28 Apr 2020
Good afternoon Colo community,
With tomorrow being 'on paper' the first day of Term 2, it is timely to provide an update on schooling this term with the best information I have available to me at this time.
Over the last 2 days all staff have been using the staff development time to plan for what schooling looks like at Colo from May 11th (week 3) and the first steps towards a return to normal learning. I will come back to that shortly.
For the first 8 days of school (starting tomorrow and finishing Friday of next week), learning for students will not change from the online learning students experienced at the end of last term.
We will be open for students who are unable to remain at home.
We ask that students who attend over the next 8 days bring with them a device (if they have one) to allow them to access the online learning that will be delivered by teachers remotely.
Students can expect to be provided a safe place to engage with their learning but face to face instruction will not begin during this time.
Parents and students who are experiencing difficulty with any aspect of the online learning should contact the school by telephone and a staff member will be able to provide assistance. If no one is able to respond on the spot, someone WILL call you back.
From Monday May 11, we will bringing students back to school. We are putting into place as many safety measures as possible, including limiting class sizes to 10 students, having sanitiser available in every class, socail distancing in the playground and the capacity to temperature check students and staff (if required).
During this stage of return, school may not include 'normal' learning as we used to know it for all students. We expect until social distancing measures are further relaxed that online learning will continue to feature in learning. Some students will continue with online learning from school
We see students returning from May 11 as important to allow them to access their friends, support from teachers (as much as possible their own teachers) and face to face support of their online learning. We also understand that some parents may be uncomfortable wth their children returning, and during this phase at least, we will continue to provide the capacity to work from home.
At this stage we plan to action the following timetable.
Mondays:
All Year 7 attend school - they will be following their normal timetable but utilising online learning.
All Year 12 attend school - classes will be on a modified timetable and rooming has been allocated to allow face to face instruction with the whole class while maintaining social distancing.
N.B There will be supervision of learning for students from other years who are unable to remain at home as well as siblings of students in Year 7.
Tuesdays:
All Year 8 attend school - they will be following their normal timetable but utilising online learning
All Year 11 attend school - classes will be on a modified timetable and rooming has been allocated to allow face to face instruction with the whole class while maintaining social distancing.
N.B There will be supervision of learning for students from other years who are unable to remain at home as well as siblings of students in Year 8.
Wednesdays:
All Year 9 attend school - they will be following their normal timetable but utilising online learning
All Year 12 attend school - classes will be on a modified timetable and rooming has been allocated to allow face to face instruction with the whole class while maintaining social distancing.
N.B There will be supervision of learning for students from other years who are unable to remain at home as well as siblings of students in Year 9.
Thursdays:
There will be no scheduled lessons (in face or online) for students from Year 7-11. Staff will use the time to provide individual feedback and support to students. Students should use this time to ensure they are up to date with all their learning.
This also means there will not be online classes for students working from home this day.
Year 12 students engaging with practical works, practical performances, or in extension subjects can expect some face to face learning to be scheduled on a Thursday.
N.B There will be supervision of learning for students who are unable to remain at home
Fridays:
All Year 10 attend school - they will be following their normal timetable but utilising online learning
All Year 11 attend school - classes will be on a modified timetable and rooming has been allocated to allow face to face instruction with the whole class while maintaining social distancing.
N.B There will be supervision of learning for students from other years who are unable to remain at home as well as siblings of students in Year 10.
That is a LOT of information - but I wanted to share our thinking as we move to a new stage in this journey....
To be clear - face to face learning in any form will NOT commence tomorrow and the staff are working hard to make more face to face interaction possible from May 11.
I will provide another update before the end of the week.
Take care look after yourself and your loved ones. Together we WILL get through this.
Warm Regards
Mark Sargeant