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River Gum Primary
School Remote
Learning Guide
Parent & Carer Handbook
Welcome Dear school community,
We hope that you are going well over the school holiday break, and that your family is
staying safe.
On Tuesday 7th April, the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that students will
be educated from home from when Term Two begins next Wednesday, 15th April, to help
ensure that physical distancing will help slow the spread of coronavirus.
As the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the majority of students and teachers will
stay at home and work at home. The message was clear “if you can learn at home, you
must learn at home”.
“As we act to slow the spread of coronavirus, the message to students and parents of
government schools is clear: all children who can learn at home must learn from home –
with exceptions only in extremely limited circumstances.”
However, the school will make arrangements for students of parents who must work and
provide essential services for our community.
All children will be learning together using the “River Gum Primary School learning at
home guide”.
Please contact your child’s classroom teacher on See Saw between 9am and 3pm if you
are an Essential services worker so that we can organize your child’s learning at school.
We understand that learning at home will bring with it some challenges but we know that
your child’s classroom teachers will be there to help you with any problems that may
arise. Your child’s teacher will contact you on See Saw on Wednesday 15th April.
We appreciate that there will be some of you who are not only managing your child’s
learning but also working from home yourself and we know that establishing a successful
routine may take some time.
We will help all families for learning at home beginning on Wednesday 15th April.
We will provide you with more detail next Wednesday about accessing your child’s
learning at home guide on See Saw. Your child’s teacher will provide you with information
about learning at home.
Looking forward to ‘being in touch’ again after the school holidays on Wednesday 15th
April.
Kind Regards,
Roma McKinnnon
Contents 1. Vision & Values
2. Commitment to Continuity of Learning
3. Remote Learning Welcome and Information
4. School Operation & Communication
5. Teaching & Learning
6. Monitoring Student Engagement
7. Student Health and Wellbeing
Thank you to the staff, leadership and local schools who have generously
contributed towards the information in this document. We also wish to
acknowledge Victorian Department of Education & Training resources.
Remote Learning Welcome and Information
Welcome to our River Gum Primary School “Learning From Home Guide”.
We hope that this will be useful in providing you some information to help make remote
learning successful!
We thank all parents for being open to the concept of remote learning and ask you to also
be patient and aware that we too are learning something extremely new in a short period
of time.
Our teachers will contact you by See Saw conference, create goals with students, and give
feedback to both small groups and individuals, while at the same time teaching skills in a
lesson.
In teams, our teachers plan and work to create lessons. Our teachers will still be planning
lessons in order to accommodate new learning at home.
Remote Learning - What does that mean?
Remote learning is learning that happens off school site, in the family home with guidance
from teachers and with support from families. The DET and River Gum Primary School will
work with families to ensure all students have access to online remote learning. This may
take a couple of weeks to set up. Vulnerable students and students of essential workers will
be offered an onsite program which will be the same content and mode as completed by
students working from home.
Remote Learning - When?
Remote learning will happen on school days (not the holidays and not the weekends or
curriculum days) between the hours of 8:45-3.15pm as per school hours. We can
appreciate that with so many different family situations happening that your hours and
school hours may not always completely align. With this in mind teachers have planned for
a flexible learning environment, allowing all families to also have some flexibility as well.
Teachers will be available for class related work with your children from 8:45am - 3.15pm as
per any other school day. As per any other school day, teachers also have planning time,
meeting times, lunch, breaks and other duties (such as leadership duties etc) that are also
taking part behind the scenes. From an administrative perspective all teachers have
multiple roles they are fulfilling, including - like yourselves being parents of children who are
remote learning themselves, carers for elderly, dealing with illness and dealing with many
of the same issues that you will be at home.
A typical day will begin with a morning message to the class from the class teacher.
Followed by an outline of activities or tasks to complete for the day. This will happen
through See Saw.
River Gum Primary School Vision & Values
Commitment to Continuity of Learning At River Gum Primary School, we are committed to providing continuity in learning. We will
continue to work collaboratively via digital platforms to adapt our programs so that
students continue to make progress in their learning.
River Gum Primary School will continue to maintain quality teaching and learning standards
during the transition to remote learning.
Considerations during remote learning Remote learning will be a new experience for students, families and schools. We recognise
there will be challenges, mistakes and great celebrations throughout this journey. We
understand the complexities of parents/carers working remotely and also supporting
children at home.
Our staff have been working collaboratively to plan for remote learning with key
considerations in mind.
We are committed to learning that is:
Reasonable
Purposeful
Consistent
Sustainable
Learning that is reasonable
Understanding that some students and families may be experiencing high levels of stress
and anxiety in this time of unknown futures, potential loss of employment, potential ill
health of loved ones, and the destabilising impact of the general economic and human
crisis going on around them.
Supporting families with access to devices to support remote learning.
Awareness that some families will have multiple children to support, each with their own
learning to engage in.
Awareness that some parents/carers will be working from home and may not be able
to support their child(ren)’s learning for extended periods of time.
Understanding that students have varying levels of organisation, focus and
independence and planning learning accordingly.
Learning that is purposeful
Simplified daily structures with easy to follow lessons.
Learning that continues to revise in-class learning and gradually introduces new topics
and concepts linked to Curriculum Priority Standards.
Clear learning intentions that outline the purpose of each lesson.
Learning that covers the full range of teaching and learning programs, including
specialist subjects.
Learning that is consistent
Teachers post the daily learning structure via the class newsfeed on SeeSaw.
Learning structures are presented in a consistent template with learning intentions for
each lesson.
Through scheduled Student Conferences, teachers make regular contact with families
to monitor wellbeing and learning progress in the areas of reading, writing and maths.
Schools and families work in partnership and maintain consistent communication.
Learning that is sustainable
The work set for students is both sustainable for students to complete and sustainable for
teachers to assign and assess.
A daily routine is established – families receive the learning tasks via SeeSaw each day
and a variety of subject areas supports learner engagement.
The learning structure supports families whilst allowing flexibility.
Teachers will monitor students’ engagement in the learning and implement supports
and modifications where necessary.
School Operation & Communication Protocols
Our preferred method of communications are:
Through the classroom teacher via See Saw
School Email: [email protected]
School Phone: 9799 1216
Research and practice tells us that students are likely to learn best from home when
teachers:
provide students and parents/families with information about how and when they can
be contacted
make regular contact with students and families
create and communicate a schedule or calendar that shows what’s expected of
students – for example, what students will be asked to do, by when
give feedback to students and families on student learning progress often
avoid overwhelming students by giving them too many learning activities at once – for
example, a whole month's work
balance individual activities/tasks with collaborative ones that support students to
engage with each other online – if appropriate and technologies can be facilitate it
include a variety of activities/tasks – for example, creative, reflective, analytical,
shorter and longer
take advantage of students being at home by including applied learning activities –
for example, mathematics activities that include cooking.
Privacy and safety considerations
You must comply with relevant legislation and Department policies when using
Department-provided software in schools. These include:
Information and privacy
Safe use of digital technologies
Using Digital Technologies to Support Learning and Teaching.
Managing screen time and online safety
As your child is likely to be spending time online, it is important that you talk to them about
online safety. This will help them to make good digital choices and use information and
communication technologies responsibly.
You may wish to speak to your children about ensuring they:
use only the online tools recommended by their school or the Department of
Education and Training (DET)
are respectful when communicating online, just as they would be when speaking
face-to-face
use digital devices in open areas of the home
For more online safety advice for parents and carers go to: www.esafety.gov.au
Our School Community will use the below protocols to ensure timely, effective and
respectful communication:
COMMUNICATION PROTOCOLS
Parents/Carers Teachers Students
Use SeeSaw as the primary method to
communicate regular questions,
concerns or comments about your
child.
Our preferred method for all
communications is via SeeSaw.
Contact teacher via SeeSaw only.
You can also email the River Gum
school account including the staff
members name in the email heading
Use SeeSaw to meet with individual
students daily as per the continuity of
learning plan.
Communicate and complete daily
tasks set by their teacher.
Alternatively you may be able to call
the office and leave a message for the
staff member which will be returned at
a later date.
Do not initiate a phone call to a
parent.
Maintain all aspects of the River Gum
code of conduct when
communicating.
Maintain all aspects of the River Gum
code of conduct when
communicating.
Do not use any personal or edumail
email accounts to communicate
with parents.
Where possible use the school phone line
to return any parent phone calls.
In some cases you may need to return
calls using a personal phone to contact
parents. You must do this from a private
number and have another staff member
present. This is to be used minimally as a
method of communication.
Maintain all aspects of the River Gum
code of conduct when communicating.
Teaching & Learning When you start to think about helping your child to learn from home, remember that no one
expects you to be a teacher or subject matter expert. The most important thing you can do is
continue to provide routine, support and encouragement to your child.
You can support your child to learn from home by keeping up to date with your child’s school
communications.
Below are some tips to help you set up a structure and routine for home learning and how we can
work together to ensure home learning is successful for your child/children.
River Gum Parent/Carer Student Communicate daily with
families via See Saw and
regular tools such as the
school website.
Provide learning tasks in
a consistent daily
structure to support
learning at home.
Make weekly individual
contact with families in
the form of Learner
Conferences to monitor
student wellbeing and
learning progress.
Provide access to
devices, as needed.
Provide access to
stationery supplies as
needed.
Provide ongoing
wellbeing and learning
support for families.
Encouraging and
supporting your child.
Having a routine and
setting expectations.
Making sure your child
has a space to work in a
shared area of your
home.
Providing a level of
supervision suitable to
your child’s stage of
development.
Making times for breaks
and exercise, these are
great for learning and
wellbeing.
Staying in contact with
school and monitoring
communication from
teachers.
Checking in with your
child often to monitor
how they are feeling
and how they are going
with their learning.
Depending on the age and
stage of your child, they
may be expected to:
Regularly monitor digital
platforms for
announcements and
feedback from teachers.
Do their best work when
completing tasks.
Do their best to meet
timelines and due dates.
Communicate openly
with their teachers and
raise any concerns or
issues.
Continue to abide by
their school’s behaviour
guidelines and
Community Code of
Conduct.
Set up a learning space for your child/children
Every home is different. Where possible,
extended learning should take place in a
space your family shares. For example, a
lounge room or dining room. These
spaces are preferable over a bedroom,
where your child can feel isolated and
supervision can be more challenging.
It should be a place:
That can be quiet at times
Where you or another adult is present as you would normally when your child is
online
That is comfortable with a chair and table to work at and good lighting
Which has everything needed including pens, pencils, paper, and within reach
With access to technology and internet access to complete online tasks
Without distractions
Establish a routine and structure
A healthy daily routine is great for mental and physical health, as well
as concentration and learning.
Importantly, a routine helps decrease anxiety and increase comfort.
This is essential for any child, regardless of age.
Daily structure
Have a set wake-up time and a bedtime, and (where possible) stick with these,
especially on the weekdays. This can have great benefits for the quality of sleep.
Start and end each day with a check-in to help your child:
Clarify and understand the instructions they get from their teachers
Help them organise themselves and set priorities for their learning at home
Plan meal times around the same time every day. Encourage healthy eating habits and
drinking enough water for hydration.
Learning from home
Consider chunking work time into small regular sessions (e.g. 30
minutes and then a break), or a large session during the day and
free family time afterward.
How this works can be a family decision, but once you have
scheduled in work
Give it time and stick with the plan, as this is now part of the
routine.
Be Realistic
Make a list of the things that your family usually does during the
week. Then work out what you can sensibly keep as part of the
daily routine, what can be modified and what can be ‘let go’
for now.
When working on the weekly schedule, make time for the things
you often look forward to as a family, such as movie nights,
Taco Tuesday etc.
Movement and Exercise
Encourage regular exercise breaks. This might mean going for a
walk, using exercise DVDs and apps, dancing, floor exercises or
using home exercise equipment.
This could be at the start, middle or end of your day – or staggered
throughout the day.
Get Outdoors
Make time to be outside. It is recommended that we are outside in
nature for a minimum of 1-2 hours per day. Again, more is better. This
could mean spending time in your backyard or going for a walk.
Manage Screen Time
Inevitably, your family will be using screens, particularly for work and
schoolwork. As a family, it is ultimately up to you to decide how long you
use screens and what works best for your family.
Make Alone Time
It is important to plan for some time in the day where you each have your
own alone time. This could be reading or a quiet activity.
Set Time for Play & Fun!
Play is an essential part of any child’s day, regardless of age. For primary students, we
recommend at least 2–3 hours of free playtime per day (separate to screen time).
Free play time could include games, creative play, kicking the footy, listening to music,
having a chat, calling a friend or going for a walk with a family member.
Although the current situation can be stressful, this is also an opportunity to spend more
time together and create some special memories.
This could be as simple as sharing stories your children haven’t heard before, building
something together, cooking a family meal, or putting up a tent in the backyard or
painting a mural.
A typical School Day of learning will include:
8:45am: Be ready for daily roll call and a welcome from the classroom
teacher on See Saw.
The Teacher will outline the learning tasks and activities for the day.
Foundation to Year 2 Year 3- Year 6 The following are the daily minimum guidelines
schools are expected to meet:
Literacy activities that take a total of about
45-60 minutes
Numeracy activities of about 30-45 minutes
Additional learning areas, play-based
learning and physical activity of about 30-
45 minutes
The following are the daily minimum guidelines
schools are expected to meet:
Literacy: 45-60 minutes
Numeracy: 30-45 minutes
Physical activities: 30 minutes
Additional curriculum areas: 90 minutes
Families discuss Learning Tasks for the day with your child/children.
Students participate in the learning throughout the day as per your family
schedule and routine.
Teachers will contact students individually or in small groups for student
conferences during the week.
Staff are available during the day from 8:35-3:35 for student wellbeing
and teaching and learning support.
Families discuss the day’s learning and check in. What went well? What
was challenging? What do students need help with?
Monitoring Student Engagement in Learning
COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR CHILD We encourage you to start and finish each
day with a simple check-in.
You could also check-in with your child
throughout the day. This depends on your child’s
needs.
In the morning, ask: What are you learning today?
What are your learning targets or goals?
How will you be spending your time?
What resources do you need?
What support do you need?
In the afternoon, ask: What did you learn today?
What was challenging? You could come up with a
way to deal with the same problem if it comes up again.
Consider three things that went well today. Why
were they good?
Are you ok? Do you need to ask your teacher for
something? Do you need help with something to make
tomorrow more successful?
These questions allow your child to: Process the instructions they get from their
teachers.
Help them organise themselves and set priorities.
Student Health & Wellbeing We are all experiencing the impacts of uncertain times and social isolation. We are
adjusting to our new realities, whilst not chosen, highly necessary given the current
circumstances.
It is very normal right now to be potentially experiencing a range of emotions, ranging
from worry, stress, sadness, anger and anxiety to name a few. It is important that we keep
open lines of communication at these times and practice self-care.
As important as learning is, we are strongly encouraging you to consider your child’s
wellbeing.
Remember that River Gum Primary School is a place of support and care, so please make
contact and stay in touch with your child teacher/s in the first instance.
We hope that you all remain safe and well and that normality will return to our lives in the
not so distant future.
In addition, there are number of FREE confidential hotlines that you can reach out to at
this difficult time.
Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800
Lifeline 131 114
Beyond Blue 1800 512 348
