Principal News

Dear Members of the St Raphael's school community,

The season of Advent begins this coming Sunday, 28th of November. As we enter the Church’s new year, the season of Advent reminds us that we can look forward to and prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas.

The first week of Advent is traditionally dedicated to the theme of hope. As you would be aware, Hope is one of our school's four Gospel values that the children focus on each year throughout Term Four.

At the start of this week, we light the first of the four candles in the Advent wreath: the candle of Hope. As Advent is a time of waiting and preparing, having hope as our first focus is important – it sets a tone for our waiting.

End of Year Celebrations

As we enter Week 8 it is an extremely busy time when many aspects of 2021 come to a conclusion as teachers conduct their final assessment of students, moderate in teams, complete student reports and ensure that all of our students finish this disrupted year off on a high.

Our Year 6 children will receive information regarding their end of year celebrations and specific events. After all that they have had to endure over the last two years, we aim to make this a fun and memorable time for these students as they come to the end of their primary school days. 

Our scheduled Christmas Carols on Tuesday 7th December has been cancelled. We have waited to see if it would be safe to conduct the carols and have decided that in the best interests of all that we will have to cancel this event. 

Our 2021 whole school sports day will be held at Coburg Athletics Track on Thursday 9th December

Covid Restrictions

We have been informed that masks do not need to be worn when outdoors, however are still required indoors for all adults and children in Year 3 - 6. However, we do ask all adults wear a mask when on the school grounds - indoors or outdoors. Students who are 12 and over and not fully vaccinated are still allowed to attend external school events such as sports day and fun days as long as there is at least one teacher from the school present at the event. 

There have also been changes to the isolation restrictions for any positive COVID cases and Personal Close Contacts (PCC's).

Students who come into contact with a confirmed positive case at school won’t have to self-quarantine. These contacts will be required to get a standard (PCR) test and isolate until they get a negative result.

Students or staff exposed at school will need to show a negative PCR test result to return to work or school – with recommended rapid antigen testing thereafter.

Once a student or staff member receives a negative test, they can attend school. This applies to any individuals who were identified as PCCs.

Self-isolation continues to be required for individuals who have had more than four hours of contact with a positive case from their household, accommodation or care setting.

They must isolate for seven days if fully vaccinated or 14 days if not fully vaccinated, with a PCR test required on day 0 and for release.

Children under 12 who are household contacts are considered fully vaccinated if everyone else in their household aged over 12 is fully vaccinated. 

In addition to isolation changes for contacts, people who have COVID-19 will be required to isolate for 10 days, instead of 14 days.

I’m sure that there will be further changes in the coming weeks and we will keep you informed.

Have a great week

Regards

Damian

COVID TEST INFORMATION

Good practice for general circumstances: If someone in your house is waiting for COVID-19 test results, we ask that you remain vigilant in regards to sending your children to school.

Primary Close Contact Testing: Households of Primary Close Contacts (PCCs) are no longer required to limit their movements or stay at home.

Primary Close Contacts: Primary Close Contacts are required to quarantine and isolate for the time period as specified by the Department of Health (dependent on individual circumstances).

For any queries, please email lgamble@srprestonwest.catholic.edu.au

COVIDSafe Assurance Program for Schools

Under the COVIDSafe Assurance Program for Schools, which began late last year, all Victorian schools receive site visits from experts who will provide school site-specific advice on implementing health and safety strategies to minimise the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

The Department of Health (DH) has resumed visits under the COVIDSafe Assurance Program for Schools with consideration for areas that are currently experiencing high numbers of COVID-19 cases. These visits are a health check of the COVIDSafe practices at your school and we received a visit this morning from the DH. 

Our school is fully compliant and we were commended for fully adhering to the recommended safe practices within schools. Our learning zones are working well and we thank everyone for your patience and understanding in helping us to implement these changes and keep our staff and students safe. 

We urge all members to continue to adhere to social distancing at pick up times and refrain from congregating at the school gates either before or after the children are dismissed. This pandemic is not over and we must all remain diligent so that we can keep the children learning at school for as long as possible.

Rapid Antigen Testing Information

The Victorian Government is implementing a rapid antigen testing program for students who are identified as close contacts of a confirmed COVID-19 case from Monday 15 November. It will be available to students who have been identified as close contact because of school contact but not to those identified because of household contact. This program will help unvaccinated or partially vaccinated students to safely return to school as quickly as possible after being identified as a primary close contact (PCC), reducing their isolation period to seven days instead of 14. To support the roll-out of this program, resources to support parents and carers can be found at coronavirus.vic.gov.au. This information will be added to over the coming weeks.

How the rapid antigen testing program will work?

The at-home rapid antigen testing program is an opt-in program for unvaccinated, or partially vaccinated, students. Parents and carers can choose if their child will participate. 

Our school will provide you with rapid antigen test kits if you opt-in. You do not need to buy these test kits. Following an exposure at our school, you will be notified that your child has been identified as a primary close contact (PCC) of a confirmed COVID-19 case. If your child is eligible (meaning they are unvaccinated, or partially vaccinated and not a household PCC) and you want to take part in the at-home rapid antigen testing program, your child must first quarantine at home for seven days. On day six of quarantine, your child must get a standard (PCR) test at your local COVID-19 testing site. If the test is negative, you must bring evidence of the negative test to the front office. We will then provide you with a supply of rapid antigen tests which come with instructions.

Your child will then be required to complete a rapid antigen test at home before they come to school on any day between days eight to 14.  Before coming to school each day, you must report the result of each test using a web page (we will provide you with the link). If the test is negative, your child can come to school. If the test did not work for some reason, your child cannot attend school. And if the result is positive, you must take your child for a PCR test as soon as possible. Your child does not need to complete the tests on weekends.

Parents should continue to follow current school policy and public health advice. If your child is unwell, even with the mildest of symptoms, they must stay at home and get tested for COVID-19 with a standard (PCR) test, regardless of a negative rapid antigen test result. Rapid antigen tests do not replace PCR tests for the diagnosis of COVID-19. If we do have a confirmed COVID-19 case in our school, we will communicate with you as soon as we can, including with instructions on how to access the tests, conduct them, how to report the results, and support available if needed. 

The statewide roll-out of rapid antigen testing is one of many strategies currently in place to support schools during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure we are doing everything we can to keep students and staff safe. 

Concessional School Fees in 2022

Please refer to the Office News section for important information regarding fees support for the 2022 school year.

2021 School Fees

All school fees are overdue. If you have not contacted the school regarding fee support and have not reconciled your child's 2021 fees then please do so asap to avoid being contacted directly by the school.

We continue to work with the MACS Finance Department and our school accountant on offering credits on levies for activities that were unable to proceed with throughout the year. These levy amounts will vary depending on the extent of each year level's cancelled extracurricular activities. We ask for your patience and support as we address this matter.