LEARNING@HOME

Expectations and Guidelines for Middle School Students

What Learning@Home Means for MeYour learning will be more self-directed during this time, however, your teachers will still be there to support you.

What will my learning look like? At the commencement of every week, you and your parents will receive an email with a summary of your work for the week. This email will relate to your five core subjects: English, Maths, Science, Religious Education and History. Your enrichment teachers will contact you individually via email with their program.

Primarily, OneNote will be used for lesson delivery and for the completion of class work. Certain courses may use online learning tools or platforms (such as Write That Essay, Stile, Flipgrid, Moodle, etc) to facilitate teaching and learning.

What will I require each day?To assist with establishing routine and consistency, we have created the following timeta-ble for you. The timetable features slightly shorter lessons to help you maintain your focus for these times. We recommend you adopt this timetable as often as possible, however we understand that on some days this may not be possible.

Your teachers will endeavour to be available online during your scheduled lessons, but this may not always be possible given particular circumstances.

It is best to start each day by logging on at 8.30am each morning to review emails and/or work set by your teachers.

If for some reason, you cannot access the materials for the timetabled lesson, go on to the next subject and come back to it later. If you cannot access the materials at a later time, contact your classroom teacher as soon as possible.

Simply match these timings to your typical timetable available on Student Café:

What do I pay special attention to?As a Middle School student you should:

• take responsibility for your own learning by being fully engaged in scheduled lessons

• ensure all set work is completed and relevant tasks are submitted to the teacher

• at all times interact positively and appropriately online

• be proactive about sharing, thinking, asking questions, seeking information, clarifying with your peers and teacher

• reflect on your progress and identify strategies and actions for improvement

• actively seek assistance when it is needed

What do I do if I’m feeling overwhelmed or I’m falling behind? Learning@Home may lead to issues regarding your wellbeing, especially as you move away from the routine of College life on campus and lose the connectivity of seeing and engaging with your classmates and teachers.

Here are some important wellbeing tips to consider:

• Exercise: Try to incorporate 30 mins of physical activity into your daily routine

• Nutrition: Enjoy a healthy, balanced diet; avoid snacking on junk food throughout the day

• Sleep: A minimum of eight hours of sleep every night is vital to ensure maximum cogni-tive function

• Wellbeing: Consider the use of apps such as Smiling Mind & Headspace to regulate our headspace

If you start feeling overwhelmed, please reach out to someone. You can make contact with your Year Level Co-ordinator or anyone within the College’s Counselling Team:

Mr Lynam blynam@vnc.qld.edu.au Mr McGrath mmcgrath@vnc.qld.edu.au Mr Sullivan asullivan@vnc.qld.edu.au Mr Simpson psimpson@vnc.qld.edu.au

Mr Sakellariou tsakellariou@vnc.qld.edu.au Dr Wright awright@vnc.qld.edu.au

Mr Hellwig ahellwig@vnc.qld.edu.au Mr O’Neill goneill@vnc.qld.edu.au

If you feel like you’re falling begin with your work, in the first instance, contact your teacher for that subject, or let your Year Level Co-ordinator

know as soon as you can.

Similarly, if parents develop concerns about how their son is trav-elling during this time, they too should contact one of the staff

listed above.

Can I access IT support?For IT Support, email - BYOD@vnc.qld.edu.au

Email EtiquetteIt is important that when communicating via email to your teacher that you follow proper email etiquette Please refer to this guide:

What is Zoom and how will it be used? Zoom Conferencing can connect students and teachers at the class level and provide a fa-cility for questions and discussion, assessment feedback/conferencing and tutorials. Please note that this will be at the discretion of the individual classroom teacher and may vary depending on the particular year level and subject context.

Zoom will not be used in the first two weeks of Term Two. Before Zoom is adopted by your teachers, you (and your parent) will be required to complete a form that confirms you un-derstand the College’s protocols for using Zoom. We want to ensure that this platform is a safe and respectful place for students and teachers to engage with each other.

How will assessment occur while we are Learning@Home? Each of your subjects will feature different ways of collecting evidence for how you’re

tracking. Some will feature assignments and projects, other subjects will feature Stile/Moodle quizzes, and others will keep track of your own work via your OneNote. Your

teachers will send you more information about assessment throughout the term.