Dear Parents and Carers,

As you are all now aware, following advice from the Chief Health Officer, the Victorian Government has advised that schools can begin a phased return to on-site schooling.

To support all school staff to prepare for this transition, Monday 25 May will be a pupil-free day. On this day no students are to attend school or engage in remote learning.

First stage school return: Prep, Grade 1 and Grade 2 students, will return to school from Tuesday 26 May.

Second stage school return: Grades 3 – Yr 10 students will return to school from Tuesday 9 June.

To support a successful transition back to on-site schooling there will be operational changes implemented at school. These changes reflect the message from the Victorian Chief Health Officer, that everyone in the Victorian community has a role to play in protecting themselves and keeping the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) suppressed.

Following is a ‘Return to School Operations Guide for Families’. Please take the time to read this thoroughly as it provides vital information for families.

Upon students return to on-site schooling, families will need to ensure the following:

· Return of devices – if borrowed during remote learning

· Return of all school materials and resources

· Adherence to the Return to School Operations Guide for Families

I thank students and families for their incredible efforts in engaging in remote and flexible schooling and, in doing so, helping to flatten the curve of the pandemic.

More information about the return to school and coronavirus (COVID-19) can be found on the Department’s website, which will continue to be updated: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/department/Pages/coronavirus.aspx

Thank you again for your continued support and patience during this challenging time. We look forward to welcoming our students back to the classroom.

RETURN TO SCHOOL OPERATIONS GUIDE FOR FAMILIES

Attendance on-site: Prep, Grade 1 & Grade 2

· All unwell students must stay home.

· Visitors to school grounds will be limited to those delivering or supporting essential school services and operations.

· Parents should only enter the school grounds when absolutely necessary to do so, contacting the school prior by phone or email is essential.

· All school activities dependent on parental involvement (excursions, reading etc) are cancelled.

· Whole school assemblies are cancelled.

· Activities that involve on-site attendance by students from different schools (e.g. interschool sport) have been cancelled.

School arrival and departure

· Arrival times will not change from normal school operation.

All Prep, 1 & 2 students to enter and depart through the front gates on Commercial Street or rear gate via Game Street.

· When dropping off your child, please do not enter the school grounds. Staff will be in attendance to welcome and guide your child to their classroom.

· Departure times will be staggered:

Prep Rivett & Prep/1 Brown – 3:00 pm (plus any siblings onsite)
Grade 1 McLean & all Grade 2s - 3:15 pm (plus any siblings onsite)

Parents are not to enter the school grounds at the end of the school day.

Parents must observe physical distancing by not congregating around school entry points.

Hygiene

All students will be encouraged to undertake regular hand hygiene, particularly on arrival to school, before and after eating, after blowing their nose, coughing, sneezing or using the toilet. This will be supervised by staff where required.

Hand sanitiser will be provided in every occupied room.
Bubble taps will remain closed. Instead, students should bring their own water bottle for use (and refilling) at school.
Students will continue to eat recess snacks and lunch in normal designated areas. As always, sharing of food should not occur.
There will be an extension of routine environmental cleaning, including progressive cleaning throughout the day to ensure that risks of transmission are reduced for high-touch services.
Playground equipment can be used, however students will be directed to practice hand hygiene before and after use.

Management of an unwell student

It is important that any student who becomes unwell while at school returns home. While it is not always the case that a student who is unwell with flu-like symptoms will have coronavirus (COVID-19), students experiencing compatible symptoms with coronavirus (COVID-19), such as fever, cough or sore throat, will be isolated in an appropriate space with suitable supervision and collected by a parent/carer as soon as possible.

INFORMATION FOR PARENTS & CARERS RE: SCHOOL CAMPS

Unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic has affected us all in a myriad of ways and unfortunately the ability to organise and run school camps has also been affected.

We have made the difficult decision to cancel the upcoming Year 10 Snow Trip and the Grade 3/4 camp to Adelaide, both planned for August 2020.
At this stage we have delayed the decision to cancel the 2020 Year 9 camp to Melbourne and the 5/6 camp to Melbourne in November until we get further advice from the Department of Education regarding running camps in Terms 3 or 4 2020. We will not be asking for any payments to be made towards these camps until further notice.
The Grade 5/6 Somers Camp has not been officially cancelled, however we have been notified that camps are not to run in Term 2 at all, so I don’t believe students will be taking part in this camp in June this year. There may be a possibility that this camp can be postponed so I will keep families updated as soon as I hear more about this situation.
For those parents who have made payments towards camps that are now not running in 2020, I have attached a link below for you to access and provide feedback to Yvonne Matotek as to how you would like this payment handled. For those registered for the Somers Camp I would ask that you wait on actioning this until we get official notification from the Department of Education as to whether it will be postponed or cancelled for 2020.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScMWT7n02rT2apA6wy63pcGYKwSg0jIsKevE038Rg9DpKgACg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Merbein P-10 College Newsletter

Issue 11 · 19 May 2020

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