Robert Townson High School

I am a Safe, Respectful Learner

Telephone02 9824 7777

Emailroberttown-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Return to School Phase 1 Covid-19 Update

01 May 2020

An accessible version of this announcement can be downloaded here

COVID-19 UPDATE: PHASE 1 RETURN TO SCHOOL

Dear Parents, Carers and Students,

I hope that during the past three weeks you have been able to share some memorable moments with your family.

There has been a lot of information throughout many media sources the past few days on what Term 2 will look like and what it will mean for families, students and staff.

I am hoping that I can shed some light and put your mind at ease. I am trusting the following information will help.

From 29/4/2020 – 8/5/2020 (first two weeks of Term 2) parents are requested to keep their children at home unless they are essential workers and require supervision for their child. During this time the school will follow the same processes and procedures that were in place at the end of Term 1. That is minimal supervision of students of essential workers, working independently. The school will continue with one form of teaching delivery via distance education where all student work will be accessed via their Google Classrooms.

From Monday 11 May, 2020 students will be allocated one day a week for attendance at school and receive face to face support from staff. If it is not your child’s day for attendance, it has been requested that your child remains at home.

Schools have had flexibility with the organisation of this, however the following model is what Robert Townson High School will be following for a period of time, from Week 3. These decisions have been made for the following reasons:

An emphasis placed on allowing Year 12 maximum time to reconnect with their teachers and continue working towards their HSC, in particular, practical subjects.
Family groupings in Years 7-10 are organised into alphabetical groups so minimal disruption is placed upon families bringing children to school for one day only a week.
This model will allow greater control over ensuring class sizes ten and under, plus allow for adequate social distancing.

Essentially, Year 11 and 12 will attend Mondays, Surnames A-D on Tuesdays, Surnames E-M on Wednesdays, Surnames N-Z on Thursdays and Year 12 students who study practical subjects will be able to book appointments with their teachers all day Fridays. In addition to this, Year 12 will also be able to book appointments with any teacher on Monday and Tuesday afternoons.

Refer to accessible version found at the top of this page

The following information will also assist the smooth transition of this new model of learning:

One unit of work

The work being completed when students attend school will still be the one mode of delivery. This is the concept that the Department of Education refer to as “one unit of work”. What this means is that whether your child is learning from home or learning on site, they will be learning the same content and in the same manner, which is largely online.

Can my child come to school on other days?

The school continues to be open from Monday to Friday for the children of essential workers, just as it has been all year. If you are not an essential worker and you would like to send your child to school on other days, you are able to do this however in accordance with the advice from the NSW Government and the Department of Education, we strongly encourage you to have your child continue with their remote learning from home. Your support in doing this makes a difference in maintaining a healthy community. We are very grateful to all of our families for your flexibility and the arrangements you have put in place to make this happen.

Technology

On the day that your child attends school, we strongly encourage them to bring their own laptop or device if they have one. All work being set for completion on the day that students attend will be online and therefore they will need these devices. Please ensure devices are fully charged and meet the specifications required to access the department’s wifi requirements. The table below will assist to check these specifications:

Our technical support officer (TSO) Mr Tuckwell will be on site every day to assist students with any computer or internet issues. It would also be very beneficial for students to bring a set of earphones or ear buds as a number of online lessons include tutorials and video.

Busses

Normal busses will continue to run every day. Please note that while we encourage students to socially distance when waiting for and boarding busses, we cannot ensure this takes place once busses leave the school. Public transport is largely exempt from social distancing regulations and school bus transport is included in this. Please discuss your personal expectations with your children if they are travelling by bus.

Canteen

Our school canteen will not be operational for the foreseeable future which means that children will be required to bring food and drinks to school. Please be considerate of our students with allergies when purchasing/preparing this food. As always, we encourage healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle and take-away food will not be permitted onsite.

What if I do not want my child to attend school?

If parents have concerns about returning their children to school from week 3, they are asked to make contact with the Principal or Deputy Principals.

Completion of work

We are pleased that the vast majority of our students are completing their online learning from home and regularly communicating with their teachers. Our staff regularly provide feedback on this learning and have been very pleased with the efforts of many of our students.

Unfortunately, a small number of our students have not adequately engaged in their learning. Our Learning and Wellbeing team will continue to contact families to attempt to overcome any barriers that families may face. Many laptops and paper learning packages have been loaned by families and we will continue this practice to support our community. I have asked all teachers to now start sending out N Warning letters for students in Years 10-12 who have not engaged in learning as these students are still required to adhere to NESA requirements for the award of either the HSC or RoSA. In addition, the Department requires all schools to monitor ‘attendance’ or engagement in learning. Students who are accessing their work and communicating with teachers are marked daily as “F” on rolls (flexible). For those where no contact has been made and no attempt to complete any work has been done, they will be marked daily as “A” (absent).

Parents and Carers

When your child attends their scheduled day at school, it is expected that they are in full school uniform as they follow their normal timetable to access the daily work their teacher has prepared for them. As always, if your child is unwell, please do not send them to school.

I would like to remind all parents about the Department’s dedicated webpage for parents and carers. This is a great space with the latest advice, current news and resources that you can use to support your child as they learn from home. The link for this page is:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/covid-19

My apologies for the length of this correspondence but as you can imagine, things change very rapidly and our organisation has had to be very swift, taking into consideration all families and situations.

I look forward to the time when we can have all students and staff onsite and our lives return to somewhat ‘normal’. I again thank our RTHS community for the support they have shown our school is these very challenging times. Please do not hesitate to contact the school on (02)9824 7777 should you require any further information regarding our organisation from Week 3.

Kind Regards,

Leah McKeown

Relieving Principal