26 Mar 2020
Like us at school, I’m sure these last few days have been a whole new set of learning and realisation around your children learning from home, or at school in parallel to one another. We thank you for the many positive comments, messages and emails that we have received from our parents about the work we are doing currently to continue our students’ education. I believe The Jannali High School has been well prepared for this situation because of our systems and processes along with the leadership of our Head Teachers and Classroom Teachers supported by our School Administrative and Support Staff.
All staff at The Jannali High School are fully aware of the impact COVID-19 is having on all families in our community, in particular those who have been affected directly by illness, work closures and/or are vulnerable at this time. Rest assured, we are continuing to work hard to support the learning of your children from Year 7 through to Year 12. We are hypersensitive to stresses those Year 12 students and their families can experience during the HSC which have been exacerbated by the current situation. Many of us here at TJHS are parents of school aged children, some of who are in their HSC year as well. Not only are our faculties working daily on learning activities for our students but our Student Wellbeing Team and Learning Support Team have been working on resources and other support measures that are available for students and their families.
As fate would have it, we had technology problems for most of the day yesterday across the school. This meant that our staff have might have been unable to upload learning activities to their respective Google Classrooms and we aren’t sure what the experiences have been at home for our students. Some staff have had to resort to hotspotting on their phones to access Google Classrooms.
Students who attended school for the past few days followed their normal timetable of lessons and in most cases classes were collapsed. This enabled learning to continue with a subject teacher while other teachers worked with their Head Teacher to complete a scope and sequence of learning activities for the remainder of the term along with faculty programs and projects that will enable a continuation of learning up to the end of the term.
We have been marking rolls at the beginning of the day followed by an assembly after recess and after lunch to re-mark rolls. All students have been cooperative with these procedures and processes.
A set of year group scope and sequences will be emailed to all parents which outline the types of learning activities and associated resources across all key learning areas for the rest the term. All Google Classrooms have already been updated with learning activities for your child to work from. These scope and sequences will help with your own routines at home to know what work needs to be completed and by when. The current message is that schools will be open for the start of Term 2 but we don’t know in what capacity.
Our plan is to have similar styles of scope and sequences for the first five weeks of Term 2 ready and sent out to parents by the end of this term in the event that we return in the same type of operation as we are in now.
We are still yet to hear from NESA regarding assessment and reporting for all students in particular, how this year’s HSC will be managed. At this point the message is for Year 12 students to continue working on the HSC work. Again, our school and staff are committed to the ongoing support of our Year 12 students to keep their learning on track, complete major projects and performances while also supporting their wellbeing during what has become an even more stressful time than usual for these students. We have a similar to commitment to all other students. We are not sure how this situation will impact our Semester 1 assessment and reporting period at this stage. What we are saying is that our 7-12 Assessment and Reporting Schedules are being worked towards. In these instances, revised notifications will be sent home which might include an extended date for submission. All assessment booklets which contain our school’s procedures including Accident and Misadventure along with the schedule of assessments for Semester 1 and 2 are located on our school’s website https://jannali-h.schools.nsw.edu.au under the Learning tab.
Our Student Wellbeing Team, Learning Support Team and Student Services Team are working on a range of resources and strategies to support students’ ongoing learning and wellbeing. Some of these will be for direct use by parents so they can support student learning and wellbeing at home. We have some students will additional needs who have been supported directly by members of these teams and we are working on ways in which these supports can be maintained effectively.
Marking of student attendance for learning at home activities has been a point of discussion among our executive. The department advice has been that it is not expected that every student will sitting at a desk, when learning from home, for six hours a day and they might not be following their school timetable. Using our Continuation of Learning scope and sequences, Google Classrooms and other information parents and students will know what work is required and by when, therefore the submission of class work and assessments by the due date will be the responsibility of each student in all years.
In consultation with our School Director Educational Leadership, our school’s executive team have decided to move to a flexible work arrangement from Friday 27 March to Friday 3 April, inclusive. Faculty representatives, members of the executive team, members of the administrative team along with the senior executive will be on site to supervise student learning and complete other work in support of student learning and school operations. Other staff will be doing similar work off site under the supervision of their Head Teacher/Supervisor. This means that all staff continue to be on duty and are able to be contacted by students and/or parents.
This means that Period Zero, Period 6 and off-line lessons won’t take place at their timetabled times. Staff will be on duty from 8:30am – 3:30pm to supervise learning and be contactable, regardless. Teachers will continue to do other work outside of these hours such as, marking and programming which is the usual case. I’m sure both parents and students will appreciate that their teachers will respond to questions and provide feedback to student work in a timely fashion given the way we are all learning to work differently now.
We have had to cancel our School Photo Day originally scheduled for 31 March with the hope that we can reschedule for later in the year.
Communication from the school will continue through these types of updates as regularly as needed to ensure our families kept abreast of the current situation and how we are managing everything to support our students’ learning and wellbeing.
To support all of parents during this difficult time, I would like to offer a refund for any subject fee or general contributions that have been paid for this term. Unfortunately, and fees paid for excursions, incursions and school uniform will be unable to be refunded. Please contact our School Administration Manager to make this request.
Again, thank you all of our staff, students and parents for their ongoing support and understanding during these uncertain times in our school.