COVID-19 Update number 14 Student Attendance Term 2

We will continue to follow our current arrangements, as to parents notifying the school, re a student’s absence. There are 4 possible options.

• Your child is sick
• Your child requires a ‘Family Day’ for a particular reason-for example a doctor’s appointment
• Your child/family is on holiday(extremely unlikely in the current circumstances)
• Your child is engaging in home learning

On day one next term, Monday the 27^th of April, I ask that all families, whose child is at home,  text the school on 0476 857 212 and indicate one of the 4 options above.

If you indicate home learning, it is expectation that your child/children will engage in the reasonable number of tasks each class teacher (team) and specialist teacher has set for any particular week. These will be published regularly so parents are very aware. Expectations are very reasonable and reflects each year level and is designed not to over burden parents/carers. More details regarding this will be provided on this Blog and by class teachers in the very near future.

Teachers will of course know if students are engaging in the learning by the amount of learning that has been submitted/uploaded to either SeeSaw or Teams. We will assume that home learning will continue until otherwise informed. Non engagement will be followed up by teachers in the first instance and then leadership. In the end it is parents who are ‘in charge’ in this regard.

DfE requires that we also record absences due to sickness. Please tell us if your child is sick.

If we receive no information from a family we will mark the roll as ‘unexplained.’ Please respond with one of the 4 options above as we do not want a series of unexplained absences. DfE/school will investigate these.

I readily acknowledge, that for some families, circumstances may mean a combination of at home learning and at school learning. I understand this. Just keep us informed.

This is a completely new paradigm for us all-teachers, staff, students and parents. We need to be kind to each other-we will make mistakes and parents could find at home learning challenging, exciting or down right difficult. Either way, we are all in this together!

Ian