Nerae Preece Acting Principal
From the Principal
Hello Everyone,
Can you believe it’s the end of week 3? Over the past few weeks our school has come such a long way! Our teachers and aides have redefined their place in education with a blog that has allowed them to film their lessons, create tasks that allow all kids to enable or extend themselves, and this week… analysing the work that you have uploaded via google forms. But, the learning hasn’t stopped there. I am definitely not surprised by this, but you as a community of families are supporting one another in the new jump in technology. I have noticed in social media, lots of people reaching out for support and receiving it. It’s a credit to you all! Thank you for showing so much care and support for one another!
Internet delivery
We are not too far away from receiving a drop of sim cards and dongles from DET. For those families who have been waiting, as soon as the drop arrives, Erin Murphy will be in contact to arrange collection. We thank you so much for your patience. Remember if you are interested in getting cheap internet installed at your home, refer to last week’s newsletter on our school’s webpage to see the list of companies who are offering a reduced rate on their join up.
Parent survey
There is a link to our blog that appeared on Thursday. It is to a survey that we have created to find out how things are going for you at home. We would be very grateful if you could provide feedback on your child/rens experiences with remote learning. You can even complete one per child, as I am aware that each child’s experience can be totally different. We will be delving into the survey on Monday, so if you are able to fill out the survey over the next few days we would find it very helpful in understanding where we should be heading next. The survey should take you about 2-3 minutes per child.
Click here for the survey.
CATS! Or Common Assessment Tasks
Okay… so we are trying something really new next week! On Friday, the whole school will be completing the same literacy task (maths will be in a few weeks)! I bet you are wondering how we can do that? Well our amazing numeracy and literacy curriculum teams are putting together an activity to track how kids are going. After families have uploaded their child’s work on Friday, the busy work begins. Our teachers will be having a look at the work to see how your child is progressing and then 2 weeks later provide you with an email and feedback on how your child is travelling. When completing the task it will be really important to step away from helping your child too much, we want to know what they can do.
Upgrade to toilets and junior school play space
Calling all plumbers, builders, landscapers and designers! We are taking this time to do some upgrades. Our PFA have raised a SIGNIFICANT amount of money for our school, and it’s time to spend it. Our sustainability team, headed up by Kathleen Kean (3/4A) are looking to redesign the Junior school playground. If you could email the school if you are interested in helping out that would be amazing! We will then pass on these details to Kathleen and she will be in touch.
As for the toilet upgrades in the older parts of the school, some of our school councillors are leading the charge here. We do need quotes on plumbing and placing a rubber compound surface to the ground. Think you can help us out with that? Email the school and we will be in touch about that too!
That’s if for this week. Stay warm this weekend…
Nerae Preece
Helping Kids Feel Calm
Hello families,
It is easy to get swept up in the uncertainty we currently find ourselves in. We didn’t predict this and things feel far from normal right now. It is perfectly normal to feel many emotions (sometimes at once!) and we need to be taking mindful steps to remember to stop, breathe and centre ourselves. It may be easier said than done, but it is important.
We have spoken about the importance of maintaining routines, for getting fresh air and exercise, and to ensure we step away from our screens to rest our tired eyes. Today, we would like to share a wonderful resource from psychologist and author, Karen Young. Here she discusses 8 ideas to help kids feel calm (and two for you, too!) that are particularly timely. It is a wonderful guide to support our children. You can find it here – https://www.heysigmund.com/help-kids-feel-calm/
We hope you find this useful.
Looking forward to seeing you all again soon,
Mrs Whiteside and Miss Murphy
Music News
Greetings to all at Badger Creek,
Things are certainly different in music this term but we are still having fun. We have been making instruments and playing them, learning new songs and some people have even been writing new ones! People are starting to send in some some of their music in video form and in the form of MP3 or wav. files. A good way to send in work is to make a quick recording or video on your phone or ipad and then email it to your teacher. They will pass it on to me.
Thanks to Tabitha and Ivy who sent me some Chrome Music Lab recordings and also to Zoe. Well done. I am giving a big shout out to Olivia Bright this week who sent me a video recording of a song she wrote about being at home. I have included the video. Check it out.
Next week we will all be continuing to learn and play the song Yananha. There will be lots of resources in the online learning blog to help you. I can’t wait to hear some of your music.
Have a great week and enjoy making music this week.
Jenny Legg
Music Teacher
Home by April Bright
ANZAC Day
On April 25th 1915, Australian and New Zealand soldiers landed and fought on the shores of Gallipoli, Turkey. Now, each year on the 25th April, we recognise and remember the ANZACs, and the courage and sacrifice of all those who have served in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping missions. We know many of you stood at dawn on Saturday morning. Perhaps you heard the bugle echoing the Last Post and Reveille across Healesville. Wreaths were laid at the RSL and Memo Hall on behalf of the Badger Creek Primary School Community. Lest we forget
