Welcome to our first news lettter of Term 3 2021. 

It is with a heavy heart that we find parents in NSW and Victoria facing lockdown, remote learning and uncertainty, and other states and territories on high alert, people in isolation and all facing border restrictions. We had all hoped this was behind us, and it is, as we know, especially hard on families to juggle kids, learning, work and the whole family's wellbeing during these times. 

We've been asked by several journalists whether we support teachers getting priority access to COVID vaccines, and here's what we said:

• It is incredibly important that children's education is not disrupted any more than it has to be, and for that to happen teachers need to be healthy and at work, preferably face to face with students in classrooms.
• When schools close, for whatever reason, parents find it extremely difficult to work. It is very hard to juggle anything when supervising students at home. With the best will in the world something has to give, and if parents don't work it puts extra stress and financial strain on families.
• Teachers are definitely frontline, essential workers and APC advocates strongly in favour of all front line workers being given priority access.
• Parents do not want teachers to be put at risk. Parents value teachers and the past 16 months have only increased their appreciation.

In addition, it's worth noting that schools are community hubs and have established relationships with local families. They can be a great avenue to get essential messages out to the community, especially those where cultural or language barriers make it more difficult to reach parents through other channels.

We applaud the many schools, especially Catholic and independent schools that are able to, who are offering their premises as possible vaccine centres. We all need to work together at the moment.

This newsletter has updates on a range of education issues, the newly announced NAPLAN revamp, news on our curriculum review submission, and more. We have completed a number of new case studies and parent tip videos that have already been shared by a number of organisations and schools, and are very popular on our social media channels. There are links to all of these free resources below. Please watch them and share them with your networks as they highlight some of the great opportunities out there for young people, as well as the bond between these young people and their parents and mentors, and we all need something positive to think about at the moment.

Take care everyone, especially those in the midst of lockdown.

Jenni Rickard, APC President 
president@austparents.edu.au