Engagement and Wellbeing 

Term 4, Day 1 - A Smooth Transition Back In (with Honey the Story Dog too!) 

A very special thank you to all parents and carers at both campuses for supporting the smooth transition back to Term 4 this morning. We know that lots of families have been working with their children about adjusting back into the school environment, to get off to a good start. It was also great to hear that many families found the transition article in the final newsletter of last term beneficial.

For those families who have a child struggling to come back into school, please discuss this with your child’s teacher as they will be more than happy to come up with a plan to help.

For the remainder of this week, we will also have ‘Honey the Story Dog’ out the front of our Buninyong campus to provide special hugs for those who may need it. If this may support your child, please let them know. Thank you to Jacqui and Honey for offering this support. It’s much appreciated.

Continuing to keep our students & staff safe upon returning to school

As was the case last time we returned from remote and flexible learning, we will be enacting a range of safety measures for our students and staff during Term 4. Outlined below are some reminders about those measures for your reference:

Unwell students & staff

Both staff and students are only permitted to come onsite if well. Any staff member or student displaying the signs and symptoms associated with COVID-19 should remain at home until signs and symptoms resolve and seek medical advice if needed. 

If a student presents with signs or symptoms associated with COVID-19, parents/carers will be called for immediate collection. We understand that this may be frustrating as it can impact your work life and plans for the day, but rest assured we are doing this in the best interest of our whole community and their safety. Students can then return once well.

Parents wishing to keep their child at home

The Department of Education and Training (DET) has made it clear that all students must return to school when assigned to do so for Term 4, unless there is clearly stated medical advice explaining otherwise. Should this be relevant to your child(ren), please contact the school to speak with a principal relating to that medical advice and the support for learning that can then take place.

Should a parent elect to keep their child home without relevant medical advice or an attendance plan, unfortunately no learning will be provided by the school at this time and the child will be marked absent. This will be standard practice across the state.

Hygiene - Access to Sanitiser, Hand Washing & Cleaning

During Term 4, we will have plenty of sanitiser available for students to access in common areas and classrooms. Children will then be reminded to wash/sanitise their hands at the following times throughout the day:

• Upon entering school
• Before brain break / fruit snack
• Before eating snack and lunch
• Upon returning back to the classroom after snack, lunch or toileting

Staff will be continuing the work on educating students around correct hygiene through the use of highly visible resources in each room. Those being:

• Be a Soapy Hero
• Cover Your Cough
• Wash Your Hands

In addition to this, high contact touch points such as tables, door handles, and toilets will be cleaned by a team of onsite cleaners throughout the day. This is in addition to already existing cleaning measures put in place.

Externally in the yard, nominated sets of high-use adventure play equipment will have additional supplies of sanitiser for use.

Should your family not want your child to use the supplied sanitiser, we ask that you send a suitable supply in a small container that your child can carry with them.

Use of Drink Bottles

All parents are strongly encouraged to send their child with a drink bottle each day and check that they have it when departing home. Current advice states that our drinking fountains and bubble taps will remain out of action and we will be working with staff to ensure students have access to their drink bottles during break times.

Physical/Social Distancing

Managing adults onsite

As per Departmental guidelines, we will continue to limit access to our school sites (both Buninyong and Scotsburn campuses) to those delivering essential school services and operations during Term 4.

Should you have a query, please stop at the school gate and call through to our office where an administrator will  advise of the next steps.

To help promote the above, key signage has been placed at entry points for both campuses.

Just like you, we hope that this all resolves as soon as practical and thank you in advance for supporting the safety of our community.

Drop off and collection of students

We will also continue to slightly stagger the end of each school day, with classes being dismissed gradually from 3:24 pm – 3:30 pm. Given the gradual nature of morning drop offs and the fact we have so many entry points to the school grounds (Buninyong Campus), we won’t be staggering the start of each school day. Low numbers at Scotsburn mean there is no need to stagger the school start time either.

Dismissal times for each of the classes are listed below:

Buninyong Campus:

Scotsburn Campus:

* Given bus routes and other small campus responsibilities, dismissal of students will start 2 minutes prior to that of Buninyong campus.

Please note: Adults are expected to adhere to physical/social distancing at all times and this will be monitored at both campuses to ensure the safety of our community. We are sure that everyone will do their best with this and the current processes will continue until the end of term 2.

Continuing Friday Broadcasts

Friday afternoon broadcasts will continue as we support physical distancing for Term 4. We aim to release the broadcast at 2:15pm via Compass, however, depending on the day these times can fluctuate. Rest assured, we will notify all our families once the broadcast is available.

No onsite assemblies will take place until further advised.

Excursions and Events

With the current climate of low case numbers, there has been a relaxation of restrictions around excursions and events for Term 4. 

Whilst we aim to provide our students with a fun and engaging experience at school, we will be making decisions about excursions on a case-by-case nature, ensuring that student and staff safety are paramount when determining risk. For many pre-organised excursions, we have modified these to take place in-school where we can still provide our students with a meaningful experience under our guidance and care.

Bus Travel

Bus travel will continue for Term 4 for those applicable students. Buses will be equipped with sanitiser and physical/social distancing strategies will be in effect.

Wearing of Face Masks

All parents and carers are required to wear face masks when engaging in outdoor activities. If coming onsite to speak with our office staff, please continue the great work with this.

Whilst children are not mandated to wear a face mask at this time, those that wish to do so, can.