Dear Parents and Carers,

It is wonderful to hear from our families about their experiences with remote learning. We miss seeing all our staff, students and families but we know that you are all doing your best to access the learning. Our staff have worked tirelessly to ensure that individual learning needs and the needs of each student are considered. Parents, if you are having any issues with the learning please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher or the front office. Our staff are only too happy to assist you and we want to ensure that all our students can continue to learn whether at home or at school. Parents please email your feedback to your class teacher or the front office along with any photos that you have of your children learning so we can share in the newsletter.

All learning provided at school will be remote/online with minimal physical access to teachers. The CE encourages a minimum of staff at school, which we are observing. We have been most fortunate to have every class teacher working remotely while the part time staff are working at school. This ensures that the teachers can devote the time that they need for their class during the day. Parents, please ensure you email your child’s attendance to the class teacher by 11am each day. If a class teacher does not hear from a student, they will be marked absent. Once every 3 weeks a class teacher will have a release day from face-to-face teaching and the class teacher will inform you when that is to occur. Remote learning packs will be available for collection from 12pm to 2:30pm every Friday or the following Monday from 9:15 to 3pm. They will be left inside the school gate for ease of collection.

Thank you to our families who have returned the Father’s Day raffle tickets. We request that all families who have not returned them, keep them at home and we will draw the raffle upon return to school. If you have not sold your tickets, please keep selling them.

Just for some fun, each Friday, we are going to have a dress up day. Next Friday September 3, we would like all our children to dress up as dad or granddad to celebrate Father's day. We will inform you in the newsletter of the dress up theme for the following week. For the children working at home, can you please send your photos to your class teacher or the front office. Tomorrow we are all dressing up for book week. We can’t wait to see what costumes everyone creates for the theme ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds'.

Please continue to keep in your prayers all those communities that have been adversely affected by this recent COVID outbreak. We pray that all in our Braidwood community stay safe and well.

God Bless
Marylou Gorham
Principal

News from families working remotely:

"In my experience so far, over the last week I’ve found the teachers to be very organised, helpful and open to adapt the package to the parents’ needs. It’s been a steep learning curve especially with managing the house and other kids at the same time but I have also appreciated the gentle reminders on the St. Bede’s Facebook page that we need to do only the best we can and that our children’s mental health and happiness is of greater importance. The program has been thoughtfully put together and I think with time, will be tailored to the parents requests and concerns which will help in the long term. As difficult as it is for me to get through the workload, this kind of support from the school is so invaluable and I appreciate it very much." Kinder parent.

"Just wanted to say we think you are doing a remarkable job with the home schooling. J is really engaged and enjoying the variety of activities without feeling pressured. Here is a photo of him with his head torch working on angles. It really needs the soundtrack of him humming while he does it! Thanks for all you are doing. I hope you are managing lock down as best as possible." Year 3 parent.

"I think you are both doing a wonderful job of being clear with the tasks and mini lessons, the weekly planner is very helpful, and the printouts are saving my sanity. The structure this year is a lot better than last year, thank you for all of the work you are doing." Kinder parent.

"We are really getting on very well with remote learning, both platforms are very easy to navigate with very minimal fuss from the kids. We are very thankful to the teachers for everything they are doing to ensure the kids are ok. Big thanks must be given to the teachers for the extra hours they are putting in, I know it would not be easy for them." Year 1 and Year 3 parent.

"I’d like to say congratulations and thank you to St Bede’s for all the time, hard work and patience they are putting into preparing and hosting the home-learning lessons! My children particularly enjoy the Team meetings: to check in of a morning, receive lesson instructions for the day from their teachers and to see their friends! These Teams meetings, give themes and break out groups, keep my children engaged, on track with their lessons and learning but also having fun and socially active and it certainly helps ease feelings of isolation! I watch the St Bede’s Facebook posts for updates and information and my children also love to see the photos!" Year 3 and Year 4 parent

"I have enjoyed having a little bit more flexibility for my learning because all of it is online, I can do it after school or sometimes at recess or lunch."
"We have lots of time to do our work."
"The flexibility of the three tasks in history."
"You don't have to do things in order."
"I like how we get to do our own work and not rely on help from anyone"
"I have enjoyed the new types of learning we use example OneNote and Teams."
"We are still able to talk and ask for help."
"I have enjoyed learning how to identify all the different types of angles."
"Something I really enjoyed was the angles bingo because I felt like I was at school."
"I found the angle game that was fun and a bit challenging"
"If you live out of Braidwood, you can finish more work in the afternoon, so you don't have to worry about travel time."
"I like how we get to spend more time with our siblings and parents"
"I like how we can spend a bit of time away from school."
"I spend more time outside and I get more sleep."
"I have enjoyed being able to eat as much food as I want at recess and lunch no lunch box to limit my food needs."
"Have time to learn new skills"
"I get to go outside more often"

Comments from Year 6

Prayer

Thank you, lord, for the gift of Love.
Help us to see the little moments of love around us each day.
Guide us to spread this love with kindness and joy
and continue to open our hearts to your unconditional
and forgiving love.
We ask this through Jesus our friend.
Amen.

Northern Region Public Speaking

Students from Years 3-6 are will still be asked to present their speeches to their teacher starting Week 9. Class teachers will communicate exact details with their own class. We will select two students per year group from Years 3-6 to represent St Bede’s at the Norther Region Public Speaking Competition which will be held in Week 2 next term.

Keeping Your Child Safe Online

What is live streaming?

Live streaming is the transmission or receiving of real time media, usually audio visual, over the internet.
What are the challenges? Live streaming can be improvised, unpredictable and in real time, there is less control over what your child might come across. Live streaming may not allow for moderation or filtering, meaning that young people may see things that are inappropriate or that they weren’t expecting to see, or be subject to inappropriate comments from other users. Young people need to be aware of their environment if they decide to live stream. Background imagery, noises and other factors may give away a lot of personal information. There is also the risk of losing control of content which can be copied, stored or shared by other users. Media over live stream can be recorded and saved, if a viewer decides to screen record or screenshot the content, sometimes without permission.
For more information visit

https://www.thinkuknow.org.au/resources-tab/parents-and-carers