Scroll down for our new resources helping families learning at home.

One pandemic, two standards for funding

Heading into Term 2 wasn't feeling  much different from the end of Term 1 for most of us.

We continued to hear and see concerns for our safety front and centre in all our media and daily interactions. Schools were at the heart of many of these debates with Ministers, unions and community leaders vying for their lines of demarcation.

But then things changed this week with the outrageous news of yet another special funding deal for the non-government sector to effectively bribe those schools to return students to classrooms in June.

As this came through just before we put our newsletter out, I have included a separate item below my message and I encourage you to read our media release on the subject, too.

No easy single answer

As parents, we want to be sure our families and communities are safe, as we work through all the commentary and self-determine what is best for our own circumstances.

The parents we represent sit across all parts of the spectrum: from those who will not send their children until there is no risk of any COVID-19 infection, to the essential workers who must send their children to school, and those that just want and need their children back at school.

There is no easy single answer to support these needs. They are complex but not impossible. Our survey (read more below) is helping us understand even more.

Flexible and reasonable

ACSSO’s position has been firm: the schooling outcomes must be flexible and reasonable to support all family circumstances with safety as the primary concern. There is no one best option at this time, so our schooling environments must position themselves to support the safety requirements of families and continue in some semblance of an education, and we must be on guard for any absolutism approach for remediation.

Broad range of risks

Across the past few weeks many questions have been asked. Am I an essential worker? Do I have a cold, “common” flu or COVID-19? Is it best to send my children to school, or should they remain at home? Why is it OK to send them to school, yet I’m unable to host a (children only) birthday party? How can I know that school is truly safe? When will my school be risk free of COVID-19 infection?

Our parents don’t believe their schools are risk free, they accept it is “low risk”, but not “no risk”. For those able to support learning from home, they’re still battling with access to devices, poor or no internet connectivity, and parental support. Yet the fact remains, we must be safe. That question is at the core of what we as parents are interested in. Second to this is how we can continue to support the ongoing learning in these times.

So many unknowns

There are a lot of unknowns at present – our nation has experienced just on four weeks of learning from home. And some leaders are pushing us to get back to “normal”, or rather “how it was”. We must take this transition slowly, and it is the perfect opportunity to review our “how it was” environment and look to improve.

This situation has identified our weak spots in education and supporting continuity of learning – our governments and leadership bodies must seize on this time and review and improve our systems. The current review of the national architecture for schooling must use this current environment to identify our strengths and weaknesses to develop new opportunities. Our question to our governments has moved on from “what will next term look like”, to “what will education look like”.

For now, what to do?

But for now, what can we parents do? While the minimal requirements advised are to supervise your children I recommend that you: commit to family engagement and be part of the learning experience as much as you are able, provide your own life stories and share with your children, learn some of what they are learning, look to enjoy this time as much as you can. Think about what you can do at this time to set up a positively memorable experience for your family. In time, you will think back on this event – this is a chance to set up your future family memories.

National survey

To help ACSSO better understand our national view, we’ve released a survey to report on where families identify themselves. If you haven’t completed it, I encourage you to share your experiences and help us work towards supporting better outcomes from our education environment. 

Many of you have already shared the survey and the response rate so far is excellent. If you haven't done so yet, please check the two best ways to share in our story, below.

Tribute to our teachers and school staff.

Finally, I want to continually recognise our teachers and school staff. They have been fabulous at this time – needless to say, they’ve been flexible and supported significant change in their own career expectations.

We hear amazing stories of teachers going out of their way to enhance the learning experience for their students and offering innovative ways to engage through these different times.

The team at ACSSO acknowledges the tremendous effort, and for some the personal costs, that school staff have committed to their profession. Know this, that your students and their families appreciate what you do.

Please stay safe.

Andrew Bidwell
Chair
Australian Council of State School Organisations

April 30, 2020

STOP PRESS 30/4/20

Two standards in education under pandemic funding 

It was with extreme disappointment that the Australian Council of State School Organisations (ACSSO) heard news of yet another special funding deal for the non-government sector. The funding advance offered by the Federal Government and forcing the non-government sector to open by June 1 is nothing short of outrageous.

Read our full media release here

ACSSO has always demanded that the funding agreements in education be fair, simple and transparent and that no system be afforded special deals.

If we have learnt nothing else from the COVID-19 pandemic it is that Australia’s education systems are absolutely riddled with inequities and that these inequities are for the most part supported by funding from State/Territory and Federal Governments.

Yesterday’s deal raises numerous questions around these inequities

The current environment has also highlighted that government schools:

• are stretched to their limits, with many also now hiring casual placements to cover staff that are “at risk” and remain working from home
• alongside parents, are spending more to ensure students have appropriate technology and connectivity for pandemic learning
• are spending more to supply hard copy materials to students without electronic access.

All this without opportunity for additional funding support from the Australian government. Read more on our position here.

SURVEY CLOSES 6 MAY

Help your families be heard

Thank you to the hundreds of schools who have already shared National Family Survey on Schooling in the Covid -19 Pandemic.. This is our only national parent group survey and will contribute directly to Australia's policies and practices around schooling at this extraordinary time.

Questions cover families whose children:
 - attend school in person
 - are in home-based remote learning
 - have additional needs.

The survey will gather your stories to help us understand the impact this massive shift in educational delivery is having on families now and in the future. We need your assistance to gather as many responses as possible by Wednesday 6 May.

Both the links below will take your families to the survey, but the lower one is particularly suitable for Facebook sharing.

Best web and email sharing link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ParentCovidCM

Best Facebook link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ParentCOVIDSocF

New family learning support resources

We've created a new section on the ACSSO website - Australian Families Learning at Home.

With many families now experiencing home-based remote learning, we have put together some information including:

• live links to government sources for parent support
• educational support and resources
• home learning ideas
• fun activities for families,
• access to free books
• virtual fun
• art and craft projects
• dance and music

And much more! If you have suggestions of more resources we can help share with families, please let us know via contact@acsso.org.au

COVID-19 official references 

The state and territory education department COVID-19 information pages are behind the following links. Please remember these links may be frequently updated, as public policy changes almost daily.

• Australian Capital Territory
• New South Wales
• Northern Territory
• Queensland
• South Australia
• Tasmania
• Victoria
• Western Australia

Key links from the Australian Government's Department of Health and Department of Education:

https://www.dese.gov.au/covid-19

https://www.dese.gov.au/covid-19/schools/national-principles-for-school-education

https://www.australia.gov.au/

https://headtohealth.gov.au/covid-19-support/covid-19

https://www.health.gov.au/news/australian-health-protection-principal-committee-ahppc-advice-on-reducing-the-potential-risk-of-covid-19-transmission-in-schools

Children and anxiety support

We know from the study conducted by the Australian Primary Principals Association last November that childhood anxiety is on the rise. This was before Australia was faced with savage bushfires and now a pandemic.

It is evident that despite all the knowledge and experience teachers and parents may have, there still is a need for more information, resourcing and professional learning.  At this time – in the middle of this strange start to 2020, we think the following two resources are particularly helpful.

Calming Children and addressing their Anxiety and Fears - Maggie Dent, author and educator, offers many great suggestions and advice, please follow this link to a great article on her website or her article Coping with the Corona Chaos

Having the conversation with young people about anxiety and depression, Beyond Blue have produced this great resource

Online safety for children

With so many children - including preschoolers - using online access to their educators more than ever, their online safety is even more important.

As always, we recommend the advice provided by Austraia's eSafety Commissioner.  Click here to view their Covid-19 messages.

Three important updates from ACARA

1. Home-based learning resources for families

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in large numbers of Australian students learning from home, with many parents and carers keen for resources to support them in this task. 

As ACARA CEO David de Carvalho noted in a recent opinion piece, “Many parents of school-age children are now dealing with a new reality, trying to keep their children engaged in learning while not having the professional skills that trained teachers bring to that complex and vitally important task.”

ACARA has compiled a range of resources and links to support parents/carers at this unique time: 

• an overview (PDF 1.5 mb) of how the Australian Curriculum is organised, explaining how the learning areas (subjects), general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities work together to form the Australian Curriculum
• quick guides about what children will learn at each stage of their schooling: 
  • Foundation (Kindergarten or equivalent) (PDF 1.6 mb) 
  • Years 1–2 (PDF1.2 mb)
  • Years 3–4 (PDF 1.4 mb)
  • Years 5–6 (PDF 1.4 mb)
  • Years 7–8 (PDF 1.5 mb)
  • Years 9–10 (PDF 1.5 mb)       
• ACARA’s computational thinking parent resources (PDF 2 mb) include printable cards with activity ideas to support children in Foundation – Year 2 in finding opportunities to apply computational thinking in their everyday life. 
• The national literacy and numeracy learning progressions are a resource that describes how literacy and numeracy learning develops over time. Explore this with a guide to the progressions for parents.

2.  Parent Update

ACARA’s Parent Update newsletter is a monthly e-newsletter that brings national education news about national assessment, curriculum and My School news to parents. 

3. 2020 NAPLAN cancelled - family questions answered

On Friday 20 March, education ministers decided that in light of the impact of COVID-19, NAPLAN would not proceed for 2020.

Many families have questions about what this means for their children, and ACARA has prepared this set of Frequently Asked Questions.

Can remote learning be an advantage?

Clinical Psychologist Andrew Fuller's thoughts and research are always interesting. Andrew generously shares his thinking with ACSSO and you can read and download his latest pieces below for easy sharing with your school community.

Remote Learning

How to Use School Closures to Surge Ahead Academically

Parents and Home Based Remote Learning

National Simultaneous Storytime

Some education traditions translate more easily to a pandemic lockdown than others, and the National Simultaneous Storytime is well suited to be a virtual event in 2020 this coming Wednesday 27th May at 11am.

Families and school teachers are all welcome to register for whichever children are with them on that day. You can join one million children, reading Whitney and Britney the Chicken Divas by Lucinda Gifford.

Click here to register and download this lovely colouring activity to do in the meantime

ACSSO CEO Dianne Giblin AM, left, with Shirley Berg, OAM

Vale Shirley Berg OAM

A most passionate advocate for public education, Shirley was the president of NSW P&C Federation from 1983-88, and ACSSO Vice President during that period.

Shirley was in the forefront of the fight for public education, she was a particularly passionate member of D.O.G.S (Defence of Government Schools).

She was a leader in the field of Aboriginal Education and the Disadvantage Schools Program, was friend and mentor to our CEO, Di Giblin,  and  Shirley was former ACSSO Vice-President.

Former ACSSO President, Pat Reeve said:

"Shirley was a staunch and passionate advocate for public schools. We worked together on the ACSSO Board through the tumultuous days when public/state schools struggled for adequate resources including sufficient qualified staff to cater for the full range is student needs. Despite significant improvements since that time the struggle continues as inequality continues to be a scourge on the Australian community. Thanks to Shirley and so many other parents and committed teachers there is a foundation which current activists are building on."

ACSSO CEO Dianne Giblin shared:

"I was fortunate to benefit from the wisdom and experience of Shirley during my time as the NSW P&C President. She was the most passionate supporter of kids and families I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. She constantly kept her eye on what was happening in Education today and would regularly check in to "see how ACSSO was travelling" and offer me the benefit of her wisdom"

Our thoughts are with her loving family and those who held her dear.

Free school access to crisis communication app

School Stream, a communication software company, asked ACSSO to share a free offer to schools: immediate access to its app to reach parents during this crisis.

They said:

School Stream are committed to supporting schools and the broader community during the COVID-19 crisis. Communication is critical. From today, we are offering all schools free access to a new School Crisis Communication App.

We’re here to support you. We want to help.

It’s easy. Register here.

• The app provides unlimited messaging to your school community.

• Send unlimited alerts directly to a parent/caregiver’s mobile device.

• Keep your school community informed and updated in real-time.

Free access for three months with a review of crisis conditions at that time - no obligation to transfer to paid access.

#CaughtYouBeingGreat Croydon Hills Public School, Victoria!

Who hasn't struggled with Mathematics at times, struggling to help their kids  to understand it, 🙋
 
Croydon Hills has put together a great video explaining subtraction - thank you!

Watch their video here.
 
We would love to share your stories of schools and communities and families doing "great" things, particularly when many of us are working and learning from home, Please forward to comms@acsso.org.au

#caughtyoubeinggreat
 #weareallinthistogether

We love to hear your stories of schools and communities doing great things. 

Send your #caughtyoubeinggreat stories to comms@acsso.org.au and use the hashtag on Facebook to find other wonderful stories.