Welcome Back!

Welcome Back to Term 3!

I hope you've all had a well-earned break over the holidays. Personally, it has been a good break to spend quality time with the kids as well as a short trip away to Melbourne. We both also enjoyed a couple of days away from the kids too!

Semester 2 brought new challenges for us as we navigated our COVID normal lives, particularly with ongoing staffing issues. Many of my colleagues from other schools tell me about: their daily staff absences of up to 80 people, staff having no APT for weeks at a time and no thoughts of PLTs or planning days in teams this year. With this in mind, I think we have adapted as a community with exemplary resilience. Thank you for your perseverance and flexibility to ensure we can continue to run our school. However, we have the depths of winter and a number of staff taking leave to look forward to. I am hoping that our additional casual and teacher release staff will help with this additional pressure. 

There was also much to celebrate in Semester 1 as well. Classes and students are much more settled than they were in Term 1. This is due to the predictable routines and clear expectations you have established in your classrooms. Our end-of-semester assessments indicated that 96% of our students achieved good, very good, or excellent progress in their ILP Goals across all learning areas. This wouldn't be possible without the effort and attitude of our students, the commitment and dedication of our staff, and the support and partnership with our families and the wider community. 

Term 3 is often the most productive term for students' learning now that students have settled into their classes and before the rush of Term 4 begins. This term has a number of upcoming dates including lots of swimming. Please see the Jackson Termly Summary page for dates for this term. 

Workforce & HR Changes

On behalf of the Jackson School Community, I would like to officially welcome back Gabrielle Riedel-MacArthur who is returning back to us from Jennings St in a teacher release role. Megan joined us in Term 2 from Sunbury Macedon Ranges Special School and will now work in a casual capacity to support staff absences across the school. Nikki also joined us at the end of Term 2 from Sunshine SDS; Nikki and Laura Gianfriddo have very kindly offered to take Prep B until the end of the year. Thank you both for your willingness and flexibility to support our Prep students. Belinda, Nidarshie, Sarah, and Lauren there are no words to express my gratitude for your exhausting efforts to support our increasing number of Preps. This is a large and complex cohort of students who have missed out on some much-needed early childhood education over the last two years of the pandemic. Thank you.

I would also like to offer a huge welcome to Marg Keatley who will be working with us in a consultancy capacity each Wednesday as an outreach social worker across our community to support our most vulnerable and disengaged families and students. Marg has now left her position as the Keilor-St Albans SSS Team Leader and is no longer working for DET. It is an honour to have Marg's expertise available to us as a school. Lana Turner is our new SSSO Health and Wellbeing Key Contact (HWKC) who is a DET Social Worker and has also supported the school for many years. 

We currently have two Inclusion Education Support Staff and an Occupational Therapist position advertised.

COVID Overview & Operations Guide Update

Download the updated School Operations Guide below. The updated School Operations Guide and COVID-19 resources are now available on the Policy and Advisory Library, on the department’s public website. Please make sure you are familiar with this updated policy as there were a few errors made in Term 2 that would have been avoided if the processes outlined in the guide were followed.

The Commonwealth Department for Health and Aged Care and the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) has updated their recommendations for a winter dose of COVID-19 vaccine to help reduce severe disease from the emerging surge of Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariant infections. ATAGI specifically recommends that people aged 50 to 64 years should have their fourth dose, while people aged 30 to 49 years may choose to have a fourth shot.

As announced by the Premier on Friday 8th July, schools will continue to receive rapid antigen tests in Terms 3 and 4 (6 packs of 5 tests per term for staff and students). It is recommended that RATs are used by students and staff when symptomatic. Rapid antigen tests are also required to be used for five days if a student or staff member is an identified close contact of a confirmed case, and they are attending or working at a school onsite. If staff or students receive a positive test result at any time, they must report this through the Department of Health system (Rapid antigen tests | Coronavirus Victoria) or via the coronavirus hotline at 1800 675 398. Staff must also report a positive result to their school using EduPay, on the day they receive a positive test result.

DET strongly recommends staff wear masks when indoors to keep our community safe. Household contacts attending school who are over 8 years of age are required to wear face masks indoors unless they have a valid exemption. Everyone including students aged 8 years and above must wear a face mask when travelling on public transport, taxis, or ride-share vehicles. Lawful exemptions continue to apply to our students. We have a large supply of surgical and N95 masks available from the office. 

From 11.59 pm on Friday 24 June, 2022, parents and carers who are COVID-19 positive can leave self-isolation to transport children to or from school in a private vehicle.

The parent or carer must travel directly to and from the school only. They must remain in the vehicle at all times unless it is reasonably necessary to leave the vehicle to walk the child to and from the entrance of the school safely. They must wear a face mask at all times. Staff supervision at the start and end of the day will continue in Term 3. Families have been asked to notify the office before they arrive if they require their child to be brought to their vehicle.

For more information, please visit the COVID-19 Update page.

Buildings & Grounds

A number of building and grounds works have been completed over the holidays. Our Jackson Student Leadership Team (JSLT) asked me for more seating for recess and lunch, so we've purchased three new seating pods located at the back of the oval. These can also be used during lesson time as an outdoor learning space. New cubbies have been installed to enhance the playground. The Prep playground will be decommissioned soon to allow for the commencement of our AMP capital works program.

The Back Car Park / Bus Zone is now near completion. A new entry cross-over has been installed, a pedestrian walking path, new fences and gates. New electronic entry and exit gates will be installed shortly. This will provide a turning circle for the SDTP coaches and buses to allow our students to arrive safely on and off the buses in the morning and afternoon. This will not currently change bus operations until we have worked through the logistics of the capital works program with our builders, project managers and architects.

Thank you to Phil Cox for managing these projects. Phil would like to challenge staff to a Trivia Challenge to notice three other changes and improvements around the school. The first one to spot all of them wins a prize!

VGSA 2022 & Professional Practice Days

The VGSA 2022 has been approved by a majority of employees covered by the agreement and is currently lodged with the Fair Work Commission for certification. We will work with the Consultative Committee to transition from the VSGA 2017 to VSGA 2022 when DET publish further guidance.

If approved, teachers will be entitled to 2 additional professional practice days in 2022. For Term 3 2022 , the department recommends schools again hold their first professional practice day on the same day for all staff. This is to make it easier for schools to source casual relief teachers due to the state-wide staffing challenges. This will be discussed by the Consultative Committee before being motioned by School Council. This will be another pupil free day. Planning Days will still continue this term in the same format (100 mins collapsed PLT, 100 mins APT plus an additional 50 mins non face-to-face) as per Term 1&2 by using specialists to release PLTs for a full day.

NAIDOC Week - Get Up, Stand Up, Show Up

This week is National NAIDOC Week (3-10 July). Celebrations are held across Australia in the first week of July each year to celebrate and recognise the history, culture, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth. I encourage you to highlight and complete activities with your students around NAIDOC this week, including an Acknowledgement of Country.

Helena has invited our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to a "Campfire Conversation" on Wednesday as part of our involvement in the Self-Determination Reform. 

To download NAIDOC Education Resources, please visit: https://www.sbs.com.au/learn/resources/celebrate-naidoc-get-up-stand-up-show-up 

Curriculum Day - Monday 11th July

On Monday we will have our third Curriculum Day run by the Achievement SIT (Teaching and Learning Team). This will be focused on our AIP goals of Reflective, Responsive Teaching for Differentiated Learning. This builds on our prior work in Semester 1 on the Response to Intervention (RTI) Model and Lyn Sharratt's CLARITY 10 Assessment Lessons in PLTs. We will arrive at school as normal at 8:30 for an 8:45 start in the hall. At 11:30 am we will differentiate our professional learning for teachers and ESS. Teachers will stay in the hall to continue their work on Formative Assessment and ESS will meet in the library focused on Tier 1 Levels of Adjustment aligned to the Jackson Excellence in Teaching & Learning Framework. Morning tea and lunch will be provided. In line with current government advice, it is recommended staff wear masks when indoors this includes during the Curriculum Day on Monday to reduce the spread of COVID-19. After lunch staff can begin to prepare their classrooms and other learning environments for their student's arrival on Tuesday. There will be no briefing or staff meeting this week to give staff the time to set up their classrooms and update their classroom and corridor displays. 

Other information in this Termly Bulletin includes: 

• Mid-Cycle PDP Reviews
• Published Annual Report 2021
• New Child Safe Standards now in place
• Respectful Behaviours in the Community policy and orders
• IT Support: New SeeSaw Messaging
• VIT & WWCC Reminder
• Updated Timetables

I look forward to seeing you all on Monday. Enjoy the rest of your weekends. 

Anthony