This week saw our youngest learners commence the ELC Learn@Home Program for the duration of Stage 4 restrictions. The Program is designed to provide the children with a range of learning offerings in the home environment.

When planning and designing the Learn@Home Program, we have taken a holistic approach to the program offerings. We are providing in-home experiences that support the children’s learning and development in the areas of the Arts, Language, STEM, nature, Maths, wellbeing and the physical/outdoor areas.

In keeping with our philosophy, some experiences will be inquiry or research based where the children will be asked to work on a project over several days or a week. Others are designed to be more experiential in order to develop a range of learning and skills.

The Learn@Home Program can be accessed daily through the child’s classroom portal page. Each day the classroom teachers are posting learning tasks for the children to complete at home. These learning experiences will be connected to the current classroom projects and interests.

Parents and children are encouraged to access the Learn@Home Program and work through it at the child’s own pace. When the children have completed particular tasks, they are encouraged to interact with their class teacher by emailing a photo or copy of their work so that this becomes a shared or collaborative process.

The children are also invited to join their Educators and peers for several Microsoft Teams learning meetings per week. This experience is designed to ensure that the ELC children remain connected with their educators and peers. The children will share their in-home learning with one another and the teacher will present new opportunities for learning to the children. 

Library sessions are presented live on Microsoft Teams on Tuesday mornings with our Librarian, Ms Cindy Requin.

Weekly Physical Education and French sessions (4yo classes only) are presented via video on the portal.

We encourage your child to access as many of these learning offerings as possible to ensure continuity of learning and connection to the program and their peers. We understand that many families will be juggling a range of demands in the home environment at the moment and so this will not always be possible to facilitate.

Working in partnership with families

The parents of our Campbell House learners have recently participated in Parent-Teacher Interviews. These interviews are a valuable way for the school and families to work together to remain fully informed about the children’s current learning and development.

Frequent, ongoing communication between home and school is of high importance to the educators in Campbell House. Teachers carefully prepare for the Parent-Teacher Interviews as it is a privilege to be able to share in your child’s learning and development.

The role of teachers during Parent-Teacher Interviews is to inform, suggest, assist and guide parents on how their child is progressing in the Early Learning Program, and ways in which they can be supported or extended both in the classroom and at home.

Working in partnership, parents and teachers always discuss ways to enhance opportunities for children to pursue their learning and independent thinking, to create, cooperate, collaborate and negotiate. When the school and families work together in partnership, it creates a positive, powerful foundation, which is important for building happy, contented learners.

We thank parents for their interest and participation in these collaborative conversations. We trust that you have found them to be beneficial as we now progress through the second Semester.