Glenealy School Newsletter
14th Aug 2020
Message from Chris
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
It has been an extremely busy first week back. It was truly wonderful to see all of the children during the assemblies and to see how they engaged with their learning so wonderfully this week.
We know that this week has not been easy for parents or children - getting set up and ready for learning from home each day can be a real challenge in the home. I want to thank you all for your support during this week, as we launched our distance learning approach. Our commitment is to continue to strive to make sure we provide the best possible experience for children over the coming weeks. We will also keep providing guidance and advice to the children about ‘getting ready’ for school, helping them to follow our instructions, and supporting them to feel cared for, valued and connected, despite the highly challenging circumstances that we all face.
I would like to take this opportunity, at the end of a hugely productive and successful first week, to thank the whole staff team for their work. From an administrative perspective - distributing thousands of exercise books, hundreds of Chromebooks, and getting children set up and online - the admin team have done an excellent job. From a teaching and learning perspective the Teachers and EAs have worked incredibly hard this week to connect with children, plan the next sequence of learning, assess and comment on the learning already being submitted, whilst all the while building relationships. All are doing this from their own homes and many with their own children undertaking distance learning as well. Thank you.
Timetables, Technology and Zoom
The children have done brilliantly engaging with the Zoom sessions, along with their independent learning. By now you will have received three of our refined daily timetables and an overview for next week. We hope that children are able to follow along with their learning as best they can, and feel well supported by our team of teachers across the day. If you have any technical difficulties logging on please contact tech@glenealy.edu.hk
Chromebooks and Exercise Books
If you haven’t done so already - please collect your child’s exercise books from the school. Also if you would like to borrow a Chromebook please can you send an email admin@glenealy.edu.hk to check availability and arrange a time to do this.
Parent Meetings
Next week we will write to you about an opportunity we will be providing to meet your child’s class teacher via Zoom. For those new to our school community, in previous years, we would normally run a “Meet the Teacher” evening with all parents gathering in school to cover the elements of school life. Due the highly unusual start to the year we have decided to provide something more substantial and relevant to our current circumstances.
Next week we will write to you with the opportunity to sign up for a ‘Parent Conference’. This will be a chance to meet your child’s teacher via Zoom and begin our partnership working. This meeting will provide parents with the chance to talk about any specific challenges your child might be having in learning at home and the meeting will provide a good springboard for parents and teachers to connect around how we might best support your child. Letters about this will be sent next week.
Thank you once again for all your support during this week. After a very busy first week, I hope all of our families have a restful and pleasant weekend.
Best Regards,
Chris