Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Welcome
Welcome to this edition of our newsletter. To begin my piece today I would like to take this opportunity to thank our community for their continuing co-operation in complying with the COVID19 regulations. This has, understandably, been a stressful time. Coping with change can be challenging but by working together we have ensured our students have enjoyed some continuity. This week we have welcomed parents back onsite in limited numbers and we will resume other routines next week (all going well). At this point, masks remain mandatory and we ask that parents enter classrooms only after an invitation. As restrictions change or are lifted, we will communicate this as promptly as possible. Sometimes this takes longer than expected as we seek to understand how specific health directives impact our school environment. Whatever these next few weeks bring, I am confident that we will work through them with the learning and wellbeing of our students as our priority.
Student Learning
Throughout the duration of this pandemic, one challenge our teachers have identified is maintaining the continuity of learning as we go into and transition out of lockdowns. Our curriculum delivery is of a very high quality and our teachers strive to cater for our students during at home learning to similar standards. Of course, the relationships our teachers build with our students are irreplaceable but we are working to make the time learning from home as engaging and as successful as possible. To this end, the teachers at Banksia have a double focus. Firstly, managing the curriculum content and delivery from online platforms and building student capability around independent online learning and secondly, tracking and responding to student progress effectively without being face to face. At our Term Three Twilight session, teachers will discuss this further and begin to explore examples of best practice so that we continue to evolve our skills and knowledge in this area.
Book Week
This week Banksia Beach State School is celebrating Book Week. This is occurring in schools nation wide and acknowledges the importance of quality literature for our children. The theme for Book Week this year is “Old World, New World, Other World”, inspiring children to be imaginative and creative. Teachers have planned a variety of activities around Book Week and our students are invited to dress as their favourite book character on Thursday, August 26 to celebrate this. Teachers will share photos from their class on their platforms.
End of Term
As the end of term draws closer, we are planning a number of our end of term activities as well as concluding units of curriculum and completing assessments. While students who are unwell must stay home, we ask that students refrain from being absent for any other occasion. Notifications about behaviour awards etc will go home in the coming weeks as it is anticipated that at this stage these will go ahead as planned.
I look forward to an exciting next couple of weeks of student learning and achievement.