23 Mar 2020
Good afternoon parents/carers,
I wanted to communicate the latest developments to you as soon as possible. This afternoon Mark Scott, Secretary of The Department of Education hosted a webinar for all NSW Public School Principals to provide clarification around the Premier’s announcements this morning.
The key message that was conveyed was that schools will remain open for the remainder of the term; however, their operation will be one of providing a service to students whose parents are deemed to be essential service providers. This communication will be emphasised regularly via the Department.
The Premier used the terminology of ‘One Unit of Work’ this morning and this has been clarified somewhat this afternoon. It relates to the need for teachers to prepare a single body of work for students at home and at school. It was stressed that we don’t envisage regular teaching to continue at school, but we will be providing preparation and supervision of learning, but not explicit instruction. This aims to ensure that all learners are on a level playing field as far as possible.
The school will be working to develop learning materials that have the flexibility to be provided in an online environment, saved to a memory stick or created as a hardcopy. Continuity of learning will be a major challenge and the Department will be working to assist schools to achieve this.
School canteens will NOT be operational, bus routes will be maintained despite a predicted decline in student numbers and school counselling services will also be maintained. The board of NESA will meet tomorrow and we hope to have some clarification around the 2020 HSC. We anticipate that some of our HSC students may need to access the school before the end of term to maintain major works or collect materials from teachers etc. we are very keen to support this.
I will be meeting with my executive staff this afternoon to execute a plan of support and school operational guidelines. Once again, we are so very fortunate to have such a dedicated team of staff at Armidale Secondary College and an amazing school community who have been so supportive during such uncertain times. I thank you in advance for your patience and understanding as we work our way through the significant challenges that are presented on a daily basis.
Yours sincerely
Carolyn Lasker
(Principal)