The shift to online learning over the last week or so has been a big learning curve for both students and staff.
One of the challenges we have faced is how to deliver our Pastoral Care and Girls Achieve Programs in an online environment. The main purposes of these programs is to foster the development and maintenance of connections between the students, between students and staff and between students and the College. The College staff are working to put processes and activities in place to ensure that your daughter remains connected.
On a normal day, Pastoral Care (PC) is the first lesson that your daughter attends; a place where she checks in for the day with her PC and engages with other students from her House. We feel that maintaining this connection is vital, so our PC teachers have developed class forums where this interaction can still occur, in a safe online space. Pastoral Care teachers have set up activities that promote conversation and interaction with each other. We strongly encourage all students to participate in these activities to help them maintain their sense of connection and belonging.
You may have noticed on your daughter’s timetable that on a Tuesday in Lesson 5 she has a Girls Achieve Program (GAP) class. Our focus this term in GAP in the Middle Years has been on developing connections. We will continue to facilitate developing a connection with the College and with each other through our online platforms. At the commencement of the GAP lesson students will be sent a direct message via SEQTA, with an activity to complete. Our first activity was launched during our GAP class last week. We hosted a ‘Guess the number of lollies in the container” competition. This activity was widely accessed by our students, who were very keen to participate. Congratulations goes to Alicia McMahon who had the closest estimate.
Please encourage your daughter to keep up to date with the activities available within our GAP time, to keep her engaged and connected with the College in a less formal and structured way.
Last week during our GAP time we also launched our 'At Home Boredom Busters' portal. This portal contains a wide range of fun and engaging activities that students can do at home. During the term, the portal will be maintained daily, so we are encouraging students to keep visiting the portal to see what activities we have added. We are thankful for the positive feedback we have had regarding the portal and are looking forward to the fun and exciting activities that will be posted next term.
Kim Thomas
Middle Years Coordinator
