Staying connected                                                              30 August 2021 
 

We are now very pleased that our Learning from Home had quickly resumed its full program of Webex offerings, as an essential way of students maintaining connections with their peers and their teachers.

At this stage, we can all appreciate how challenging the last few weeks have been for families and our staff, as we wait for the next Lockdown announcement. Yesterday's news was certainly disappointing. Unfortunately, we have not received any further information and will let families know as soon as we can about upcoming camps.

Nevertheless, look how far our community has come since Lockdown 1.0! For the forseeable future, we will continue to schedule 572 Webex sessions each week for students, an almighty feat in terms of both technology and timetabling that could have seemed impossible in April 2020:

• 320 Webex Essential and Plus sessions
• 96 Webex Check In
• 64 Webex Extra
• 20 Specialists@Webex
• 72 Intervention and STA (Speech Therapy) via Webex

Additionally, as a result of one of our School Captain's ideas, Year 6 and Prep Webex Buddies is planned for Friday 10 September at 1:00 p.m. This is an opportunity for students to meet with their buddy online for an activity. More information will follow and we thank Lucy E. for this fantastic suggestion.

We again have 'back up' teachers attached to PLC year level teams, within a list of priorities. With the full schedule outlined above, flexibility to cover some Webex, and maintain on-site supervision, has been reduced. Although we appreciate teachers quickly adapting to morning changes to jump into another teacher's Webex, we regret that this isn't always possible. If the class teacher is absent on a class meeting day, and cannot be replaced, we will try to let parents know the meeting is cancelled via Sentral email as soon as we can. 

With all this organisation in place, it's lovely for us to receive photos and work from Prep - Year 3 students' parents, like JX's mum from Year 2M. For one of the Year 2 Maths tasks last week, J. was using his playing cards to find the area of different objects.

As assessments address what students make, say, do or write, these photos are extremely useful to convey to teachers what can't be seen during remote learning.

Thanks to all those parents who are uploading photos to Sentral as requested, for teachers to provide and receive feedback on learning. As recommended by DET, Years 4 - 6 students can use LPS Google Classroom as one way to do this.

Teachers provide Success Criteria for these tasks so that students know what is required, just like at school, and these are used to guide feedback on tasks.

Our staff have been discussing LFH feedback again, and the various ways this is being incorporated into conversations in Webex conferences, small groups and Breakout sessions. The information conveyed to parents about feedback last year still rings true, including this passage:

Feedback is not just about ‘marking’ student work, which is simply correction. Feedback targets how a student can improve and must be timely and specific to be effective. Importantly, while opportunities for feedback occur ...., they are most common and potent during individual learning conversations.

If you are new to LPS and would like to visit those 2020 pages about feedback, see LFH eNews #2 (23 April 2020) and LFH eNews #8 (1 June 2020). 

A reminder that the LPS Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey closes this Friday 3 September. At the moment, our response rate is low. Please check your email for an invitation and, if you received one, we would appreciate you completing this.

We’re really excited to have BOOK CLUB Issue 6 running this term! But, there are a couple of things we’ve had to do differently!

For this issue it will be a virtual catalogue rather than the printed catalogues you’re used to receiving.

You will still have access to the wide selection that Book Club has to offer.

Orders can be placed online by visiting www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP 

Closing date for orders is Monday September 6 2021

Unfortunately, as we are unable to receive the orders the usual way into Laburnum Primary School, you will need to have your order delivered to your home address for a fee of $7.50.

Stay safe everyone.

Kim