Blair Athol North B-6 School

January 28, 2022

Dear BANB6 Community

In the last couple of weeks, I have shared with you detailed information about how Term 1 will begin and protocols in place from SA Health. Please see below summarised key pieces of information relating to how we as a school will operate over the initial weeks of the school term.

Back to School Arrangements

Jauary 31 – February 1

These two days have been allocated by the Department for Education as planning days for school staff. The learning program will only begin on Wednesday, February 2.

If you need to send your child to school on these days, please ensure that they check in via the front office.

February 2 – February 14

School begins for Reception and Year 1 children. If you have a child in Reception or Year 1, please follow these guidelines:

Reception

We understand that the first days of school are very important times for children and families. With this in mind, parents will be able to bring their reception children to their studio, ensuring they are:

• Well
• Wearing a mask
• Have QR coded in

We would request that parents please not stay for longer than 15 minutes when dropping off their child in the morning.

Reception parents will also be able to collect their child from their studio in the afternoons according to the same protocols listed above.

Year 1

Parents of year 1 children are asked to please drop their children off at the gates outside the Purple building wherever possible. For some there may be reasons why this is not possible. I ask these families to please make individual arrangements with your child’s Learning Advisor.

Year 2-6

From February 2, children in Years 2-6 will engage in remote learning until February 14. Your child’s Learning Advisor will be in contact with you to detail the plans.

If you need to send your child to school on these days, please ensure they check in via the front office.

Children in years 3-6 are strongly encouraged to wear masks when at school however it is not mandatory.

From February 14

We are hopeful that all children will be able to return to school after February 14. We will keep the school community informed if anything changes.

Changes to the Structure of the School Day

At the end of last year staff explored changing the times of the day that learning is delivered during the school day  to best support children and adults in their teaching, learning and well being.

This will create 6, equal in length, lessons per day. The major change with this structure is enabling 3 lessons in the morning (brain and snack breaks will still occur), as the research shows that students are at their optimum for learning in the morning. This will be followed by 2 lessons between lunch and recess. With this change recess and lunch will be switched around; being that the first break of the day will be lunch, where students will eat and fill up on a more substantial healthy meal during the earlier part of the day to maintain focus, leaving the more recess ‘snack type’ foods for later in the day. There will be 1 lesson after recess, then home time at the normal time of 3pm.

There are no changes to the usual pick up and drop off times. Gates will still open at 8:30am and school will end at 3pm.  With the restrictions at the moment children will need to be dropped off and picked up outside of the school gates (unless alternative arrangements have been made).

Wishing all of the BANB6 community the very best during this time. We very much look forward to welcoming everyone back to BANB6 very soon.

Yours Sincerely

Darren Stevenson
Principal
Blair Athol North B-6 School