Since the beginning of this remote working period, school’s have had a responsibility to track the virtual attendance and engagement of students each day. As you would be aware, attendance each day is recorded by a Google Form that is distributed each morning by Pastoral Advisors and requires students to register by 10am. Since not all remote learning actually takes place online, there isn’t always an electronic record of engagement in each subject on any given day. For this reason, it is important that students meet this 10am deadline which becomes our official remote attendance roll. Parents of “absent” students are then informed via text each day at approximately 10:30am. Please discuss this deadline with your child and ensure they are aware of the requirement to register with their PA.

I also take the opportunity this week to thank and acknowledge parents for their support in this period of remote learning. We certainly appreciate the challenges associated with balancing the support you give your sons and daughters alongside many of your own work commitments. While this balance can be difficult, the current health advice continues to stress that in order to keep yourself and your family as safe as possible, students should only be sent to school for supervision when it is “absolutely not possible for them to learn from home”. 

In keeping with our efforts to minimise the number of visitors onsite, I would ask any parent with enquiries that would normally require a visit to the College office, to make these via a phonecall to the front office in the first instance. In most cases, enquiries can be resolved electronically without the need to visit the College in person. 

Finally, in consideration of the number of COVID cases that are active in our community at present, I take the opportunity to remind families to please continue following our COVID recording procedures, which include: 

• Informing the school immediately if your child is self-isolating or undergoing testing, and informing us of the result as soon as possible.

• Following sickness with flu-like symptoms, ensuring your child is free of symptoms and can present a negative COVID-19 test, before attending the College site for any reason.

All the best for the week ahead.

David Cloran
Assistant Principal