We have now completed our second week and I would like to congratulate everyone for their persistence. It is one of the values our Junior School Captains are promoting this year and it certainly applies to moving to online learning. We have seen so much progress over these past two weeks and I am really proud of the way in which the Junior School staff have adapted so quickly to a different mode of lesson delivery. I am also proud of how the girls are handling it – they are showing persistence and are learning about patience. It has been a long few weeks but we have really made great strides in moving to online learning. Everyone should congratulate themselves as I know we have all done our best in trying circumstances. Thanks go to you, our wonderful parents, for your ongoing support. We have been so encouraged by your comments.

I would also like to thank everyone for completing the surveys as they provide us with much information.

What we have learned from last week’s survey is that you:

• saw all girls were engaged or highly engaged in the lessons provided
• have been highly complimentary about our online lessons
• are finding that you are learning about what the girls are learning
• like seeing the progress being made
• like the check ins with the class teachers and the level of communication they have with your daughter
• think they are learning skills that they will take into their future
• are impressed with the support given and the positivity shown to the girls
• identified that:
  • some girls had some navigational issues in the first few days
  • some connectivity and technical issues
  • The girls were missing interactions with their friends

We expected all of these, as there are always some teething problems when anything new is introduced! We have been working hard to address these where we can, but some just need the girls to become more confident as they adapt to learning online before we can introduce other measures.

What we have learned from the girls is that they:

• loved catching up with their teacher and friends
• like having a later start to their day which means a sleep in
• are able to keep up with their learning
• don’t like it when someone mutes the teacher
• are learning the protocols associated with online learning.

This past week

In my conversations over the past few days with parents, I have learned that many of the challenges faced in the first few days have been resolved and that the girls are navigating their way with more confidence now.

As you would appreciate, we have had to move quickly to online learning and some of the infra-structures were not where they ideally needed to be. However, the IT teams have worked hard and now:

• girls in Years P-3 have received log-ons to access MS teams directly through their iPad. Teachers will make connections to MS teams more easily found by including them in their daily schedule.
• The class page portal in Years 4-6 has a new set of navigational tiles for specialist teachers and co-curricular activities. Work will continue on the development of these portals, with tiles being activated for the core class subjects later this term.

One of the areas identified by everyone was the need for girls to be able to connect more with their fellow classmates and their teachers. Channels is one of the features of MS Teams that allows girls to be allocated to a particular channel by their teachers during lessons. These allow for:

• Small group
  • Targeted teaching, focussing on specific skills
  • Support for girls
  • Group work
  • Checking in
  • More personalised learning and pastoral care

As girls become more confident and competent, the channels feature will be used more widely.

Student Free Day 8 May

Friday, 8 May, has been set as a curriculum day at St Catherine’s. It will be a student free day, allowing staff to come together virtually to coordinate, plan and design units of work and assessment. There will be no Essential Care Program or Online lessons for that day.

Week 2 Parent Survey

Your feedback is important to us. Please provide feedback for the past week by opening the link below.

https://stcatherines.formstack.com/forms/learn_home_parent_survey_week_2

Assemblies

Assembles are moving online and this week’s assembly is about ANZAC Day and managing the online lives of the girls. The Junior School assembly features much of the work of the Year 6 Captains of School, House, Music and Library. They have worked hard in bringing you this assembly this week. We hope you enjoy it.