-
Clean up Australia Day
■ 2020 ■ Term 1 ■ Week 11 ■ Principal: Owen Gill
■ Phone: (02) 6924 5227 Educating, Enriching and Empowering
Students
■ Fax: (02) 6924 5224 Eurongilly Public School
■ Email: [email protected] Eurongilly Road
■ Website: eurongilly-p.schools.nsw.gov.au Eurongilly NSW
2663
-
Eurongilly Public School ■ Principal: Owen Gill Educating,
Enriching and Empowering Students
■ Phone: (02) 6924 5227
■ Fax: (02) 6924 5224 Eurongilly Public School
■ Email: [email protected] Eurongilly Road
■ Website: https://eurongilly-p.schools.nsw.gov.au Eurongilly
NSW 2663
■ 2020 ■ Term 1 ■ Week 11 ■ Newsletter
Calendar Term 1, Week 11
Thurs 9 April Last day of Term 1
Term 2, Week 1
Sat 25 April ANZAC DAY
Mon 27 April Staff development day
Tues 28 April Student learning resumes
In this issue... A message from Mr Gill
..............................................................
3
Term 1 review and thank you
.............................................. 3
COVID-19 update & Term 2 planning
............................. 3
New teaching and learning format
................................... 3
Three-way family conferences
............................................ 4
Clean up Australia Day
........................................................... 4
New student
...............................................................................
5
Staffing
updates........................................................................
5
School Community Communication ................................
5
P&C News
........................................................................................
5
Peg fundraiser
...........................................................................
5
Feature Photo
EPS students helping keep our community tidy and clean
-
Eurongilly Public School
Educating, Enriching and Empowering Students Page 3
A message from Mr Gill
Term 1 review and thank you
This week marks the end of what has turned out to be a
hugely exhausting, highly successful and historically
unique term for our students at Eurongilly Public School.
We hit full stride in the first few weeks, completing our
intensive swimming lessons before winning the Black
Billy Cup small school swimming championship.
Throughout the term, students really focused in on new
learning routines, with an intent focus on improving
individual learning goals identified through ongoing
assessment and three way conversations between
students, parents and teachers. And then we were hit
with the impact of the COVID-19 world pandemic. Our
students, parents and staff have had to instantly adjust
to a new way of schooling, ‘home learning.’
I would like to thank and congratulate every individual
one of our 26 students, who have risen to every learning
challenge that the year has brought so far. I couldn’t be
prouder of a group, a class, a school of students that I
have the privilege of teaching and leading each day.
Boys and girls, you have definitely earnt the next two
weeks of holidays. Unfortunately, they may not be the
Easter holidays we traditionally know, but I’m confident
you and your families will make the most of what you
have and appreciate some quality family time without
worrying about completing daily learning tasks.
Parents, I am so grateful for the families that make up
our small school community. The way you have
responded in the last few weeks, in support of your
children’s learning and wellbeing as well as in the best
interest of our staff, our school and our broader
community, has been extraordinary! The parents are
certainly the ones who have drawn the short straw in our
current expectations of home learning. I say this from
personal experience of juggling a home learning
parenting role with normal day to day work and home
routines and never seemingly getting some down time.
One of the real positives for me in the last couple of
weeks, is getting the chance to learn more about the
incredible parents you each are and getting to witness
learning that parents are having, particularly around
technology. I’m also so grateful for your upfront and
informative feedback, helping us adjust the learning
expectations at home to make this all possible. I really
look forward to continuing this learning journey
together, thank you again!
COVID-19 update & Term 2 planning
I believe many of us are still coming to terms with the
reality that we are amidst a world health pandemic, even
with the direct impact it is having on our daily lives.
From a NSW public schools perspective, Eurongilly
Public School remains open and operational during the
originally planned 2020 school term dates. The message
is and will seemingly remain into term 2 that students
should remain at home and complete learning from
home when possible. The school remains available for
students of parents who are essential workers and have
no other viable option of care for their children.
Teaching staff are maintaining regular communication
with all families. Planning is under way for home
learning to resume from Tuesday 28 April. Any
adjustments to this message will be provided to families
from Monday 27 April, which remains a Staff
Development Day.
New teaching and learning format
Responding to the current world health pandemic has
required a significant adjustment to the way teaching
and learning programs are provided to students across
our state, country and the world. Principals, teachers
and school staff have had to quickly adjust to viable
measures of providing educational services. Our schools
journey has included a massive shift to online learning,
with initial family surveying indicating adequate
technological capacity across our whole school
community. To support some families, we have
provided school laptop devices, whilst we have
provisioned printing hard copies of learning materials
for families without printers and scanners. We have
moved fluently to providing resources via email, See
Saw application and Google Classrooms. Parents have
supervised their children completing set tasks from
home, whilst at times needing to provide explicit
instruction to help complete learning tasks, particularly
for our younger students. Teachers are now holding
video conferencing sessions with students weekly, with
the hope that this will increase. This allows students to
see and hear each other, with social interaction for
students, in the current time of social distancing, so
important. Video conferencing also allows teachers to
provide instant instruction and feedback to students. As
a whole, we have come so far, yet we know we have a
long way to go. It has been a massive learning curve for
everyone involved. I have already thanked the parents
and would like to take the opportunity at this point to
formally thank the whole staffing community that
supports Eurongilly PS. A particular big thank you to Mrs
Makeham, Mrs Harris and Mrs Scott for your
-
Eurongilly Public School
Educating, Enriching and Empowering Students Page 4
professionalism and dedication towards overcoming
the challenges we are facing daily in this new world.
Three-way family conferences
Throughout weeks 5-8, teachers were able to meet with
all students and families. This was a valuable
opportunity to sit down and discuss progress of student
learning and set literacy and numeracy learning goals
for each individual student. I also used the opportunity,
as principal, to gather some feedback from parents
about current school practices and future school
directions. I’d like to thank all families for committing to
this important process for your children’s learning. It
was particularly pleasing to have a more even
representation of both mums and dads participate.
Clean up Australia Day
One of our last whole school events, before our sudden
departure from normal day to day school life, was our
annual Clean up Australia Day. This year, students and
staff headed in a northerly direction along Eurongilly
Road. The roadside was initially quite tidy but the group
ended up with many large bags full of rubbish! Well
done to all our students’ positive commitment to
keeping our community tidy, let’s continue to advocate
the message not to be a tosser, locally or anywhere else!
-
Eurongilly Public School
Educating, Enriching and Empowering Students Page 5
New student
In the last few weeks, we have welcomed Mackenzie
Martin and her mum Vanessa, to our school community.
Mackenzie was lucky enough to attend our Black Billy
Cup swimming carnival and a couple of other transition
days to get to know her K-2 classmates before officially
becoming a student in the last couple of weeks. She has
told me she is very excited for school to return to normal
so she can do lots of playing and learning with her new
friends.
Staffing updates
We would like to officially congratulate Mrs Rachel
Harris (previously known as Miss Guttler) and Mr Rob
Harris on their beautiful wedding ceremony and
celebrations on Saturday 14 March! We hear the day
went magnificently and the bride looked absolutely
stunning! Congratulations Mrs Harris, we are all so very
happy and excited for you and your future with Rob!
Under normal school operations, we would be excited
to announce an increase in teaching and administration
time for the remainder of the 2020 school year. Our
enrolment numbers of 26 will now allow Mrs Makeham’s
whole position and Mrs Harris (nee Miss Guttler) one
day a week fully covered, whilst Mrs Scott’s extra
administration day on a Tuesday is also now fully
covered without additional funds coming out of school
operations funding. On top of this, an additional 2
teaching days, the teacher has yet to be recruited, can
now also be planned and resourced. The school will now
look towards recruiting a suitable applicant for the
teaching position and have them support with home
learning until school operations return to normal.
School Community Communication
The school has decided to cancel its subscription of the
SkoolBag App. Feedback suggests communication
requirements within our particular community context is
covered thoroughly with the use of document
distribution, phone calls, emailing and the See Saw
application. To add to this, school staff are investigating
Class Dojo as a means of family communication and the
school is purchasing a new mobile phone. Once set up,
the mobile phone will allow for instant messaging to
whole groups and individual families. We will no longer
use the SkoolBag app to distribute communication.
Families who have used SkoolBag app to notify of
student absences, are now asked to provide reasons for
student absence via text messaging (school mobile
phone number will be provided), email or See Saw
messaging.
Finally, I wish you all a safe and enjoyable family Easter.
Stay safe!
Owen
P&C News
Peg fundraiser
Our Peg fundraiser has now finished and was a great
success. We will finalise the amount raised and let you
know of the outcome in due course. Thank you to
everyone who supported this by either making a
purchase or selling the pegs to family and friends.
We hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable Easter
break and we look forward to hopefully seeing you all
in Term 2.
-
Eurongilly Public School
Educating, Enriching and Empowering Students Page 6
