Dear Parents

As per yesterday’s announcement by the Victorian Government we will continue to operate in remote learning next week.  Thanks to all families for your cooperation. 

I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of the staff for the effort they are putting into remote learning.  We have received a significant amount of positive feedback about how much the children are enjoying the staff being available for the Google Meets.  Our intention is to continue to try and offer the students the best possible learning opportunities that we can whilst they cannot be onsite.

We are aware that there was a slight glitch with the Specialist login’s yesterday.  We apologise for this inconvenience for a few families, it was rectified as quickly as we could and we had over 300 students accessing the Specialists classes.  Parents need to be aware that the reason we had to change the logins for the Specialists was because some students had been inappropriately accessing the space on Tuesday (before they were meant to), and were in fact in the Google space without an adult.  As soon as we became aware of this on Tuesday we closed that link down for child safety and created new links that opened on the Wednesday morning.  Our policy at St Pat’s is that we have two adults in the Google Meets at all times.

Please see the letter attached to this newsletter outlining our remote learning procedures for students for tomorrow and next week.

The following procedures are in place for families;

• Remote Learning continues for tomorrow and next week. The school will be closed. Supervision can be provided for the very few children of essential workers or those that are vulnerable. The students will be completing the exact same work onsite that they would be doing at home. The attendance form that was sent out yesterday (and is also available on PAM) needs to be returned by 5.00pm this afternoon. This form also covers next week.  As we are running a skeleton staff any applications after 5.00pm cannot be considered.  The students onsite must wear full school uniform, bring snack and lunch and their own drink bottle.  They will be supervised by a staff member in the B Block who most likely will not be their classroom teacher.  Please use the Church car line for drop off and pick up.  All other gates will be closed.
• Please see accompanying letter for learning details.
• Camp Australia will operate only for the students of authorised workers or those identified as vulnerable.
• If your child is sick and not learning remotely on any day you will need to contact the School Office as we will be keeping a roll.
• The Office will be physically closed. All communication must be via email office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au or phone 5943-9000.
• Please communicate with teachers via phone or email.
• If you require ICT support from the school please email ict@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au
• All camps and excursions have been postponed until further notice.

Further information will be communicated to you as we become aware.   Thank-you for your support and cooperation.

Sacraments

The Parish are waiting on restrictions to ease before they plan the new Eucharist dates.  Parents will be informed as soon as possible.

Term Three School Closure Day

Please note that the Term Three School Closure Day is Monday the 12^th of July which is the first day of Term Three.  Staff will be participating in a Learning Adjustment Day with Trinity and Don Bosco Primary Schools.

Important Dates for Your Diary

• Friday 28^th May – Grade 4 Excursion POSTPONED (new date Wednesday 23^rd of June).
• Monday 31^st May – Grade 2 Swimming Commences POSTPONED (new dates to be confirmed).
• Thursday 10^th / Friday 11^th June – Grade 3 Camp POSTPONED (new dates to be confirmed).
• Monday 14^th June – Queens Birthday. No school.
• Friday 25^th June – Term Two concludes / Reports distributed.  
• Monday 12^th July – School Closure Day (staff attending Learning Adjustment PD at Trinity PS).

Regards,

Simon

Are You Accessing the Parent Access Module (PAM)?

Over the last six months as a staff we have completed the background work to move onto the SIMON Management System for St Pat’s.  The benefit of this system is eventually we will be able to house all of our student information, assessment data, reporting data and staff information all within the one system. 

A major component in deciding to move to SIMON was also our intent to be able to streamline our mode of communication to parents.  Eventually all communication will come to families through an app called ‘SIMON Everywhere’ which will be a parent one stop shop for all school communication.  However, to get to this point we first need all families to be on PAM.  If you are not yet on PAM you need to search for an email from noreply@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au (please check your junk and spam folders), which contains a link to set up a password, or contact the School Office for assistance or click on the following link to access PAM.  Use your email as the user name and choose 'forget password' to recieve a link to create a password.  

Link to PAM 

Please make the effort to join PAM so we can get to our goal of using the efficient SIMON Everywhere App for communication.  I thank you for your cooperation here.  Please call the Office if you have any further questions.