24 April 2020
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome to Term 2. We hope that you have been able to spend some quality time together and enjoy the beautiful Canberra autumn during this most unusual school break.
On behalf of myself and all school staff, I would like to offer my sincere thanks for the support and patience you have shown over the last month as we have navigated the new and difficult circumstances due to COVID 19. I am writing now to set out our plans in relation to the commencement of remote learning from the beginning of Term 2.
As per Government advice, we ask you to keep your children at home if at all possible. Our schools are open to students of essential workers and those who are unable to provide care for their children. Should you need to send your child to school and have not already notified the school of your intention, please be aware that we require time to arrange staffing to ensure a safe environment for all. Please provide at least one week’s notice before sending your child to school.
JPC will be continuing with the same modes we ran for the last few weeks of Term. Students will be undertaking online learning whether they are working from home or onsite. This will commence at 9.00am on Tuesday 28 April.
We will continue to run with our normal school timetable for all subjects. Pastoral Care classes will run on Monday and Friday only. Mentors will touch base with students on Wednesday, either by email or a mentor group session.
All class information and expectations from teachers as to lesson structures and conference classes will be on Moodle. Catholic Education is in the process of setting up all Diocesean schools with Microsoft Teams, but JPC classes have not yet been centrally created. Once the classes have been set, further information regarding student access to Teams will be sent through. In the interim, Zoom will continue to be used for face-to-face lessons.
A reminder that all students should be dressed appropriately for online classes: either smart casual (at home) or JPC PE uniform (on site).
More detailed information which sets out the guidelines and expectations for Remote Learning at JPC is available through the link below.
As stated above, our school’s platform for remote learning in Term 2 will be the Microsoft Teams software. Teams is a component of Window’s Office 365. It functions as a digital hub to bring conversations, content, and apps together to help create collaborative classrooms. All teaching staff have recently received training in Teams and a large range of resources have been developed to ensure the move to remote learning using the program is as smooth as possible.
Video conferencing may well be part of the remote learning program that your child will access. From a teaching and learning perspective, it enables unique opportunities for student and class engagement. During video conferencing, all attending students and the teaching staff will be on camera. It is our policy that for education and training purposes the audio/visual content will be recorded for safety reasons, to assist with our assessment of the effectiveness of remote learning, and for teacher’s to revisit content for future planning purposes. We believe that this will provide the safest, most inclusive and most productive environment possible.
Should you not consent to your child being recorded, either visually and/or verbally through video conferencing, please send an email to the Office, specifying your wishes prior to the beginning of Term 2. Please note that, should you not consent to recording both visually and verbally, it will effectively preclude your child from actively participating in the lesson.
I would like to assure you that staff in our school and across the broader Catholic Education, Canberra and Goulburn community are working extremely hard to ensure that we continue to provide a welcoming and inclusive learning environment for all our students. Thank you for your continued support and please know that my staff and I remain available to discuss any concerns you may have in relation to your child’s education.
Key information which sets out the guidelines and expectations for Remote Learning at JPC is available to download here.
We are looking forward to engaging with all students next week. Keep safe and keep well.
Stephanie O'Meara
Principal (Acting)