25 March 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you so much for the many messages of support and concern that you have sent through regarding the work that the staff are undertaking and the concern for their wellbeing and health. This support is much appreciated by the staff as they face a challenging situation. Each new message of support that is sent to the Office or to myself is forwarded to all staff and it is certainly helping the general morale within the school.

Remote Learning
Our staff have been working very hard to get remote learning up and running, however, up until yesterday afternoon they have also been teaching face-to-face classes. This has meant that staff have not been able to give the remote learning the time and attention it deserves. Today teachers have managed to complete a large amount of work. We are aiming to do a full trial run in Week 10 of remote learning to all the students in all year levels. In the meantime, MOODLE is the place to go for students to access their work.

My admiration for the staff is immense – in less than a week they have been asked to completely redesign everything they do, to re-think reorganise and create a whole new way of teaching with no training and in very limited time. All this has been asked of them and they have still been teaching and mentoring students. They have done this with good humour, attention to detail and with the care and concern of the students at the forefront at all times. Many of our staff are very concerned about their own health and that of their families, however, they have continued to turn up to school each day and work with a large group of people when everyone else is being told to isolate themselves. Their professionalism and dedication is breath-taking.

While we are in the transition phase of finalising the set up for remote learning, I am asking parents to be patient. Things will not be perfect and there will be gaps with some subject areas – our elective and practical subjects face particular challenges. Can I request that parents not send e-mails to staff unless it is urgent? Teachers are spending many hours responding to e-mails from parents that is taking time away from their planning and preparation as well as responding to students concerns. Many of the e-mails are asking for work and this means that less time is available for staff to prepare the work and so it become a vicious cycle. We have some additional information on how to access MOODLE in this message as well as other key information. Please contact the office if you require additional information. Once our remote learning is established staff will have much more time to respond to parent e-mails.

I also wanted to let you know that as from Friday, many staff will begin working from home as they have been deemed as vulnerable due to their own health risks. I cannot give you these teachers names as it compromises their privacy, however I did feel I needed to make you aware that the number of staff being physically present at school is falling. They will, however, be available via e-mail.

Do I send my Child to School?
Many parents are also asking for clarification on whether to send their child to school. There is no black and white answer. The advice that has been provided to all Principals from the Catholic Education Office, Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn is that the College is to remain open so that parents requiring supervision of their children during the day, especially those working in the provision of essential-services have the option for them to attend school. I can say to you that we strongly encourage you to keep your child at home for the rest of the term and for them to work on the online lessons that are being created. If you need to send your child to school, we will provide spuervision for them. There will be no formal classes, however, students will work on the same online learning as the students at home. As from next week there will be no canteen facilities. At this stage we have small supplies of hand sanitiser and we attempting to source more. Less students in the school means that we are able to stretch our limited resources.

School Fee Remissions
I am aware that a number of families have had sudden and severe changes in their financial position. The College is keen to support these families immediately. An email has been sent earlier today. Please apply for a fee concession application at the following address: JPC.Finance@cg.catholic.edu.au

Wellbeing Services and Communication
We want to support our students to remain connected to their teachers and school as much as possible. We will shortly be sending out protocols for students and information on remote learning and how to access help from home.
We will continue providing our student wellbeing-services during this time. Mentor teachers will be in email contact with your child, providing support; please do not
hesitate to contact your daughter's House Coordinator or the relevant Assistant Principal for your House if they are able to offer further support. We also have dedicated Leaders of Wellbeing who will be monitoring how students are coping and will contact you if they are concerned about their Wellbeing or academic progress. The school Counsellors will also be available remotely. They are currently finalising the processes for students and families to contact them remotely and we will send these details as soon as we receive them.

College Events
NAPLAN (Years 7, 9) - The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Education Council announced last week that there will be no NAPLAN tests this year. The NAP LAN tests for 2020 have been cancelled.
Co-curricular Activities - We announced last week that all co-curricular activities have been suspended for the moment. This includes all training and games for co-curricular sports and now extends to small group activities including drama rehearsals.

Significant Events
All significant events have been cancelled for the remainder of Term 1 and Term 2. We will communicate with parents as things change. This includes our Try High Day for potential students and our Open Evening. We are postponing these and other events in the hope that they can be run in Term 3.
Please continue to follow us on social media for updates and regularly check email correspondence from the College.

Student Email Accounts
Students must use their student email account for all communication with all JPC Staff. Staff are unable to respond to personal email accounts.

If you are having issues with technology, please discuss with your teacher in the first instance.

If your student email account isn’t working, please email the IT helpdesk helpdesk@jpc.act.edu.au from your personal account for assistance.

MOODLE
For parents to gain access to Moodle, you will need to log in with your child's log in details. All students will have access to Moodle as it is used on a regular basis.

Sentral Student Portal
The Student portal is now set up and students can access it. Students use their Moodle login. Students timetables will be showing in the Student Portal so parents are able to access the student timetable via the Student Portal. Email the IT Helpdesk if you are experiencing difficulties with access.

As you can appreciate, this is a fast-moving situation and we will do our best to keep you informed. You may have noted that there is a number of times where I have had to say that something is “being finalised” or “it will be sent shortly.”  We are creating, developing and modifying as we go and, as such, many of the policies, documents and protocols are still being developed.

I hope there is now some clarity to this very difficult and challenging situation. Please keep safe during this time.

Regards

Stephanie