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Dear parents and carers

On behalf of our school, I want to say a big thank you to all our students, parents and carers for your continued resilience and support. I know remote and flexible learning has not always been easy, but through our collective efforts, our students have continued to make valuable progress in their learning. You can be confident that our school will support any student who has fallen behind to catch up.

Term 4 is important for every Victorian student, and our teachers will strive to deliver high-quality learning for everyone. Whether we’re teaching remotely or face-to-face, our focus for Term 4 is on making sure that every student is supported in their wellbeing, learning and transition needs.

The Victorian Government has outlined the staged return to on-site schooling as part of its gradual roadmap towards reopening.

Term 4 on-site schooling arrangements for students

Subject to the advice of the Victorian Chief Health Officer, the Victorian Government has released a staged approach for students to return to on-site schooling.

The purpose of the plan is to get students back in the classroom as soon and as safely as possible without putting at risk all that has been achieved through the period of restrictions to reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).

To achieve both these aims, the return to onsite learning needs to be staged, just as the easing of all other restrictions is staged.

There are two reasons for this:

  • The first is that in metropolitan Melbourne, health authorities need to monitor the impact of students and parents beginning to move across the city again before schools move to a full return. Having one million students return to school all at once could compromise the ability to monitor this impact.
  • The second reason is that VCE students must return in week one of Term 4 and must be able to complete the three-hour General Achievement Test (GAT) that week. In order to ensure the focus is on these students and the appropriate safety measures are in place, this means no other students can be on-site on our secondary or P-12 campuses the week before the GAT.

This is the best way to ensure the ongoing safety of the whole community.

For our school, the following arrangements apply:

From Monday 5 October:

  • VCE and VCAL students can attend on-site for the GAT and essential assessments.  The Timetables have been distributed to students and can be found on the Class of 2020 Teams Page.  All subject lessons will be delivered remotely as per the timetable which operated in term 3
  • students enrolled in Years 10 & 11 will continue to learn remotely from home. They will complete an on line practice GAT from home on Wednesday

From Monday 12 October:

  • all school students, including Year 10 and VCE and VCAL students will return to on-site learning and resume the normal school timetable from 8.55 Specific arrangements about entry points and requirements will be sent out next week.

Students and staff who live in metropolitan Melbourne and are enrolled in or work in our Seymour Flexible Learning Centre  site will be able to attend on-site consistent with the arrangements above.

Health and safety measures
As on-site schooling resumes, we will continue to have in place strong measures to protect the health and safety of students, staff, families and the community. This includes restricting parent access to school grounds and continued emphasis on hand hygiene and physical distancing where possible.

Whether your child is, or children are, returning to face-to-face learning or will be continuing with remote and flexible learning, please be assured we will be focused on three key priorities in Term 4:

Mental health and wellbeing
Our highest priority will be the wellbeing, particularly the mental health, of every student and member of staff. This means effectively mobilising all available resources to support our most vulnerable students and enabling staff to access the relevant support services.

Learning and excellence
Some of our students have thrived in the remote and flexible learning environment, others have maintained their learning progress, and some have fallen behind, despite their best efforts and those of their families and teachers. Our priority will be supporting both those who need it to catch up and those who have progressed to continue to extend their learning.

Transitions
We will make every effort to ensure successful transitions for students moving from Year 9 into Year 10 and  the Year 12s moving into employment or further education and training.

Our school, working with you, has shown it can be flexible and adaptable in responding to the challenges of coronavirus (COVID-19) and will continue to meet student needs as we look towards the end of the 2020 school year and ahead to 2021.

Vern Hilditch
Principal

Wodonga Senior Secondary College &
North East Flexible Learning Centres

 

 

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