Throughout this challenging time of the global pandemic, Catholic Education in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, has maintained its commitment to providing quality learning for all our students.

Our Catholic schools have quickly adapted to the new environment providing remote learning to students at home and also in the classroom for children of essential service workers, or those that need that just need to be there. Our dedicated teachers are committed to seeing their students through this difficult time with a sense of fun and creativity. Their focus has been on providing a learning experience that builds community at a time of physical social distancing’.

Rebecca Casey, a Year 5 and 6 teacher, from Holy Trinity Primary School, Curtin, makes sure students working remotely from their homes feel connected to their school and those classmates who still need to be at school.

Rebecca created a fun vlog of her day to share with her students who were working remotely. The video follows her as she makes her way to work and walks through school to her class. Teachers, office staff and other students wave and send messages to the children in her class.

This simple idea has had a very positive impact on some of her families. Parent, Vanessa Prail, whose daughter Emma is in Rebecca’s class, said that they were grateful for the connection after their first week of isolation.

“It was nice to see the smiles and laughter as our family watched the video,” said Vanessa. “Our teachers have been working to stay connected with our kids, sending not only school tasks, but also personal emails to check in with them. We are so grateful for this connection which has been important in keeping the kids happy and motivated.”

“Emma was so amazed to see that there were not many people at school and told me how grateful she was that the teachers were still there working so hard for them.”

Sometimes it is the little things that go a long way in helping children deal with challenges and uncertainty.