Dear Parents and Students,

I have received further advice in relation to changes to the provision of learning for Term 2.
Below is the link to the Premier’s announcement.

https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/victorian-students-to-learn-from-home-as-vce-timelines-revised/

 

Key Principles for Term 2

  • Victorian schools will move to remote and flexible learning for Term 2.
  • Every student who can learn from home must learn from home, based on the advice of the Victorian Chief Health Officer.
  • Schools will remain open for children who need access due to vulnerability or parents cannot work from home
  • The Pupil free Day is April 14th – formal remote learning will commence on April 15th.
  • Any person who is medically vulnerable or lives with a medically vulnerable person should not come onto the school site.
  • Staff are permitted to come into school where they cannot complete necessary tasks at home
  • Any access to school needs to follow social distancing and health expectations

 

Students at School

All students will be learning from home, except for students in the following categories

Children on days when they are not able to be supervised at home and no other arrangements can be made.

This will be available for children of parents who cannot work from home, and vulnerable children, including:

  • children in out-of-home care
  • children deemed by Child Protection and/or Family Services to be at risk of harm
  • children identified by the school as vulnerable (including via referral from a family violence agency, homelessness or youth justice service or mental health or other health service and children with a disability).


Comment – Given the age of our students, I would expect students to work from home. If a parent believes there is a need for a student to attend school then they should contact the school office on April 14th.

Small Group Focus
Learning requirements that cannot be conducted via distance may be provided in a small group setting which meets the health and social distancing requirements. These include small groups of VCE and VCAL students who are permitted to attend school, with appropriate physical distancing and hygiene measures in place to meet operational needs.

Given the nature of our curriculum with significant applied learning programs, we will need to review this clause carefully. No small group sessions will be timetabled for week 1 and 2.

Parents and students will be informed once discussions are finalised about accessing small group sessions and how such sessions could be implemented safely for both teachers and students.

 

Implementation of Principles

On-site Operational requirements and provision

  • All teaching staff will have work ready for the first 2 weeks of Term 2 and uploaded to Compass
  • All Education Support staff have been allocated tasks to undertake in the first 2 weeks.
    This most relates to “checking in” on students. Students and /or parents should expect to be contacted by a staff member on a regular basis to ensure the on line learning is operating effectively and the student is coping in the new environment.
  • The Student Free Day of April 14thwill be planning day for teaching staff and checking in with students Day 1 by Education Support staff.
  • The College will be open each day with a limited staff. Only the Administration area will be open to the public.
  • When on-site, hand sanitizer will be available at the entry points to the college.
    Physical distancing will be implemented

 

Small Group Focus– If the College moves to implement small group teaching then this will be relayed to students and parents once the process has been finalized.

 

Access to devices and networks

  • The Victorian Government has made a clear commitment that students who need IT devices and access will be provided with support to enable learning from home.
  • Hallam Senior has lent out all available laptops to students and staff. Any student who requires further resource support needs to contact the IT support at Hallam.

Hallam Senior has requested that Department of Education provide further resource support for students and staff through their additional access to infrastructure and resource provision.

 

Further details about the processes for the first weeks will be communicated shortly.

 

Yours Sincerely

Mr. Greg McMahon

Principal