DARRAWEIT Guim Primary School students had plenty to look forward to returning to school including seeing their friends and new football posts, according to principal Carol Booker.
Ms Booker said it was good to have the students back at school when restrictions in regional Victoria eased in time for term four.
She said since they had returned, the school had almost 100 per cent attendance.
“We surveyed the kids when they came back, and the number one thing they missed was their friends,” Ms Booker said.
“We had a couple of kids that really excelled working from home, but they couldn’t wait to get back in the classroom.
“Even though they told us in the survey things they liked, like not having to get dressed and that they could do subjects when they wanted to, they all still said they wanted to be back in the classroom.
“I take my hat off to the parents they did a great job, but they were happy to have them back at school.”
Ms Booker said the period of remote learning gave teachers a chance to find out which areas of academic learning needed improvement.
“On the academic side, maths was okay, but their writing we noticed didn’t progress as much – which is no fault of anybody,” she said.
“So, it’s nice to have them back and have that prompting. We’ve actually put in an extra session of writing a week so they can improve.”
While they were remote learning, students were given a choice one day each week, selecting which subject they wanted to focus on and complete activities for – reading, writing, or maths.
“The other thing we’re keeping is, we introduced a student choice day, so they still had to do reading, writing and maths, and we’re continuing that at school,” Ms Booker said.
“So at least one session a week, whether it be maths, reading or writing, and the kids have their goals, and they decide, I think that’s a nice transition.”
Boosted learning and goal-setting were not the only things to look forward to for students after they came back to brand new football goals on their oval.
“During the lockdown we were able to source these footy posts, so that was a nice thing to come back to,” the principal said.
“We had three posts over there and two of them were broken. That was great for the kids to come back to. We are doing painting and getting a mural done, so it’s all been very exciting.”
