Return to school transition plan

Good afternoon parents and carers,

This morning the Premier conducted a press conference in which she announced a transition plan for students to return to school. I have outlined a brief summary of the announcements made and have also attached a support document for families that has been provided by the Department of Education.

• Weeks 1 and 2 continue as previously planned with the addition of Tues 28^th April as an additional staff development day. Monday and Tuesday of week one are exclusively staff development days. Student supervision will not be in place on these days.
• From May 11 every student will have the opportunity to start attending one day a week, aiming at around of 25% of students in attendance on any given day. Some schools may return students by house groups, alphabetically or by year group. Once a plan is developed at Armidale Secondary College it will be communicated to parents.
• Parents should continue to keep their children home except for their ‘rostered day’.  The Premier has asked parents to ‘respect the guidelines’ that will be established by the local school, but no child is to be turned away.
• Regardless of whether students are at school or at home, teachers will still only be required to prepare and deliver a single unit of work for each class. Vulnerable staff will continue to be encouraged to work from home.
• Additional sanitizers/soap and extra cleaning will be provided.
• Teachers are now identified as a priority for testing.
• Further advice on reporting will come hopefully this week, however, it is unlikely that A-E reports will be appropriate this semester.

At this stage we are relatively clear on what the transition plan aims to achieve but we will need some time to consider the how of executing such a plan. I know that you will have many questions about how this ‘rostered’ system of learning will work and whilst we don’t have all the answers yet, I do want to assure you that will continue to do our very best to come up with the best possible solutions to support our students. I can’t thank you enough for your continuing patience and support of all of the staff at Armidale Secondary College during these challenging times.

Yours sincerely,

Carolyn Lasker 

Principal

Attached: Managed return to school transition plan