Echuca Primary School teachers and students celebrate 100 days of Preps being at school. Back row: teachers Tayla Slattery, Gemma McGowan, Kate Donehue and Caitlyn Lourey. Middle row: students River Priest, Ned Hornsby, Noah Leyden, Reggie Nuttall, Taylah Clarke and Dominic Calleja. Front row: Jamison Campbell (holding the number 1), Lenny Brewis, Ivy Shelly, Imogen Smith, Indie O'Brien and Jude Micalizzi. Photo: Cath Grey
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THE year 2020 has looked very different for everyone, but particularly for students going through their first year of school.
In previous years, Prep students have celebrated 100 days of schooling — but this time around the focus had changed.
“Instead of ‘100 days of school’ we changed to ‘100 days of learning’," Echuca Primary School Prep teacher Kate Donahue said.
“As we know, this year has been so interrupted, but the students did a great job to get through so far.”
While students and staff are now back to online learning, this didn't stop them from celebrating last week.
“We haven't had a whole lot of happy things to celebrate this year, so we needed to make sure we did for this milestone,” she said.
“Despite working from home, we had students who were improving their reading and writing skills, so even though it was difficult, they were doing well.”
While the COVID-19 pandemic has felt like it's been happening for a long time, staff said it may have felt longer for the young students.
“The first year of school can feel long in a normal year for the Prep students, so we needed to give them something to enjoy,” she said.
Students were allowed to wear casual clothes and take part in a number of activities throughout the day.
“We had groups rotating between a few activities,” Ms Donahue said.
“There were students decorating biscuits, making ‘100 day’ hats, painting, and we had a teacher taking pictures of students and using an ageing app to show them what they would look like if they were 100 years old.”
