From the Deputy 

COVID Update

The Victorian Government will continue to supply schools with a limited number of Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) for the remainder of the year, therefore, we will no longer be issuing a box per fortnight as per Semester 1.

As the school has some left over stock of RATs and we will be issuing 2 boxes to each student this week. After this time, families are welcome and encouraged to request and collect additional supply from the school office.

Testing will continue to be required when students display symptoms, as well as in order to attend school if they are close contacts of a positive household case. Therefore, it is important that families have ample supply of RATs on hand.

Please continue to notify the school if your child tests positive for COVID, or is attending school as a close contact.

Masks need to be worn by students over the age of 8 if attending school as a close contact. 

The current advice, whilst not mandated, is for masks to be worn in any indoor setting. The school has a good supply of child and adult sized masks, and families and students are welcome to request them from their classroom teacher if they would like to wear them at school whilst indoors.

Many schools have been impacted by circulating illnesses in Term 2, and it is anticipated that the situation in Term 3 might be worse. If your child is negative on a RAT test, but are unwell in any way please keep them home until they recover.

Reporting Survey

Thank you to the families who took the time to respond to our Reporting and Communication Survey sent late last term. 

• 91.7% agreed or strongly agreed that the report was easy for them to understand and follow
• 80.5% agreed or strongly agreed that the report was personalised to their child, and an accurate representation of who they are as an individual
• 83.3% were satisfied or very satisfied overall with the reporting document

We thank all of the teachers for writing useful reports for our families and we will use the suggestions from families to make the reports even better. Some families indicated that they would be happy to participate in follow up focus groups and we will be in touch with them in the next few weeks.

Student of the Week Awards - Integrity

Much of our Semester 1 weekly awards at assembly have focused on our school norms of Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible. For Semester 2 we will be turning our attention to our school Values of Respect, Integrity, Compassion and Justice.

For the month of July and the value of Integrity, teachers will be looking out for and awarding:

• Students who identify or show strong moral principles
• Students who show honesty and/or speak up
• Students who show pride and responsibility
• Students who show accountability
• Students who show commitment and can help / assist others
• Students who show courage over comfort

Families may also wish to discuss these in the home setting. Children learn values through daily interactions, set examples, and their exposure in the wider community.

Jump Back up July

The focus on actionforhappiness.org for July is Jump Back Up July, and is all about bouncing back from adversity and building resilience. Families may wish to undertake some of these suggestions together. 

New Child Safe Standards commencing 1st July

From 1 July 2022, 11 new Child Safe Standards (CSS) replaced Victoria’s seven previous CSS and principles. The new CSS are underpinned by Ministerial Order No. 1359: Implementing the Child Safe Standards – Managing the risk of child abuse in schools and school boarding premises (MO 1359), which was released by the Victorian Government on 10 February 2022.

The new child safe standards are:

Standard 1 - Organisations establish a culturally safe environment in which the diverse and unique identities and experiences of Aboriginal children and young people are respected and valued.

Standard 2 - Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture.

Standard 3 - Children and young people are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.

Standard 4 - Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.

Standard 5 - Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice.

Standard 6 - People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice.

Standard 7 - Processes for complaints and concerns are child-focused.

Standard 8 - Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children and young people safe through ongoing education and training.

Standard 9 - Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed.

Standard 10 - Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is regularly reviewed and improved.

Standard 11 - Policies and procedures document how the organisation is safe for children and young people.

The new Ministerial Orders define the actions schools must take to meet the requirements associated with the new child safe standards. They aim to promote the safety of children, prevent child abuse and ensure effective processes are in place to respond to and report all allegations of child abuse. The standards work by embedding child safety in everyday thinking and practice, provide a minimum standard of child safety, and highlight the role of everyone in the community to keep children safe from abuse.

Our school is compliant with the new orders and as a result has updated several relevant policies which can be found below. These will also be placed on our school website in the next few weeks.