01-Sep-2021
Dear EPS Families,
Next Friday – September 10 – we are having a ‘screen-free day’ and encouraging students to put down their laptops and iPads before they get square eyes! 🙂
With this in mind, students’ work on Friday September 10 will focus more on wellbeing activities that require no access to SeeSaw or Webex. Next week we will be posting out hard copies of activities that are fun and engaging which, hopefully, families can spend some time together to complete.
This break in screen time and the opportunity to refresh and recharge for the final week of school is important. This article appeared in the Guardian a week or two ago and supports families to focus on what is most important right now: wellbeing. In part the article reads:
“There are five key areas of wellbeing – and this goes for adults as well: it’s about play, it’s about getting outside, it’s about exercising, it’s about socialising and it’s about monitoring engagement for news,”
“But, in supporting wellbeing it also means letting something go. In Pasi Sahlberg’s (deputy director of UNSW’s Gonski Institute for Education) house it is accepting that neither adult will do a full day’s work, and neither child is expected to complete all of theirs.”
“We’ve got to accept that not everything will get done,” says Brunker. “We’ve got to accept there will be distractions and ebbs and flows in motivation. We’ve got to accept they need time off, and some kids are going to need to say ‘You know what? I’m not looking at schooling today.’ And that’s OK.”
In keeping with our Fun Fridays over the last few weeks of lockdown (Scavenger Hunt, Chalk Drawings, Juggling show) we’re hoping to create an opportunity for kids, and families, to get out of the house and have some fun!
On Friday September 10 we will run an OPTIONAL ‘Edi Explorers’ rally between 1.00 pm and 2.00 pm. The ‘rally’ involves students, who will need to be with family members to ensure this is a safe activity, riding, scooting or walking through parts of Edithvale searching for clues. Different teachers and support staff members will be scattered around the streets and they will hold the ‘clues’ to solving a crossword that will accompany the school mail out.
It’s designed to be a bit of fun and a chance for teachers, students and families to see each other. At the same time, students will learn about direction, map reading and do some exercise, noting that this is a permitted reason to leave the house. It is planned at a time we hope will fit in with the work schedules of as many families as possible and also aims to fit within the school staff planning day schedule. While on the rally, we ask that all students and families follow mask-wearing and social distancing requirements so we can make this activity as safe as possible. This means we might not see the smiles of our community as much, but we will know that they are there 🙂
Students attending for on-site supervision will participate in this as well, under the guidance of some teaching and Education Support staff.
Again, this is an optional event for students and families to participate in.
Luke McMaster