By Jessica Anstice
The second wave of students returned to the classroom on Tuesday 9 June, after about eight weeks of learning from home.
Pupils from Grade 3 to Year 10 rejoined students from remaining year levels who have been back since 26 May.
Pakenham’s John Henry Primary School assistant principal Aaron Bickery said the school experienced a fantastic start to the week with all students back and learning on campus.
“There were smiles all around and the students have settled in really well,” he said.
“John Henry Primary School teachers ran one on one student and teacher assessment meetings last week before the students returned and the results of these assessment tasks showed what an amazing job our parents, students and staff did during home learning.
“We are pleased to have all students back and school life heading back to a somewhat normalised manner.”
Minister For Education James Merlino congratulated principals, teachers, school staff, students and families for their incredible efforts to make remote learning work, and announced a summit in June to discuss lessons learnt and investigate what improvements can be made to the education system as a result of the remote learning experience.
“Remote learning hasn’t been easy, but I couldn’t be prouder of how our principals, teachers, support staff, students and families have responded to the challenge,” he said.
“The advice from the Chief Health Officer is for students to begin a phased return to face-to-face learning – and that’s what’s happening today. Having close to a million students learning from home has made a huge contribution to limiting the number of people moving around the community and reducing the spread of the virus.
“This is a real opportunity to improve our education system and learn lessons from this remote learning experience. This summit will be a way for all of our school sectors to come together and report back about the benefits they experienced.”
