From the Principal

Dear Parents, Staff, Students And Friends

It was such a celebration welcoming our Senior Students back to school on Tuesday 26 May.        They have been so happy to catch up with their friends and teachers and have shown great resilience in making the best out of such an ever changing landscape.  Equally we are all so excited in welcoming our Year 7 to 10 students back to school on Tuesday 9 June.  I have spoken to a number of parents and they also share the enthusiasm for their children returning to school.  I think I can imagine why!  Sincerely though, thanks so much to our parents who have worked even more arduously than usual in partnership with our teachers as co-teachers to ensure our students for the most part have made admirable progress with their learning. 

As you know all families have been provided with ‘Returning to School’ guidelines to share an understanding of how we keep all members of our community safe and well during this difficult time.  It is essential every family has read and discussed these guidelines because each and every one of us has a personal responsibility to ensure we preserve our own health and wellbeing and that of others across our community. 

I wish to take this opportunity to remind us all of the practices we require to support everyone: 

• Students are required to bring water bottles to school.  Drink fountains and taps can be used to refill water bottles.  Drinking from water fountains is not permitted.
• Teachers will dispense hand sanitizer at the end of Period 2 and Period 4, before students go to breaks.
• Students can access hand sanitizer at other times from receptions or the Coordinators Office if they choose.
• It is recommended that students carry a small bottle of their own hand sanitizer for personal use.
• Teachers will disinfect all equipment that is shared between students before and after use.
• Extra cleaning personnel have been employed throughout the school day to constantly disinfect high touch surfaces throughout the school day, ie door knobs, lockers, toilets etc.
• All tables and chairs will be disinfected daily.
• The Canteen will be closed until further notice.
• Parents are not permitted on site because of the likelihood of increased transmission between adults.  All communication will be conducted remotely and uniform purchases and finance operations can be undertaken online.

The DET and the Chief Medical Health Officer have stated that it is not practical or necessary to enforce physical distancing between students because of the low risk of transmission of COVID-19 from students.  As described above more vigilant environmental cleaning, coupled with regular hand hygiene, will become even more important to reduce the risk of coronavirus (COVID-19) transmission for both staff and students. 

Whilst many students will be excited about returning to school, there will also be other students who will be feeling some degree of trepidation and anxiety about their return.  We encourage parents to inform us if their children are struggling in any way with their return so as we can be put appropriate support in place to ease their transition back to normal school life.  Staff will certainly be closely monitoring the wellbeing of their students during this transition as they did during the remote learning phase. 

As Principal, I can not tell you how proud and privileged I am to be leading such a strong supportive community.  Our teachers and support staff have gone above and beyond to continue to bring out the best in our students.  Our students and parents have trusted us and worked cooperatively to gain the most from remote learning.  We could not have had such success if it wasn’t for everyone working together and remaining connected when we could have so easily become disengaged. 

I encourage you all to maintain your spirit of optimism because we are going to all come out of this successfully and will be better for the experience.  This is a time when we all need to show empathy towards others.  Many members of our community are understandably coping with many challenges that COVID-19 has dealt them.  Therefore, it is essential our students return to school and continue to treat each other with respect and most importantly not make jokes about this period of challenge.  Please be aware that we know students like to hug but this cannot happen.  Certainly behaviours such as pretend coughing may result in students being sent home, because such a poor choice can cause feelings of stress in both adults and students.  I ask parents to talk with their children about the need to not use the COVID-19 situation as an excuse for poor humour.   

As your Principal I am here for you and whilst there will be times of great challenge I know we will support each other as we always do to achieve great things and bring out the best in ourselves and each other. Please remember we are only a phone call or email or dare I say a Teams connection away, should you or your family require any assistance. 

Mr John Albiston

Principal