PRINCIPAL’S REPORT - 19th May, 2021

I hope this report finds you all safe and well. It is great to see families using the See Saw app to communicate with the school. Communication is so important to keep everyone on track and aligned to the needs of our students.

I am hoping families will be receiving regular updates on what their child is learning at school and photos / videos of them at work. Of course there are times when face to face communication is necessary, I am always available should you need to talk and your child’s teacher can always be booked for an appointment.

Much of the professional learning this year for our staff has been devising and documenting strategies to support our students to engage in programs and interactions with staff and their peers. On our recent curriculum day many strategies were presented to staff that will support students to engage in their learning. Strategies presented included the use of visuals and AAC to support communication, sensory activities designed to help students self-regulate, reward charts and visual schedules to provide predictability for our students. Please do not hesitate to ask one of our staff members if you would like to know more about this work.

On Wednesday June 9 we will be hosting Student Support Group meetings at Frankston SDS. In light of our learnings from last year we will be offering families two options this year. The first option will be the traditional face to face interview with your child’s teacher. This year we will also offer families the choice of meeting with teachers online or by phone. We are hoping that we can conduct all meetings in the one afternoon which will allow teachers more time to write new goals for their students. I am happy to be present in any interview, please let me know if you would like me to be there.

As we move into the winter months there is always the increased risk of our kids picking up germs from each other. It is always a challenging decision for families whether to keep their children home or at school when they are showing signs of being unwell.

While we need to continually strive towards increasing the resilience of our students unfortunately because of the times we are living in could I please ask families to be particularly vigilant on this issue. I am constantly being reminded by the department that children displaying cold like symptoms must be kept at home. I also understand that a number of our students because of their disability have permanent runny noses.

Could I please encourage families to be aware of this issue?