrooms via the wet area doors, this is because these doors are wider and can be held open, allowing for distancing and also reduction of touch points.  Doors from the wet area into the classrooms will remain open during the day and will be the classroom entrance and exit doors. (Last term we had the external doors open, however with winter approaching this is not an environmentally friendly solution for the students or teachers).
  • No mat time.  Mat time will be conducted from desks.
  • Children will be seated end to end on desks.  PP and K children will also have a desk.
  • To provide the extra space and also reduce touch points all non-essential classroom materials will be removed from the classrooms.  This will be things such as book corners, dramatic play areas and so forth as these do use up valuable floor space.  These areas also promote close proximity of children, something we are striving to alleviate.  Please let your children know that their classroom will look a little different.
Recess and Lunch Breaks

At this point in time we are planning to split the students eating time at recess and lunch time to reduce the number of students on playgrounds and also to reduce the likely hood of students not self-distancing. Our breaks could therefore look like this-

  • Recess – Siren sounds – Kindy, year one, three and five students eat in classrooms for 10 minutes at their desks.
  • Recess – Siren sounds – PP, year two, four and six students play for 10 minutes.
  • Then they swap.  Each year group gets 10 minutes play time. 10 minutes supervised eating, talking time.
  • Lunch – Siren sounds – Kindy, year one, three and five students eat in classrooms for 15 minutes.  At desks.
  • Lunch – Siren sounds – PP, year two, four and six students play for 15 minutes.
  • Then they swap.  Each year group gets 15 minutes’ play time.  15 minutes supervised eating, talking time.
This will mean that the half the students are back in class prior to the end of lunch and result in less ‘lining’ up.

Please note that we will make sure that class teachers build in more physically active time, within the parameters we need to follow, so children will not spend all day sitting at a desk.  We need to be clever in how we do this so there will be brain breaks, Go Noodle and so forth.

Please note that the above is also being discussed with teachers on Tuesday.

We will only use the following play areas.

  • Early Childhood Areas.
  • Junior play area and grass area.
  • Tiger turf and central quadrangle.
  • Senior play area.
  • No oval and Basket-Ball courts as these areas are open to the general public for use.
We will rotate year three / four and year five / six areas, week by week, so the students have variety.

Personal Health

This is a highly important aspect and needs your careful consideration.  All staff have been advised that if they are feeling unwell, for any reason, they are not to come to school.  This is for the wellbeing of our students and fellow staff members and ultimately your family’s health.
Sick children

  • If your child is unwell – keep them at home.
  • Notify the school, via email or through the school website, that they are sick and provide the school with information as to what you are doing for the child and the possible duration of the absence.
  • Do not return your child to school if they are still unwell.
  • Teachers will send home any children who complain of being unwell or present with symptoms of illness, such as a cough or sneezing.
Please help us to keep everyone safe by not sending sick children to school.

Hygiene

We already have the following in place-

  • No shared equipment (except at the Early Childhood level and this is being cleaned regularly).
  • No use of drink fountains, all children must have their own drink bottle.
  • No sharing of home cooked food e.g. cup-cakes. Please send packaged food such as Freddo Frogs etc. to celebrate birthdays.
  • Hand sanitiser in all classrooms and used regularly.
  • Hand hygiene posters and explicit teaching of in classes.
  • Hand washing enforced before eating and before transitioning.
  • Cough and sneeze posters in all areas, and protocol reinforced regularly during the day.
  • Pedal operated bins with a lid for used tissues.
  • Soap and paper towels in all bathrooms and wet areas.
  • Glen 20 or disinfectant wipes in classrooms to disinfect communal equipment such as iPads and clip boards between uses.
  • Toilet doors propped open (not cubicle doors) to reduce touch points.
  • Reduced manipulable equipment in classrooms to ensure that they are able to be cleaned daily.
  • No library or reading books (as these go home and we cannot control the home situation), students may have access to these materials at school, this will be dependent on teachers wiping them down after use and also ensuring students wash or sanitise hand before use.
  • No borrowing of hats.
  • Only teachers use the Promethean boards.
  • Chairs stacked with touch points facing into the classroom for ease of daily cleaning.
  • Increased cleaning of door handles and so forth.
  • No group work, as distancing cannot be maintained.
  • No assemblies.  We will continue to think of ways we can be together virtually.
  • No incursions.
  • No excursions.
  • No Choir.
  • No after school activities.
  • Students will still do middle, junior and senior sport.  It will be with their class only.
  • Students have their designated toilets and play areas.
  • Cashless office.
  • On line only uniform shop.
  • No icy poles or lunch orders.
 New processes being implemented:
  • No over the shoulder marking.
  • Marking at a point the teacher determines with spacers in place to delineate the spacing required.
  • No cushions, dress-ups etc in classrooms and these cannot be cleaned daily.
  • No games involving touching such as ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’ or ‘Heads Down, Thumbs Up’.
  • Specialist teachers go to classrooms.  Specialist rooms closed.
  • Toilets being cleaned during the day, especially following recess and lunch breaks.
  • Touch points being cleaned during the day.
  • Playgrounds cleaned between use.
  • Sports equipment cleaned after use.
  • Cleaning of the gates, touch points, morning and afternoon.
  • Regular cleaning of work spaces – students will be taught how to do this and be provided with the tools to do so.  (It is a life skill).
  • Taps and high level touch points will be cleaned by day cleaners.
In closing, to those of you who have had birthdays, anniversaries, special family events during this break, I’m sure they were very different celebrations. I do hope that your friends took the time to make your day special in some way.  I have heard of some really innovative ways that these special occasions have been acknowledged.
Our School ANZAC service will go live tomorrow.  I do hope that you and your families take some time out during the day and participate in the service.  Our thanks go to Miss Szczygiel and Mrs MacLean for making this service happen. Our thanks also go to all of the students who participated in the service.  It is another way of us maintaining our connection and school community.

Please note, whatever decision you make, regarding your child/children’s learning over the next eight days, we respect your decision and will support you.

We look forward to welcoming all of our students back to school at the start of Term 2, whether it be face to face or via Distance Education.

Kind regards
Barbara Bromley
24 April 2020

COVID-19 Update – 20/04/2020

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

I do hope that you have had a peaceful week of school holidays with your children.

These are unprecedented times and therefore, we need to continue the approach that we have implemented in Term One over the coming weeks, to support the safety and well being of your children and our staff.

I understand that this is an uncertain and difficult period for you and your family. 

Today, the School Administration team met to discuss the statements and advice that the State Government provided on Friday the 17th of April 2020. 

As you are aware from previous updates, we have already in place a plan for supported ‘Distance Learning’ and well prepared lessons that can be done at home to support you. At this point in time, this is our preferred approach, however, we fully understand that some families may not be in a position to provide supervision for ‘Distance Learning’ at home. Students who attend school on site during term two will engage with the Learning Packs in an alternative classroom setting. This will most likely not be with their own classroom teacher.

‘Distance Learning’ HELP Package Pickup

  • For your information, and to assist you with your preparation the Week 1-2 ‘Distance Learning’ HELP package will be available online through the Mindarie Primary School ‘Learning’ page for parents to access on Friday the 24th of April. Password is MPS2020
  • Printed HELP packages will be available for collection from volunteer staff members at Mindarie Primary School on Monday the 27th of April (ANZAC Day Public Holiday) from 10:00am-12:00pm. Socially distant queues will be established at the front of the school. The staff car park will be open and available for access. Please ensure that you practice good social distancing when at school. Only one person per family please.

We are expecting further details from the Department of Education this week and will provide another update to you on Friday the 24th April with greater details of the required actions. 

This week we will also release the Mindarie Primary School virtual ANZAC service. This will be posted through all outlets as usual.

Please stay safe.

Kind regards
Barbara Bromley
20 April 2020

COVID-19 Update – 07/04/2020

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Once again, on behalf of the staff at Mindarie, thank you for your continued support, we acknowledge that these are difficult and highly unusual times, however, by us all working together we will be able to ensure that the whole of Western Australia and our most venerable people stay safe.  The part you are playing, by keeping your children home, is highly valuable.

Teachers have been meeting this week to consolidate the planning that we commenced last week.  You will have access to this planning, in a hard copy form, from the school tomorrow.  You will also be able to access this planning, via our website.  The document is called the Distance Learning Parent Guide.  This guide outlines how Mindarie Primary is approaching Distance Learning.  Please, if you have online access to the guide, familiarize yourself.  If you do not have on line access, do not worry, we have provided every family with a printed copy.

The password to access this new school resource is: MPS2020

Mindarie Primary School – ‘Distance Learning’

The printed copy is part of your Home Learning Resource Bag.  Our amazing Education Assistants have been working hard to pull together the resources in this bag.  Each family will receive ONE family bag.  In the bag you will find the following;

  • Distant Learning Parent Guide.  This is in the envelope labeled Very Important Read First. 
  • Seesaw Student Log In Codes. These are student specific and will be in the labelled envelope.
  • Laminated blank paper to be used as a white board at home.
  • Laminated year level appropriate lined writing paper.
  • Laminated graph paper.
  • Generic language based materials.
  • Year level specific mathematics materials.
  • A pack of playing cards.
  • Dice and counters for mathematics activities.
  • A writing journal suitable to each year level.
  • In addition, Kindergarten and Pre-Primary students will have basic stationary and also some manipulative materials.
  • Children’s iMaths books, if they were not sent home previously.
  • Children’s pencil cases, if they were not sent home previously.

Bag collection will be from 10.00am on Wednesday 8/4 to 2.45 pm and from 9.00am to 2.45pm on Thursday 9/4. The bags can be collected from the rooms shown below.

To recap the above table:All Other Suburbs: Library Block
Quinns Residents: Block 2 Wet Area
Clarkson Residents: Block 1 Wet Area
Mindarie Residents: Staff Room

To ensure we abide by physical distancing requirements:
  • Only have one family member attend the school to collect your family bag.
  • Do not arrive prior to 10.00am on Wednesday and prior to 9.00am on Thursday.
  • Abide by the social distancing requirements, 1.5 meters apart at all times.
  • Abide by directions of staff in relation to how many people can be in the collection area at any given time.
  • Only remain on the school grounds for as long as it takes you to collect the bag.
This week teachers have been working on ‘Must Do’ lessons and preparing a ‘Can Do’ activity pack. These are explained in the Distant Learning Parent Guide.
The ‘Must Do’ lessons are year level specific.  During their planning, teachers have been ensuring that they are planning for differentiation so that students who require more support can access the learning at their level.  They have likewise planned for students who require extension to also be able to do this.  The teacher, at this point, have planned for two weeks of Distant Learning and once we commence delivering this, we will be reviewing how the program is progressing.  We envisage that we will be modifying the program and delivery over the period that we stay delivering Distant Learning.

We think it is really important that, during these chaotic times, we keep in touch with our important school traditions, as such Miss Szczygiel has been working hard to produce a digital ANZAC Service.  This will be available on our website on Thursday afternoon, which is of course when we would have held our service.  Mrs MacLean is keen for our Senior Choir students to be part of this digital service, and has emailed, via Connect, all of these students.  Parents, can you please encourage your children to read this email and to get involved.  I’m sure that you will find the service very moving and that in future years it will become part of the ‘history’ that this time has brought to us all.

Please stay safe.

Kind regards
Barbara Bromley
07 April 2020

COVID-19 Update – 02/04/2020

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Once again, on behalf of the staff at Mindarie Primary  School, I thank you for the support that you are continuing to provide to our school and staff.  Teachers and Education Assistants are really appreciating the emails that they are receiving.  Please be assured that we are all working really hard to make sure that we can provide you with effective Distant Learning from the commencement of Term Two on April 28, 2020.

Essential Resource Packs

As we posted on Facebook yesterday, the Education Assistants are currently creating Essentials Packs for you to use with your children at home.  In these packs you will find tools to help you, such as laminated paper to use as a white board (don’t worry, your children know how to use these), dice, counters and cards for mathematics activities, your child’s pencil case (if it was left at school) and so on.  We hope to have these packs ready by mid-way through next week and we will be communicating with you regarding how you can collect these packs.  As you will appreciate, these packs are taking time to put together so please be patient and wait to be contacted.

Playgrounds

Unfortunately, as of tomorrow, students will no longer be able to use the school playgrounds; senior, junior, early childhood and nature.  We will be blocking off these areas.  Students in years three through to six will be playing on the grassed area of the senior play area. Pre-Primary to year two students will be playing in the lower yard of the Early childhood area.

End of Term One

Tomorrow is the last official day of Term 1, as Monday to Thursday next week are designated School Development Days. During these days, the staff will be preparing curriculum content for each year level and learning how to deliver this digitally.

As per direction from the Premier of Western Australia, parents and carers are required to keep their children at home from the end of the day on April 3.  The school holidays will therefore commence on April 6 and run until April 28.

As Mr Morrison announced today, the federal Government is providing financial support to the Child Care sector. This is to ensure that parents who would normally access vacation care or child care can still do so.  The Government is doing this to ensure that this extremely important area is supported.  Your normal child care provider will be able to provide you with more information in relation to this.

The Premier and Prime Minister were also very clear around essential workers still being able to access care for their children, and they stressed that if the normal practice was for children to be cared for by Grandparents/ carers that fall into the age group of 60 years old and above, and that these cares were self-isolating, schools would provide supervision for these children.

If you find yourself in this situation please advise the school of this, so that we have some clarity of around the ages and number of children we can expect at school next week.

Parents working from home are expected to have their children at home.

Children attending school from April 6 to 9 are required to wear their school uniform.  This is so that we can distinguish them from students attending Keiki.

All gates around the school will be closed next week. Children attending will need to enter via the front gates of the school.

Distance Learning

The digital platform we will be using to support our Distance Learning model is Seesaw. We have purchased licenses to allow teachers to use the full suite of options available on Seesaw. If you are not familiar with Seesaw, instructions will be provided next week.

Teachers will also be linking in with their classes using Zoom.  We will provide more detail in relation to this in future postings.  The feedback teachers have been receiving, via the phone calls that they are making, is that students are missing seeing their class mates, teacher and whole class.  Zoom will facilitate this contact.

Students who need to attend school (according to the guidelines outlined above) from the commencement of Term 2, will be using Seesaw in the same way students will be at home to ensure equity across the student population. Teachers will not be teaching these students.  The expectation for teachers is that they deliver in one way only.

As previously mentioned, provisions will be made for those families who do not have access to the appropriate technology at home.  Mr Gould is currently creating the Mindarie Primary Distance Learning Parent Guidelines.  We expect these to be available to parents and families mid-way through next week.  In addition, Mr Gould is creating a dedicated section on our website that will be a go to point for all Distance Learning.

Teachers are currently contacting families and they are appreciating this contact and also the information you are providing.  This will continue to guide our planning for term two.

With each day, the COVID-19 pandemic is changing our world and how we operate, in ways that we are all finding very confronting, unsettling and unprecedented. As a school, we continue to act upon the regular updates and advice provided by the Federal and State Governments, and the Education and Health Departments. We will continue to keep you informed as things progress.

Once again, thank you so much for your ongoing support during this extraordinary time.

Kind regards

Kind regards,
Barbara Bromley
April 2 2020