MARNEBEK WEEKLY UPDATE

RESPECT | RESPONSIBILTY | RESILIENCE | SAFETY

24 April 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to our 2nd edition of Marnebek’s Weekly Update. Over the past two weeks, I have been greatly

encouraged by our students’ willingness to embrace the new learning environment and their positive and

creative responses to the new challenges presented to them. I enjoyed watching and listening to classes

and the way they engaged with their teachers via our online platforms. We also successfully delivered our

first Remote Assembly, and it was an absolutely pleasure to be part of it.

You can access the video here: Remote Assembly

We are living, teaching and learning in extraordinary times, and I am delighted to see Marnebek staff connecting daily via online

team meetings, ensuring we all stay connected and look after each other. Our talented Leading Teachers have introduced fun

elements into our weekly wellbeing meetings, and therefore, we have seen an increased focus on developing a sense of belong-

ing.

Saturday, 25 April marks the celebration of ANZAC Day, which will look very different this year, with Australians in coronavirus

lockdown. The RSL is calling on Australians to light a candle or put on a porch light for the dawn service, and stand to in their

driveways or on their balconies. Anzac Day marks an important anniversary of military action over the years by Australia and

New Zealand. As a nation, we take pride in this day and show our respect for the lives lost. It is important for your children to

take pride in our culture and honour our past by commemorating our Anzacs. In this edition we have included some ideas on

how you can commemorate the day. Please also have a look at our very talented student reciting an ANZAC poem. Well done

Tycen Heeger!

Finally, I would like to thank all of our staff whether in school or working from home, and all of our wonderful students and par-

ents, for the terrific efforts everyone is making to keep going as normally as possible and support each other, families and

friends.

Kind regards,

Jennifer Hamilton

Principal

A Message from the Principal

What a difference a year can make! The data below is from this week on Seesaw, showing heaps of student work

going on, with over 1000 visits from family members to see what the students are doing online. Compared to the

same time last year where we only had about 20 visits from family members to view the students Seesaw work as

shown in the bottom graph. This is amazing data and shows that our families are wanting to connect with school

now more than ever. Keep logging on, viewing your students work, and helping create and facilitate this online

learning community.

MARNEBEK WEEKLY UPDATE

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Remote Learning Environment—Classrooms

Q: What do you miss most by not being at school

A: We really miss seeing our friends and all our teachers

Q: What do you like about remote learning?

A: Being able to complete work through Office 365, easy to use and simple to follow.

Q: How do you keep in touch with your friends?

A: We have been keeping in touch with our friends through Microsoft Teams, it’s a bit hard sometimes

as the internet drops out.

Q: How do you spend your spare time in isolation

A: Watching Netflix, using our phones, talking to our friends and getting out and doing some exercise.

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Marnebek Artists creating Remotely

We are so proud of the way our Artists have adapted to creating artworks at home. They have been busy designing ‘Crazy Hair’

and ‘Transforming themselves’ into other characters, superheroes, animals and even Dr. Seuss’, ‘The Cat in the Hat’!

Artist, Andy Goldsworthy’s Land Art sculptures have been inspiration for Nature Treasures pictures and sculptures and different

types of Lines have been the basis of Castle design. The Art Elements of LINE, SHAPE, PATTERN & COLOUR have been our con-

stant anchor.

We can’t wait to see the artworks, projects and challenges undertaken in the future weeks!

Remote Learning Environment—Classrooms

MARNEBEK WEEKLY UPDATE

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Remote Learning Environment—Classrooms

MARNEBEK WEEKLY UPDATE

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Remote Learning Environment—Classrooms

MARNEBEK WEEKLY UPDATE

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ANZAC DAY

We may be in lockdown this Anzac Day, but

there are still plenty of things you can do to

commemorate the day

Lest we forget

DRIVEWAY DAWN SERVICE

Australians are being encouraged to stand at the end of their driveway or atop their balcony at 6am with a candle, light or

even their phone torch and while doing so, tune into the ABC Commemorative Service, which will broadcast The Ode, The

Last Post, and a one minute silence.

TUNE INTO A LIVE SERVICE

At 5.30am, there will be a live commemorative service from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra that you can

watch on the ABC. There will be another closed service from Sydney on the same channel at 10aM.

MAKE SOME ANZAC BISCUITS

Seeing as many of us have embraced baking, April 25th is the perfect day to make a batch of Anzac cookies. This is a

great idea if you have kids in the house and the tasty treats also make a lovely gift that you can leave on your neigh-

bours' doorsteps. Whilst there are a multitude of recipes and takes on the iconic bickie, we think we've found the best

one here. https://www.nowtolove.com.au/lifestyle/food-drinks/anzac-biscuit-recipe-54695

MAKE A COMMEMORATIVE WREATH TO HANG IN YOUR WINDOW

For all you arts and crafts fans out there, making an Anzac Day wreath is a creative way to show your respects to the

diggers whether you're using cardboard and paint or feel like incorporating artificial poppies in there, this is another

activity families can do together. If a wreath sounds too tricky, get your hands on an Australian flag and pop it in your

window so everyone can see. Follow this link https://www.nowtolove.com.au/tags/Handicraft

WATCH A VIDEO

Anzac Tribute "I am Australian" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7ef3CrVSx0

MARNEBEK WEEKLY UPDATE

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We know that life isn’t easy for any of us right now, and the more we share with each other, the more we feel connected as a com-munity. From this week onwards we’ll be introducing some of our fabulous staff here at Marnebek!

Amelia Webster - Occupational Therapist

I started at Marnebek at the beginning of 2018. My favourite thing about my job is of course our amazing

students. I am so lucky that I get to work across both campuses of Marnebek, meaning I get to build strong

connections with all our kids. The Marnebek students are the reason I want to come to school every day. I

feel very lucky to have such an amazing job and work with such amazing kids, in which every day we get to

laugh, play, catch-up, dance and sing. (However, the kids all know I am not very good at dancing or sing-

ing).

During isolation, I have tried my best to keep busy. I have been doing a lot of cooking, gardening, puzzles,

walking the dogs and riding our bikes. We even tried camping in our back garden.

I cannot wait for school to come back so I can be back with all the kids, but until it is safe, I am enjoying interacting with them on

seesaw. Here are some images of what I have been up to in isolation.

Anna Clarke—Speech Pathologist

My name is Anna, and I am one of the Speech Pathologists at Marnebek School. I started working here in 2018.

I love my job because of the students! They make every day SO much fun. I also love knowing that my work with them is helping them communicate, and that skill will help them for the rest of their lives.

I tried to stay busy and entertained over the holidays. I did a lot of cooking, painting, walking, bike riding and Pilates!

Remote Learning Environment—Staff

We made some

hot cross buns

Spending time with the dogs Indi & Piper We camped in the back garden...for half a

night

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Caroline Bermingham—Speech Therapist

Hi everyone! My name is Caroline and I am one of three speech therapists here at Marnebek School. I started working at Marnebek at the beginning of this year, so I’m still new to the role but I have really enjoyed it so far. My favourite thing about being a speech therapist at Marnebek is that I get to work with so many wonderful students and teachers every single day. I also love being outside at lunchtime doing Lego play-skills with our students, it makes me so happy to see everyone playing so nicely together.

During this time in isolation, I have started some new hobbies and rediscovered some old ones. Usually I like to play team sports like basketball, but since we can’t play at the mo-ment I have been finding other ways to exercise during the week. I have enjoyed going for walks around the local lakes, and I have also found an interest in doing yoga at home. This is a new skill for me, but I have found it very relaxing to do at the beginning of the day before sitting down at my desk to work. I am missing all our students and teachers

very much, and I am looking forward to going back to school when it is safe for us all to be there.

Jasmine Ridoutt—Speech Pathologist

Hi all! My name is Jas, and I am one of the speech pathologists within the therapy team. I have only just started with Marnebek

this year. My favourite part of my job is getting to work with all the amazing kids in the Marnebek School community! Isolation

has been a tough time, especially not being able to see all your lovely faces, but I have been growing my plant family at home. I

look forward to seeing you all very soon!

Remote Learning Environment—Staff

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MOSOLATION UPDATE

Last week we introduced Liam Mara and John Wigg who are participating in Marnebek’s Mosolation challenge. This week we pre-sent you with an update and some new faces. Enjoy!

Remote Learning Environment—Staff

Dee PE Teacher Liam—Community Engagement Leader

Gerry—Food Tech Teacher

Lysan—Classroom Teacher Middle School

John Wigg—Learning Specialist Leader

Steve Z—Education Support

Rick Milsom-

Classroom

Teacher

Middle School

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Important information

SSG— Tuesday, 28 April

Whilst we are working remotely, we will still be hosting Student Support Group (SSG) meetings this Tuesday, April 28th.

Teachers will call families to discuss your child’s academic progress.

Please note that this meeting is mandatory for all children. If you are unable to hold an SSG on this day, inform your teacher

and book a preferred time throughout the week.

If you have any questions, please contact the school on 5996 3858 or if you need to get in touch with your child’s classroom

teacher. The office can supply you with the teacher’s email address.

Communication Channels

Please keep an eye on our website, we will continue to update information and provide links to relevant or useful guidance,

support and resources. Please also watch out for any push notifications via Compass.

We are very thankful that Book Club will be running in Term 2, using the special ‘Home Delivery’ option during COVID-19 restrictions. Please access the digital catalogue with the following link to purchase from the latest Issue – https://scholastic.com.au/book-club/virtual-catalogue-1/

As long as schools are closed, kids everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of audio books, including titles across six different languages, that will help them continue dreaming, learning, and just being kids.

All stories are free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet using the following link: https://stories.audible.com/start-listen

Enjoy!

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Useful links

HELPFUL LINKS FOR WELLBEING

How to cope with stress related to Novel Coronavirus:

https://headspace.org.au/young-people/how-to-cope-with-stress-related-to-covid-19/

Smiling Mind

This mindfulness app/website has self-guided mediation and lessons for adults/students to take part in:

https://www.smilingmind.com.au/

Reach Out

This mental health website that has a lot of resources for support, including a specific area for young people with concerns

about COVID-19:

https://au.reachout.com/

Kids Helpline

This mental health website that has a lot of resources for support, including a specific area for young people with concerns

about COVID-19:

https://kidshelpline.com.au/coronavirus

Want to talk to someone? Additional phone support services include:

Kids Helpline – 1800 55 1800

Headspace – 1800 650 890

Parent Helpline – 1300 1300 52

Beyond Blue – 1300 22 4636

Lifeline – 13 11 14