Dear DBIS Early Years Families,
We are delighted to welcome you to the start of the new 2020-21 Early Years school year here at DBIS.
We are highly aware that the start of the school year will be very different from our usual start, and this is not the start we had hoped for. We have spent the Summer petitioning the Education Bureau (EDB) to allow children back into school, enable small group teaching both on and off-site and many other scenarios, but currently, this has been declined. We will continue to petition hard for the resumption of classes at the earliest opportunity and will keep you up to date with any developments.
As Stuart Bridge has already made you aware, we are not permitted to open classes for children from Thursday 13th August as planned, so we will now start the year with our online home learning programme.
Due to the different age, developmental stages and learning needs of our children within the Early Years phase, the home learning programme will differ slightly between year groups. Detailed information will be communicated closer to the start of term by Year Group Leaders.
All online learning will be accessible through the Seesaw learning platform which has undergone major updates throughout the Summer. All children from Nursery to EY2 will be set up with their own Seesaw account which will mitigate issues of navigation and access for both children and parents. In order to support families in being able to access and use Seesaw, we will be offering online Seesaw Parent Workshops at the following times which will be led by Angela Moriarty (Head of Learning Technology):
Wednesday 12th August 9:00 – 10:00am: Nursery and Reception parents
Wednesday 12th August 1:00 – 2:00pm: EY1 and 2 parents
The sessions will also be recorded and made available to parents unable to attend in live time. In addition, we will hold parent drop in sessions for any parents who need additional support or have further questions about any technical aspects of the online home learning. Links to the live sessions will be communicated closer to the time.
I am delighted to share an overview of what your child can expect from their online and home learning programme in the event of extended school closure:
Nursery
We will no longer be able to hold the planned Nursery Parent Open Morning at the Early Years Campus and will reschedule this when we are able to reopen the campus. In the meantime, we will be communicating a welcome video which will include the presentation you would have seen. The Seesaw Parent Workshop has now been planned for Wednesday 12th August at 9:00am so that you are prepared to support your child through the Seesaw platform.
The online learning programme for Nursery children will continue to be delivered in a staggered manner in order to support the children in getting used to accessing their learning from home. In the first two weeks, the children will have the opportunity to join Google Meets with their class to meet their teachers and new friends, as well as have access to optional learning challenges with accompanying teacher videos on Seesaw. As the children become more confident in using the technology and accessing the learning challenges, a normal programme for children will include:
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A daily live Google Meet from Monday – Thursday with their class teacher and Nursery friends.
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Activities accessible through Seesaw which will be accompanied with teacher videos and focus on a different area of learning each day.
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A daily recorded story time which will be led by different members of the Early Years team so that children can begin to get to know the other adults they will be learning with. Some of these stories will also be recorded in Mandarin for the children.
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Live specialist lessons delivered through Google Meets in the afternoons which will begin to be introduced in Week 3 (beginning Monday 24th August). Throughout the week, the children will receive: 1 x small group Mandarin lesson (20 minutes), 1 x whole class Music lesson (20 minutes), 1 x whole class PE lesson (20 minutes). Please note that given the young age of the children in Nursery, the specialist lessons may not last the full 20 minutes in the first few weeks. Teachers will be guided by the engagement and needs of the children as to when to end the lesson.
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A weekly story session with our Early Years Librarian, Lori Tighe.
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All live specialist sessions will be recorded and posted to Seesaw if children are unable to attend or if they wish to revisit them.
Fridays:
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A bi-weekly one to one session of up to 15 minutes for your child and their class teacher which will support your child in getting to know their teacher as well as an opportunity for teachers to work with your child on their specific learning and developmental needs. Please note, this is not an opportunity for a parent teacher conference and if you wish to speak about any aspect of your child’s learning with their teacher, we will maintain our ‘open door policy’ (albeit virtually!) where you are welcome to arrange an appointment at a mutually convenient time.
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On the weeks where your child does not have a one to one session with their teacher, they will be invited to attend a live, small group, story or activity session with their Education Assistant.
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Fridays will also be an opportunity for your child to catch up on the week’s learning.
Activity Packs:
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Activity packs related to the week’s learning which include resources, independent learning tasks and challenges for the children will be available for collection on Thursdays and Fridays. They will complement the learning your child will be doing the following week.
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Teachers will provide pictures and instructions for provocations you can set up at home in order to support your child’s learning through play, away from the screen. We will also include suggested question stems and language to support your child’s development should you wish to play alongside them.
Reception:
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A daily live Google Meet from Monday – Thursday with their class teacher and Reception friends.
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Activities accessible through Seesaw which will be accompanied with teacher videos for Discovery and Maths. The children will also have opportunities to develop their writing skills.
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Daily RWI sessions (Monday – Thursday) will begin in Week 3 (Monday 24th August).
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A daily recorded story time which will be led by different members of the Early Years team so children can begin to get to know the other adults they will be learning with. Some of these stories will also be recorded in Mandarin for the children.
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Live specialist lessons delivered through Google Meets in the afternoons. Throughout the week, the children will receive: 2 x small group Mandarin lessons (20 minutes each), 2 x whole class PE lessons (20 minutes each), 1 x whole class Music lesson (20 minutes).
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A weekly story session with our Early Years Librarian Lori Tighe.
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All live specialist sessions will be recorded and posted to Seesaw if children are unable to attend or if they wish to revisit them.
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A live, bi-weekly, Learning for Life Assembly with Miss Cole and Mrs Cassidy, including Shining Star Celebrations (20 minutes for all Reception children).
Fridays:
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A bi-weekly one to one session of up to 15 minutes for your child and their class teacher which will support your child in getting to know their teacher as well as an opportunity for teachers to work with your child on their specific learning needs. Please note, this is not an opportunity for a parent teacher conference and if you wish to speak about any aspect of your child’s learning with their teacher, we will maintain our ‘open door policy’ (albeit virtually!) where you are welcome to arrange an appointment at a mutually convenient time.
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On the weeks where your child does not have a one to one session with their teacher, they will be invited to attend a live, small group, story or activity session with their Education Assistant.
-
Fridays will also be an opportunity for your child to catch up on the week’s learning.
Activity Packs:
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Activity packs related to the week’s learning which include resources, independent learning tasks and challenges for the children will be available for collection on Thursdays and Fridays. They will complement the learning your child will be doing the following week.
-
Teachers will provide pictures and instructions for provocations you can set up at home in order to support your child’s learning through play, away from the screen. We will also include suggested question stems and language to support your child’s development should you wish to play alongside them.
EY1 & 2:
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A daily live Google Meet from Monday – Thursday with their class teacher and class friends. The children will be involved with Community Time discussions and teachers will also discuss the children’s learning for the day.
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Activities accessible through Seesaw which will be accompanied with recorded or videoed explanations and examples for different areas of learning including Maths, Discovery and Writing.
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Daily, small group, RWI sessions (Monday – Thursday) will begin in Week 2 (Monday 17th August).
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A daily recorded story time (Monday – Thursday) which will be led by different members of the Early Years team so that children can begin to get to know the other adults they will be learning with. Some of these stories will also be recorded in Mandarin for the children.
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Live specialist lessons delivered through Google Meets according to a weekly timetable. This will include: 2 x small group Mandarin lessons per week (20 minutes each), 3 x whole class PE lessons per week (20 minutes each), 1 x Music lesson per week (30 minutes).
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Learning Technologies lessons will be set each week for the children to work through at their own pace. The Learning Technologies teachers will be available during your child’s normal Learning Technologies lesson for a drop in session should your child have any questions or require support in completing the activities.
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As part of the weekly Library timetable, children will be able to select a range of fiction and non-fiction books each week. This will be supported by our school librarian, Mrs Foti.
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A weekly Learning for Life Assembly with Miss Cole and Mrs Cassidy, including Shining Star Celebrations (30 minutes for all of EY1 & 2).
Reading Packs
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Children will receive reading books appropriate to their level of reading each week. Reading books will be pitched at a level that allows children to read confidently and largely independently to focus on fluency and expression. We will support parents with the types of questions you can ask your child in order to help develop comprehension skills at a deeper level.
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The reading packs will also contain, where appropriate, resources to support the following week’s learning. The packs can be collected on Thursday and Fridays from the main campus.
Fridays:
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A bi-weekly one to one session of up to 10 minutes for your child and their class teacher which will support your child in getting to know their teacher as well as an opportunity for teachers to work with your child on their specific learning needs. Please note, this is not an opportunity for a parent teacher conference and if you wish to speak about any aspect of your child’s learning with their teacher, we will maintain our ‘open door policy’ (albeit virtually!) where you are welcome to arrange an appointment at a mutually convenient time.
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On the weeks where your child does not have a one to one session with their teacher, they will be invited to attend a live, small group, story or activity session with their Education Assistant.
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Children will continue to be set learning activities on Fridays to complete independently, for EY2 this will specifically be related to RWI consolidation and spelling quizzes.
Parent Teacher Conferences
We pride ourselves on how we put the children at the heart of everything we do here at DBIS, and are highly aware that our first priority is to develop positive relationships between teachers and children in order to create the best possible environment for successful learning to take place. With this in mind, we are pleased to let you know that the Parent Teacher Conferences which have already been arranged for our Nursery – EY2 parents will still go ahead as planned and in addition, we would like to invite your child to join for all or part of the conference in order for teachers to begin building a relationship with them. Due to current restrictions, these will take place online using Google Meet and details of the code to join meetings will be communicated by class teachers. Children will complete introductory home learning opportunities on Thursday and Friday before commencing their full online programme on Monday 17th August.
Nursery Parent Teacher Conferences have been allocated to parents and communicated by post already. If you have not received your welcome pack or have forgotten your time, please contact Angel Tang at the Early Years Office: [email protected].
For those parents of children in Reception – EY2 who have not yet signed up to a parent teacher conference, or for families who are new to the school, we please encourage you to do so using the following links:
Reception Families: https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/book/step1?z=G4SzjO
EY1 & 2 Families: https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/book/step1?z=ZG27vJ
If you are taken to a screen requesting a code, please enter uwjc4 for Reception and n9n2p for EY1 & 2 parent teacher conferences. If you experience any technical difficulties, please contact [email protected].
Online Home Learning Feedback
Throughout the school closures last term, we continued to listen to feedback from across the school community, and we remain committed to listening to your views and ideas to help us continue to build on our learning programme. In February and again in June we formally asked families for feedback about online learning and we would like to thank all those who responded. Data from the feedback questionnaire can be found HERE.
Parent Focus Group
We would like to engage our Early Years parents in supporting the development of our online home learning provision to ensure we can offer the very best for our children given the current circumstances. This year, I would like to invite any interested parents to be involved in a focus group that meets periodically to positively and constructively contribute to the ongoing development of our online home learning provision. If this is something you would like to register your interest for, please complete the jotform HERE.
I hope this information has supported you, by providing an overview of our intended online home learning programme should school closure be extended beyond the 16th August. I have every confidence that the programme for our Early Years children will continue to support their progress and development throughout these most difficult of times. As a school, we recognise the impact that school closure has had on families and cannot thank you enough for the support you continue to offer your child with their learning. We understand that the current situation will affect different families in different ways and would like to reassure you that we are here to support in any way that we possibly can and encourage you to reach out to any member of the Early Years Leadership Team if you have any questions or concerns.
With best regards
Hannah Cole
(Head of Early Years)