Newsletter
ST GEORGE’S ANGLICAN GRAMMAR SCHOOL
Edition Five 03 April 2020
Contents From the Principal ......................................................................................................... 1 From the Head of Curriculum ................................................................................... 3 From the Head of Pastoral .......................................................................................... 7 From the Head of Music .............................................................................................. 9 From the Chaplain ........................................................................................................ 10 From IT Department .................................................................................................... 11 School News .................................................................................................................. 12
St George’s Anglican Grammar School; an exciting, innovative co-educational secondary school based in a high-rise building in the Perth CBD. The School caters for local and international students in Years 7-12, and is a proud member of the Anglican Schools Commission network of schools in Western Australia. We are committed to child safety and protection, and expect all staff, volunteers, visitors to the School and contractors to respect and abide by all policies, procedures and practices developed and put in place by the Anglican Schools Commission (ASC) and/or the School in this regard.
From the Principal Mr Gary Racey
It is hard to believe that I am writing this newsletter remotely, whilst our school is running our academic and pastoral program completely via an online platform. A rare time indeed, or is it? Incredibly, I recently read a letter from a Headmaster dated August 9, 1937, communicating with his community about the school being closed since July 26 due to Infantile Paralysis. The similarities of their response to continue the children’s education at that time and those we are currently implementing, aside from the obvious technology differences, are quite incredible.
explained to them, the parameters and rules of the ‘game’ may have changed, but it is still a level playing field in terms of being ranked against all other Year 12’s across the State. Our school is well placed to continue their education seamlessly, so suddenly we have the advantage!
Outside of education, I am seeing families spending more time together. I see my family drawing, playing board games, setting up physical challenges, reading, chatting and spending quality time together. Now, isn’t that a blessing! So, as we spend increased time with our immediate families as many of you will be working from home, embrace the opportunity. Our children grow up swiftly and before you know it they will be looking to move out and start their own lives as an adult. Don’t take the additional time for As I have been reflecting on recent events, my granted and use the time to reconnect. Let’s mind turns to what educational positives may aim to be glass half full and make the best of a come from this unprecedented event. Seems challenging situation. a bit odd to think of this I suppose at a time when the negatives are at the forefront of In times such as these you see the best and everyone’s minds, but where there are worst of society. From the extremes of challenges there are possibilities. I am panic buying and unbridled selfishness, to the already seeing incredible professional growth care and consideration for the elderly. I think in teachers who may have been reticent to society as a whole will learn some valuable move forward with technology out of lack of lessons from this experience and all levels of confidence or sticking with routines that have business may well evolve and change their been in place for many, many years. Suddenly, processes to enhance the service they our profession is being thrust into the virtual provide. The world may never be the same, world that our children are so comfortable but that may not be a bad thing. with and thrive within. They are leading us, which is amazing! Whilst I have attempted to focus on some positive thoughts in this article, it is noted the I recently chatted to some Year 12 students fear and sadness that the current health crisis and shared my thoughts via SEQTA with will cause many of our family and friends. I them surrounding the changing landscape pray for you and yours to stay healthy and and the associated stress that it may produce well. Look after each other. for them in their final year of school. As I 1
St George’s Anglican Grammar School Newsletter
Holy Week - Easter As this is the final newsletter of the term, I wish all of our families a blessed and safe Easter and holiday break. As we move towards Holy Week and Easter, as a Christian community, we focus on God’s love for us and the powerful message of sacrifice and love shown to us in Our Lord’s Passion and Death. We too are reborn with Christ on Easter morning and take a renewed spirit forward with us each day. Sadly, there will not be any Easter ceremonies in your local area this year, but I hope you can still participate at home in some way and can enjoy some restful time together with your family, sharing joyful and precious moments.
St George’s phone lines will continue to be attended to during office hours but the ability to transfer calls to those staff offsite will be compromised. Families are encouraged to use the info@stgeorges.wa.edu.au email address to request a call back. This email address will be monitored during office hours.
For all other queries please contact the class teacher or PCG tutor in the first instance. See the following list for line managers who you may be required to communicate with if your query is not addressed after initial discussions. You are asked to only contact the Head of Curriculum or Head of Pastoral should all other avenues with Heads of Learning and Heads of House be exhausted:
Mobile Phone Policy Due to the move to online teaching and learning, the implementation of the new Mobile Phone Policy will be on hold until students return back to being on-campus. Parents/Guardians are still requested to carefully review the Policy as found on the SEQTA portal and provided in a recent communication home.
Building Access: Communications Parents/Guardians are asked to note that as no family requires the supervision of their child/ren at St Georges AGS, all academic staff have been deployed to work remotely. Therefore, please do not attend the School until further notice.
Blessings
Gary Racey Principal
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From the Head of Curriculum Ms Victoria Kelleher
All your child has ever done is go to school in a classroom, and Online Teaching and Learning must seem very different to them. As parents, you must be wondering how will they survive the experience? You might even be wondering how will you survive the experience?
What is Online Teaching and Learning? Online Teaching and Learning looks slightly different to classroom teaching and learning in that the teacher’s direct instruction, assignments and communications are delivered via online learning platforms. Our staff continue to target the full range of skills, knowledge and understanding required for our curriculum, albeit through an online platform. While Online Learning cannot replicate onsite learning, our school can continue to deliver powerful instruction that allows our students to meet the expected standards in an online environment.
St George’s teaching staff have created a comprehensive Online Teaching and Learning Program for your child/ren to support them through this transition, ensuring their learning is not compromised and your child/ren continue to meet our expectations and outcomes. The following FAQs will offer you some guidance as you navigate this transition.
All classroom teachers are delivering lessons through SEQTA and Microsoft Teams (Teams).Your child/ren can participate in each lesson by logging on to Teams in each timetabled lesson. Each lesson will continue to run according to your child/ren’s school timetable which can be accessed via SEQTA. Teachers’ usual planning and program delivery will continue, as usual, and following online platforms will support our staff to ensuring quality student learning experiences when planning and delivering remotely: Outlook and Direct Messaging are the communication tools used to contact and communicate with St George’s families, 7 – 12 SEQTA is the learning management system used in the School Microsoft Office 365 is the online learning platform used in the School as collaboration platforms for online learning.
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St George’s Anglican Grammar School Newsletter
What if our internet connection is not good? Students with poor internet, may not be able to access the Teams lesson during the scheduled timetabled lesson. They may need to access the work, through SEQTA or Teams later. Teaching staff will only post PDF or Office 365 documents for students, as they are universal and easy to convert. Teachers will require all submissions to take place through SEQTA or as a shared document on Teams. The primary communication functions between students and staff will be through SEQTA or through the Teams Chat function which requires low-speed internet. If you have concerns on whether your child/ren will be without internet connection for a prolonged period, please contact the Head of Curriculum,Victoria Kelleher (vkelleher@stgeorges.wa.edu.au) to discuss alternative arrangements. Students can continue to access IT for support and instructions will be provided if they experience technical issues. Can my child/ren communicate with their teacher during a scheduled lesson? Your child/ren has access to Direct Message on SEQTA to email their teachers. There is also a Teams Chat function in each of the timetabled lessons. This function enables students to post questions in a Chat format. During scheduled timetabled classes, teachers will be online through SEQTA and Teams. What are the recommended guidelines for my child/ren with Online Learning? Feedback: Teachers will provide students with regular
feedback to support their learning; this is especially so in online learning environments. It is important that students understand and follow through on this feedback and make changes where necessary. Students should ask questions and seek clarification specific to learning targets, task requirements, and/or deadlines. Active monitoring of email (SEQTA DM and Outlook) for communications from teachers Offline Work: Teachers will avoid work that requires printing. Tasks must be completed on a device or uploaded. Where relevant, students can take screen shots of their completed work and upload through SEQTA or Teams. Work Time: Students should strictly follow their normal timetable. Students will continue with assignments during online learning. These may take a different format; however, the skill and the content knowledge will remain the focus of the assignment. Deadlines: Students will be given ample time to complete assignments. More time than would usually be provided in class. Will a record of attendance be kept? At the beginning of each lesson, your child/ren’s teacher will notify students that they are ready to begin the lesson. The teacher will seek a reply from each student in the class to confirm that they are also present. This may happen through a video call through Teams or through the Chat Function. The attendance will then be recorded on SEQTA. Parents will be
contacted if their child/ren has not attended an online class. Students who miss a lesson, will be able to access the work though SEQTA. The normal standards of behaviour are expected of students during online teaching and learning. Students are expected to be in School sports uniforms during all scheduled classes. How can I best support my child/ren with Online Teaching and Learning? As parents, you can provide support for your child/ren’s online learning in the following ways: Where possible, provide a dedicated workspace where your child/ren can focus on their learning. Limit distractions during their scheduled lesson time. These distractions might include phones, noise or working near a television. Encourage your child/ren to maintain structure in their day. This structure will be supported by the continuation of lessons during normal school hours. Teachers will take attendance in every online lesson. Engage in a discussion around their learning every day. As teenagers, they may not want to discuss their learning or their day, all you might be able to do is ask! Where can my child/ren find the resources needed for online lessons? Students can access resources provided to them by their teacher through SEQTA or Teams. Teachers will use the Daily Planner on SEQTA to provide the details for each lesson. These will be uploaded by 8:30 am each day.
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Will my child/ren be online all day? Students will follow their normal timetable. Your child/ren is required to check in with their teacher during each lesson, so that accurate attendance can be taken. Students will follow normal recess and lunchtime. Will assessments proceed as planned? Teachers will adjust most assessments to tasks that can be completed online. Your child/ren will be provided with the assessment, a given time limit, and submit their work via SEQTA. Assessment dates will be provided, as per usual, on SEQTA. How will I know that my child/ren is meeting expectations and outcomes? Teachers will keep track of the attendance and performance of all students. Teachers have set up marks books to support the continuation of your child/ren’s learning. Both formative and summative assessments will be recorded on SEQTA, which will also be accessible by parents. In the instance of a student failing to meet expectations or outcomes, teachers will contact parents directly as they normally would to discuss. If a teacher notices a pattern of missed deadlines, they will notify the Head of Learning Area as per regular practice. The School will treat incomplete attendance and incomplete work as normal and will follow the school’s guidelines around non-submission of work. How is the School monitoring student workload? How our students will manage the transition to online learning and their workload, has been a key focus of our teachers during this time. We will continue to monitor the amount of work assigned to students and Heads of Learning Areas will St George’s Anglican Grammar School Newsletter
work with their teams to ensure consistency across learning areas. Parent/Teacher Interviews Thank you to all parents who took time to speak with our academic staff on Wednesday 1 April. As a community, we truly appreciate your flexibility in conducting these meetings over the phone rather than face-to-face. We hope you found them as beneficial as we have.
Victoria Kelleher Curriculum Coordinator
From the Head of Pastoral Mr Hilton Hardman
At the onset of a crisis, anxiety levels can be high due to uncertainty about the future – this is a normal reaction. Part of this uncertainty relates to the current academic year of our students. While this may cause concern and worry for our school community, it is essential to remember that we are all in this together and our focus as a school will remain on providing Pastoral and Academic support during this time.
We have created the Online Pastoral Plan that can be located on SEQTA under Parent Portal Page, COVID-19 Information. This document will provide information on our Online Pastoral framework, Tips for students, managing your mental health at home and support information for both students and parents. We will be creating TedTalk video’s for students, conducting online interviews with Guest speakers on some of the difficulties students could be facing and providing weekly challenges for our students. Our dedicated PCG Tutors will be in contact with their students each week with check in’s on how they are finding things. Pastoral care has been and will remain a key focus at St George’s Anglican Grammar School.
With St George’s move to work remotely, we have been considering how pastoral and wellbeing support will be maintained. The Pastoral team have investigated ways to continue the care provided through the regular check-ups on our students that are usually and routinely conducted by our PCG tutors, Heads of House, School Chaplain and Head of Pastoral.
National Day of Action against Bullying During week eight, our students celebrated National Day of Action against Bullying. The day itself was cancelled by the organisers due to the health concern, but we look to promote awareness around this vital topic within our pastoral session. This allowed us to maintain small numbers and single year groups.
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Each Year group was given age-appropriate resource, which consisted of an introduction video, lesson on a topic relating to bullying and an activity. The school was decorated with posters, slogans and our Year 12 students sent our Year 7 students words of encouragement over direct message. As a school, we take a stand together against bullying.
Hilton Hardman Head of Pastoral
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St George’s Anglican Grammar School Newsletter
From the Music Department Mr Michael Newton
In The Music Department Over the last week we have been transitioning all our instrumental lessons to online learning. Barring a couple of technical issues the transition has been very smooth, and we thank you for your patience. As a reminder, our tutors will send a link to the lesson on Zoom each week through SEQTA Direct Message.
5. What’s your advice for anyone learning Music? Keep practicing so that you can get even better.
While we are in remote learning, playing music can play an important role in our lives. Playing music improves mood, reduces stress, lessons anxiety, and improves memory and cognition. We’ll be keeping our online music lessons as practical as possible, with the aim of helping our students to keep playing music while we’re in isolation. Muso Profile Tom Sweeney 1. What instrument(s) do you play? Alto saxophone, piano, ukulele 2. What first got you interested in Music? Watching Star Wars and wanting to play Cantina Band on the saxophone, which was the instrument I had to play with school.
Coming Up & Opportunities 21 May – Strike a Chord Chamber Music Competition (open to any group of 3-8 players - 1st prize $5000). More information at https://musicaviva.com.au/strikeachord/
3. What’s the best thing about Music at St. G’s? It’s given me a lot of opportunities to find out who I am as a person.
Michael Newton Head of Music
4. Why should other people do music? It’s a really useful skill to have in life and it is lots of fun. 9
From the Chaplain Ms Sarah Stapleton
Greetings from a very quiet 3rd Floor! I hope all who are at home are settling in and developing good routines for study, rest and recreation. Over the next few days I will be sending you a link to my (brand new) YouTube account where I will be posting Chapel service homilies, and other useful information (as well as some of my favourite silly vids of the moment – we have to keep laughing at all cost!). All content will be appropriate for general viewing and I encourage you to share the link with your guardians and parents so that they can see what is being posted (and what you are giggling at). If you would like to start your daily routine with guided prayer, the Epray app is available for free on tablets and phones. It provides daily Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and Prayer at the End of the Day (Compline) with all the readings and collect prayers as prescribed by the Australian Anglican Lectionary. I will be using the readings for Morning Prayer Monday in our Chapel service.
after your privacy, as well as that of the people you live with. If you would like to see your favourite Chaplain (and yes, that had better be me!) online at the Cathedral, we are broadcasting services all the way through Easter. Have a look online at perthcathedral.org, or on the Cathedral Facebook page - St George’s Cathedral. Well that is quite enough from me. Please remember that you have support and community just a direct message away, and although we are at a distance from each other, God is close by, through the difficult times as well as the celebrations. Prayers and blessings
Sarah Stapleton Chaplain
Please remember to keep yourselves and each other safe online. Although we are in unchartered territory, the same rules apply as usual for cyber safety. Have a chat with your parents and guardians about the house rules, and how to ensure you are looking 10
St George’s Anglican Grammar School Newsletter
From the IT Department Mr Jason Wakefield
I trust we are all coping with all of the changes, not just with the online learning platform but a whole new way of life!
As you should know by now, the school offers Office 365 (Word, Teams, OneDrive, etc.), Trend Micro, ClickView and Adobe Creative Cloud. Shortcuts available on the students’ SEQTA home page.
Sometimes the best way to learn is to be thrust into the deep end and swim!
Here is a list I have found of other free software now available:
I think our staff have done a fantastic job in getting trained up via online help or self-help. They are certainly taking their jobs seriously.
Remote IT Support Please note that I’m still here to help, albeit from the comfort of my own home. I am offering remote support via Teams or the Quick Assist app (Windows 10) for any student or staff with computer problems. As long as you’ve got the Internet connection and the computer is operational, I can remote in – with your permission, of course. Bear in mind I am but a one-man IT team and although I have been called “superman” at times, I can confirm I am not. Rest assured, I will do what I can to help your students and St George’s staff be as operational as possible through this time of isolation. Free Software Due to Remote Learning Many companies have come to the table by offering their software free for those affected by having to work/learn from home.
Adobe The school has applied for free licenses for all students and staff so feel free to use your school email address and password to gain access to all of Adobe Creative Cloud apps! https://www.adobe.com/au Khan Academy Online education platform with many free courses https://www.khanacademy.org/ Codecademy Learn how to code https://pro.codecademy.com/learn-from-home
Jason Wakefield Head of IT
School News Student Term Dates - 2020 Term 1 30 January - 9 April New Student Orientation 29 January Students Mid Term Break, Friday 28 February Term 2 30 April - 3 July Students Mid Term Break, Friday 29 May Term 3 27 July - 25 September New Student Orientation 24 July Students Mid Term Break, Friday 21 August Term 4 13 October - 9 December Enrolments The School Enrolment Policy requires one full term’s notice in writing prior to the withdrawal of a student from the School. Where such notice is not received, the School will charge an amount equal to the tuition fees for that current term. To avoid fees in lieu being charged, notice of a student’s withdrawal must be received by the School before the first day of the School Term preceding the Term of the student’s departure. If this does not occur, families will be charged the remainder of the current Term, plus an additional Terms fee in lieu. Upon withdrawal of a student from the School, all fees and charges incurred for that student are payable to the School in full within seven days of exit.
If the account has been paid in full and a refund is due, payment will be processed for the full refund due within seven days of exit. SEQTA The St George’s Anglican Grammar School SEQTA account is not assigned to a staff member and, therefore, is not monitored. Please contact the staff member directly to ensure prompt action to your message. Science Department Request
The Science Department is still after any plastic icecream containers that they could use in the laboratory. Any donations greatly appreciated.