Principal's Report

IMPORTANT INFORMATION for RETURN TO SCHOOL

All of the arrangements below are intended to keep our students, staff and school community as safe as possible. We will monitor how this works and may need to make changes as time goes by. Thank you for helping us to do our best for a safe return to school.

School Pick Up and Drop Off

To avoid parent congestion at school pick up, we will be returning back to a staggered finish time for our students (see times below). This will allow parents to quickly pick up their child/children and then move on, rather than congregating at the front of the school or in car parks. The times listed below will be the early dismissal times, until further notice.

3:00pm Finish Foundation – Main front gate   Year 3- Temporary front gate

3:15pm Finish Year 1 –Main front gate                Year 4- Temporary front gate

3:30pm Finish Year 2 - Main front gate                Year 5/6- Temporary front gate

Students will be brought to the front entrance at the end of the day for parents to pick up. This also means that parents/guardians can not come into the school grounds, instead we request that you phone or email the office if you need to contact us. Please make sure you are wearing a mask if you get out of your car.

We understand that some parents may be unable to adhere to these times and we will always be able to supervise your child until 3:30pm. If you wish for your child to be picked up at a different time to the allocated time given please communicate this with your child's teacher via Compass messaging. Please also contact your child's teacher to arrange sibling pick-ups.

Remote Learning 

Remote Learning will continue on those days students are not expected at school. E.g.

Foundation students will continue remote learning on Thursdays and Friday

Year 1 and Year 2 students will continue remote learning on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. These tasks will be posted in our usual manner on Seesaw.

Onsite Supervision

Onsite Supervision continues to be available for parents who are authorised workers and those students deemed vulnerable. Please contact the office to complete the required Attendance Form, if you haven't done so already.

Face Masks

When worn, masks can play an important role in reducing the transmission risks of COVID-19. Face masks are required for students in Year 3 to Year 6, only when indoors on school premises, unless an exception applies. Parents of students of all ages are encouraged to discuss wearing masks with their children, as many children from Foundation to Year 2 will also choose to wear masks. When providing your child with a mask, please ensure it is named. Students with a physical or mental disability are not required to wear a face mask where their disability means it would not be suitable.

More information will follow, when we receive updates from the Department of Education.

What We Do If there is a COVID case

With a few schools in our Network recently impacted by positive COVID cases I wanted to let our community prepare for the possibility that we may be affected at some stage too.

If we have a positive case, then there is a very clear and detailed process that will take place. As principal, I will first notify the Department of Health and the Department of Education and Training.

Unfortunately, I am unable to make decisions around our school closing, contract tracing or isolation requirements, this will come directly from the appropriate government departments. 

We will continue to use Compass as our main method of communication and ask all families regularly check the COMPASS App and be on lookout for COVID updates from us.

Hats Required in Term 4

Every child must have a named school hat when outside in Term 4. If you need to purchase a new hat, you are able to via the Qkr! app. Hats cost $10, and when paid for, our Administration staff will name the hat for your child and send it to your child's classroom.

Staff Vaccinations

The Victorian Chief Health Officer has issued directions for required vaccinations for education workers. All staff who work in schools will be required to have a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by 18 October 2021 or be able to produce evidence of a vaccination booking within that week.

All staff are required to be fully vaccinated by 29 November 2021 unless a medical exception applies and will be required to show evidence of their vaccination status.

Getting vaccinated is the best way to protect ourselves, our students and the whole school community.  Getting vaccinated will help slow the spread of COVID-19 and prevent future outbreaks in our schools.

The Victorian Government’s coronavirus website has information about COVID-19 vaccines in 63 community languages at Translated information about COVID-19 vaccines.

The Department of Education and Training’s website has frequently asked questions about the vaccine requirement.

Transition

Our whole school transition program will begin in the coming weeks to help students prepare and adapt to a new year level in 2022. The school is currently developing class structures and employing staff for the coming year. In week four, staff will be asking their students to nominate four friends they would like in their class in 2022. They will usually get at least one of their nominated friends in their class. Once this process is complete staff will draft class lists in preparation for our whole school transition sessions. Developing classes take a lot of time as there are so many different factors to consider. As students progress through the transition sessions, changes are made to the class lists in an attempt to find the best class fit for students and staff for the coming year.

The dates for our whole school transition sessions are:

Friday 26th November

Tuesday 30th November

Tuesday 7th December (whole school transition day where students meet their 2022 classroom teacher)

Tuesday 14th December

If you have any requests for 2022 or if you are leaving Clyde Primary School next year can you please email the school on clyde.ps@education.vic.gov.au as soon as possible.

Teaching and Learning in Term 4

Our whole school learning focus for Term 4 is Health (as outlined in the Victorian Curriculum). 

This area of the curriculum plays a significant role in building the knowledge, skills and understandings that apply to a range of health, wellbeing and safety contexts, including: building resilience, health and lifestyle, emerging issues in drug and alcohol education, bullying and child safety.

As part of this learning focus for the past 10 years our school has been running the Catching On Early Program. This is a developmentally based program with appropriate resources for Foundation students through to Year 6 students. Students will also participate in a personal safety program called ‘Wise Child’. This program teaches students about what is safe and unsafe and the feelings associated with this, and to identify supportive adults in their life that they can talk to if they do not feel safe. For older students it also highlights safety around social media and online platforms.

Students will also participate in a range of Wellbeing activities following their return to school from Remote and Flexible Learning.