A message from the Principal

Welcome back to a brand new term. There is a real sense of excitement around the school as we prepare to welcome our students back to onsite learning and the staff here at SKiPPS are thrilled to be getting back to what we love doing.

Reflecting on term 3, on behalf of our school, I want to say a big thank you to all our students, parents and carers for your continued resilience and support. 

I know remote and flexible learning has not always been easy, but through our collective efforts, our students have continued to make valuable progress in their learning. You can be confident that our school will support any student who has fallen behind to catch up.

Below I will explain how SKiPPS will approach this exciting transition back to face to face learning in a COVIDsafe way;

As when students returned from our first period of Remote Learning in term 2, our first priority is the wellbeing, relationships and connections for each child. We know that learning happens best when students are happy, connected and calm and so we will be striving to ease any anxieties, re-establish routines and relationships and put a smile of every face. 

Above all else as we return to face to face learning If you child is ill or is feeling unwell, they must not attend school. They must remain home and seek medical advice.

Return to school dates

• Students in all year levels will return to face to face learning from next Monday (12th October).
• All students are expected to attend school from this date. Remote learning will not continue unless children need to be absent for an extended period of time due to health or medical reasons. For those families, please contact us so we can make an appropriate plan.

Staggered start and finish times

• As in Term 2, we will be implementing staggered start and finish times to reduce the number of students, parents and carers congregating at peak times.
• Students in years Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 will continue to start school at 9am and finish at 3:30pm each day.
• Our Year 3-6 students will start school ten minutes earlier each day at 8:50am and also finish ten minutes earlier at 3:20pm.

Drop-off and pick-up arrangements

• School staff will open the gates and provide supervision from 8:45am and no students should be at school before this time (unless attending TheirCare). Students are asked to arrive as close to their start time as possible rather than arriving early and socialising.
• Similarly, after school, students and families are encouraged to go straight home rather than congregate outside the school gates.
• If families have children in both F-2 and 3-6 it is ok for all siblings to arrive prior to 8:50am and then wait on the playground or oval after school for their younger siblings to finish
• To allow for greater social distancing, we ask that Foundation and Year 5/6 children enter and leave the school through the back gates (near the pencil fence) and Year 1/2/3/4 children through the front and side gates near the oval and car park.
• Parents are requested to respect social distancing protocols at busy times and spread out on the oval or in the park to avoid congestion. Face masks must be worn by all parents and carers at these times.
• Parents and other visitors will not be allowed onto our school site (unless this is completely essential). Students will say goodbye to their parents on the oval/park and they will come into the school on their own.
• Teachers will take their classes out of the school onto the oval (Year 1/2/3/4 classes) and through the back gates into the park (Foundation and Year 5/6 children) at the end of their school day and children will be dismissed to parents from here. If older children normally walk home by themself then they can continue to do this.

Break times

• As we have the luxury of so much available outdoor space, we will not be running staggered break times. We will however take the precaution of timetabling our different levels to a particular zone where they will play for both break times in a day in their year level 'bubbles'.
• Levels will rotate around these zones during the week. This measure will help allow for greater distancing and avoid large scale mixing between different cohorts of students.

Contacting the school

• If parents/carers need to speak to the school office, myself, Michelle or their child's teacher, we ask that you do this by phone or email wherever possible to help protect our staff. Any longer meetings will be arranged remotely using video-conferencing technology.

Extra-curricular activities

• In-person school assemblies, excursions, camps, graduations and other non-essential large gatherings are all prohibited by the DET for the time being. Instead we will continue with our Friday video assemblies led by our Year 6 Leaders.
• As non-essential adults or visitors are not permitted on the school site, basketball training sessions will not be permitted on school grounds for the time being. We regret having to take this decision as we understand the importance of the interactions and exercise that sports provide.
• We will closely monitor these guidelines as restictions hopefully relax over the coming months as we would love nothing more than to get together as a school before the end of the year, especially to celebrate the graduation of our Year 6 students.

To support the health and wellbeing of all our students and staff, our school will continue an enhanced cleaning routine during and after each day and will ensure frequent hand washing/sanitising. 

Students are not required to wear a face mask to school but may do so if they wish.

Due to hygiene reasons, the drinking bubblers will not be in operation. This means it is vital that your child brings their own water bottle (with their name clearly marked) to school each day. 

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

Neil Scott, Principal