Remote Learning Update (April 10)

MSPS Publisher

Dear Families,

The Victorian Government announced the operating model for Transition to Flexible and Remote Learning.

transition to flexible and remote learning

To increase physical distancing across the population and slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), children in Victorian government schools should move to remote and flexible learning and care at the commencement of Term 2.

This means that from the start of term two all students who can learn from home must learn at home.

The following operating model will apply.

1.    All students will be learning from home, except for students in the following categories

Children on days when they are not able to be supervised at home and no other arrangements can be made. This will be available for children of parents who cannot work from home, and vulnerable children, including:

  • children in out-of-home care
  • children deemed by Child Protection and/or Family Services to be at risk of harm
  • children identified by the school as vulnerable (including via referral from a family violence agency, homelessness or youth justice service or mental health or other health service and children with a disability).

Students requirING on-site teaching and learning due to parent and carer employment arrangements

Parents and carers who require their child to attend on-site school learning will need to:

ON-SITE-ATTENDANCE-FORMDownload

1. Complete an on-site attendance application form in the week prior to their child attending on-site and weekly thereafter.

2. The On-site Attendance Application Form needs to be returned in digital form wherever possible to melton.south.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

3. If the Leadership Team are satisfied the request meets the threshold of the student being on-site, then a phone  call will be made to confirm attendance. Please do not send your child/children to school until you have received this phone call.

       TIMELINES

The Leadership Team need to determine attendance in advance each week to support adequate staffing.

  • BY 3PM THURSDAY: Parents or carers to provide application form for required days/times the following week.
  • BY CLOSE OF BUSINESS FRIDAY: School to confirm arrangements with parents/carers.

In order to make arrangements for week 1 please complete the Attendance form and return to melton.south.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au by Monday April 13th. You will then receive a confirmation phone call on Tuesday April 14th. Please do not send your child/children to school until you have received this phone call.

2.    USING GOOGLE CLASSROOM with notifications on skoolbag app

On Tuesday April 14th, our staff will finalise the learning framework for our families and learning tasks will begin to flow from Wednesday morning.

We will communicate this framework with our families via Skoolbag App. We stress that families can tackle home learning flexibly, especially given many parents are also working from home and may have multiple children to support.

We will provide learning programs through Google Classroom.

ACCESS TO COMPUTER DEVICES AND INTERNET

Minister Merlino referred to DET and Telstra working together to provide internet access dongles to families without data. We are yet to hear any information about how this will happen, but we will keep you posted.

Minister Merlino also advised that school held devices can be borrowed by students to assist with home learning.

We are working with our technicians to prepare our devices for loan.

If you would be interested in the loan of one school device, please contact our school by Monday April 20th.

We will ascertain the demand for device loans versus our school supply and arrange the loan accordingly.

There will be loan agreements, with any repairs / replacement costs being the borrower’s responsibility.

3.    On-site provision

  1. On-site provision will be available, but only for students in the categories listed above, for the purpose of providing continuity of teaching, learning and support.
    • When on-site learning is provided, hand sanitiser will be available at the entry points to classrooms and education will be provided on hand hygiene. Physical distancing will be implemented in classrooms to the extent feasible and unwell students will be excluded from attending.
    • The learning program delivered on-site will be the same as the learning program delivered to students undertaking remote learning. Students learning on-site will be supervised by an on-site teacher but follow the teaching and learning program provided by their classroom teacher.
    • Class sizes must be no more than a ratio of 1:10.

Staff who are medically vulnerable or live with a medically vulnerable person will not be working on-site.

Schools have been given an extra student free day on the first day of term 2 (Tuesday 14th April).

Teachers will post lessons on the Victorian Department App ‘Google Classroom’ from Wednesday 15th April.

Lessons will be uploaded on a weekly basis.

Families who do not have access to home internet will have Matrixes of work uploaded weekly via our Skoolbag App which you can access on your mobile phone. We will continue to update you on this process.

Thank you for your support.

STAY SAFE.

MSPS Leadership Team