Read more to hear about our Distance Education Virtual Connection Day and some highlights from our teaching staff.
DE Virtual Connection Day
We had originally scheduled three opportunities for our Distance Education families to connect with each other and our staff team, two outdoors and one indoors. However, due to the inclement weather, our outdoor Connection Days were cancelled and the spotlight was focussed instead on our Virtual Connection Day on Thursday 30 November.
We encouraged all students to participate and engage at the level they feel comfortable with, so they were able to choose how to get involved:
full participation (with video, voice, text chat and activities)
limited participation (text chat and activities, no video/voice)
spectator participation (simply observe the interactions and antics)
Everyone was invited to dress-up with a Christmas costume/decorations, which led to many interesting conversations about fashion and how “Jesus is the reason for the season”.
Three online sessions were run for students of various ages, where there was plenty of bubbly chatter, fun, laughter, games and competitions packed into an hour for each session.
Please read some of our staff highlights below.
Mrs Williams’ highlights:
"I loved that the games were age-appropriate for students, allowing the element of a challenge but also easy enough to participate. All our students showed a keen interest in the games and were happy to have teachers join in the fun. It made me think that next year, we could enjoy a teachers vs student challenge in Kahoot!"
Miss Dawson’s highlights:
"Our Year 1 - 5 students loved our time together, as did the teachers. We could've enjoyed even more time! Even when our games came to an end, we enjoyed the opportunity just to chat and connect. The students were in great moods with all the fun and frivolity, it was a delight to spend that time 'hanging out' with them."
Mrs Malan’s highlights:
"This was my first Virtual Connection Day and I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to connect with our students in this way. It is a real blessing in today's society to join online and play games as if we were all in the room together.
We played a Christmas themed game of “What am I” where students had to guess the object based on clues. It was wonderful to see the smiles on the students' faces, the giggles of their laughter and to hear them share some things about themselves.
Students who did not want to have their cameras on were still very much part of the experience and participated either with just audio or in the chat. I encourage those who have been thinking about joining in for one of these events to come along and see what it’s like and it may just be something you will enjoy being part of in future!"