Principal's News
Dear Parents and Carers,
Staff were delighted to welcome all students back to school last Friday and we look forward to a full week with all classes in attendance, as our community learns to live with Covid-19. The vaccination uptake in Victoria continues at pace and while we still have concerns, particularly for our unvaccinated students, advice given to me from local GP’s who are parents in our school community is that the best way for us to protect our children is to have the adults around them vaccinated.
There will be cases in our community and we trust that our vaccinations protocols such as quarantines, social distancing and hand hygiene will make these cases manageable.
Our schools have been asked to follow the following advice for managing the ongoing pandemic. Hopefully this will answer some of the questions that we are being asked by parents.
What is a close contact?
Close contacts can be:
- someone who has had face-to-face contact or spent time in a closed space with someone who has COVID-19 while they were infectious.
- someone who has been in an outbreak or other setting where there is a higher risk of transmission of COVID-19.
WHO HAS TO ISOLATE AND FOR HOW LONG?
Children: If Primary School children are deemed a “Close Contact” they should isolate and be tested for Covid-19. They must isolate until there is a NEGATIVE Test returned. The child may then return to school.
If the child returns a POSITIVE test they must isolate for 14 days from the DATE OF EXPOSURE (Since they won’t be vaccinated)
Adults: If Adults are deemed a close contact of a positive case, and they live in the same house as the confirmed COVID-19 case, then they must quarantine for 14 days.
If the “close contact” is fully vaccinated andDOES NOT live with a confirmed case, the quarantine period is seven days. If you haven't had both doses of the vaccine, you must quarantine for 14 days.
Adults who are fully vaccinated should be tested on Day 6 of their isolation and can leave quarantine if this test returns a NEGATIVE result.
Staff at our school are all vaccinated and any volunteer or parent that wants to come onto our site must be prepared to prove their vaccination status. All adults onsite are expected to wear a mask, although where communication is problematic, staff have been encouraged to exercise cautionary common sense.
ALL SAINTS DAY/MISSION DAY FETE It has become part of our school tradition to celebrate All Saints Day with Mass here at school and our Mission Day Fete between recess and lunch. We are hoping to be able to go ahead with both events this year, on Friday November 5th. However, it doesn’t appear likely that we will be able to invite parents to join us unfortunately. Mass may need to be with select classes only, however we await further advice and eagerly look forward to the further easing of restrictions. I will update parents and carers in next week’s newsletter.
FOUNDATION 2022 BARBECUE Unfortunately it will not be possible to hold our traditional Foundation BBQ again this year due to COVID-19 restrictions. The Foundation Information Packs will instead be sent home with older siblings or distributed to parents at their Uniform appointments.
CHILDREN’S LUNCHES Parents should please note that it is not possible for children to heat up food at school for lunch. This practise may have snuck in whilst we had very small numbers of students at school during lockdowns, however it is not sustainable. I’m a big believer that if I do something for one student I should be able to do it for all of them… 410 lunches being heated? I don’t think so.
MORNING DROP OFF REMINDER Parents are welcome to drop off children in the “Pull In” zone on Pound Road in the morning before school. But they are reminded that this space is also used by the bus companies to drop off students for both Sacred Heart and Trinity. Please try to pull in at the western end of this zone, near the Gym gate and leave quickly. Drivers must not park here.