Wisemans Ferry Public School principal Deirdre Dorbis dressed up for National Simultaneous Storytime. Photo supplied by NSW Department of Education
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<p>Good planning and strong school community partnerships have helped schools respond to the challenges of COVID-19, according to two principals who shared their school’s experience with Secretary Mark Scott on the <a href="https://education.nsw.gov.au/news/secretary-update/every-student-podcast">Every Student Podcast</a>.</p>
<p>Deirdre Dorbis, principal of Wisemans Ferry Public School, and Dwayne Hopwood, principal of Ashfield Boys High School, said having a plan in place made the quick response and shift to learning from home easier.</p>
<p>At Wisemans Ferry Public School, a school with 41 enrolments, the staff and students had already experienced disruption with bushfires impacting school operations in Term 4 last year followed by flooding earlier this year.</p>
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<p>In Week 3 of Term 1 we were greeted with floods,” Ms Dorbis said. “The only way to get to school at that point was via boat, obviously not a safe option. So the students couldn’t get to school.”</p>
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<p>Some students were unable to access the school for almost two weeks so teachers set up lessons to ensure students could continue learning from home, a practice that helped during the COVID-19 pandemic with all students completing one unit of work.</p>
<p>“It was a matter of refining our practice, learning from the floods to ensure that we could do it a little bit better, ensuring we were following our teaching and learning programs so students wouldn’t miss out on the learning.”</p>
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<figure><img title="dwayne-hopwood-1094x638" src="https://education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/en/home/news/latest-news/planning-for-the-worst-and-hoping-for-the-best/image/dwayne-hopwood-1094x638.jpg/_jcr_content/renditions/cq5dam.web.1280.1280.jpeg" alt="Principal and four students sitting at a table talking." /><figcaption><span class="show-on-sr">Image:</span>Dwayne Hopwood with students from Ashfield Boys High School.</figcaption></figure>
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<p>At Ashfield Boys High School, far removed from bushfires and floods, the focus was on planning for the worst from COVID-19 but hoping for the best.</p>
<p>“We had a really comprehensive educational continuity plan in place in anticipation that something would happen,” Mr Hopwood said.</p>
<p>The school used Google Classroom to deliver lessons to students online, loaning out school laptops and dongles to ensure students had sufficient access to both devices and internet.</p>
<p>Teachers at Ashfield Boys found the experience “overwhelmingly positive” but also challenging at times to keep students engaged with online learning.</p>
<p>Now that students have returned to school full-time, both schools are keen to get back to a sense of normality, working within the guidelines of restrictions.</p>
<p>“I’m very keen to get the boys back doing lots of the extracurricular activities that we run,” Mr Hopwood said.</p>
<p>Among several activities run at the school is a volunteering program with students recently acknowledged by the local council for teaching residents at a nearby nursing home how to use iPads and mobile phone technology.</p>
<h3>At Wisemans Ferry, staff are eager to engage with their school community.</h3>
<p>“We’re looking forward to welcoming our families back onto site so they can celebrate and participate in the student learning with us,” Ms Dorbis said.</p>
<p>Reflecting on the pandemic period and disruption from bushfires and floods, Ms Dorbis said keeping her students informed helped with their resilience and wellbeing.</p>
<p>“Our kids want to be at school and it was lovely when they all came back, it was like the first day of school all over again,” she said.</p>
<p>Mr Hopwood concedes the experience hasn’t changed his school community too much but strengthened what they already do, highlighting the important relationship between a student and their teachers.</p>
<p>“It’s reaffirmed for everybody the primacy and importance of face-to-face teaching,” Mr Hopewood said.</p>
<p>“The digital world is a great tool but it can’t replace the relationship and the magic that happens in a great classroom.”</p>
<p>Listen to the full episode now:</p>
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<div class="whooshkaa-widget-player" data-episode-id="671924" data-theme="dark" data-visual="true" data-disable-cookies="true" data-height="190" data-enable-volume="true"><iframe src="https://webplayer.whooshkaa.com/episode/671924?theme=dark&;visual=true&;disable-cookies=true&;enable-volume=true" width="100%" height="180" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe></div>
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<p>Read the transcript of <a href="https://education.nsw.gov.au/news/secretary-update/every-student-podcast-deirdre-dorbis-and-dwayne-hopwood">Every Student Podcast: Deirdre Dorbis and Dwayne Hopwood</a>.</p>
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