Principal's Message
I would like to begin by congratulating all the staff at Marangaroo for their outstanding leadership throughout some challenging times over the past couple of weeks. Their professional and compassionate response to the needs of the students was overwhelmingly evident, for which I am grateful, as I'm sure you are. Similarly, I congratulate the students and their families for working through the various COVID isolations, new mask wearing requirements and adjusting so well to the ever-changing rules.
Mask Wearing
As you know, it is now mandatory for students in Years Three to Six to wear face masks when indoors, both at school and in the community. We also have some students in our younger years wearing masks and we will continue to praise those students when doing so. It has been impressive to see the response from our students and the way they have taken the new rules on board. We do also have some students with exemptions, who are not required to wear masks. If your child is able to wear a mask consistently, they will not be deemed a close contact in the event of a positive case in their classroom.
Isolation Requirements
The rules for isolation will change as of tomorrow (Thursday 10 March). If you have a positive COVID case within your household, the isolation requirements for students attending school are unchanged - these students are still required to isolate.
If your child is a close contact from school or within the community, and they do not have any symptoms, they will be able to attend school provided they return a negative RAT on 'Day 1' and 'Day 7' of the isolation period. With the rules changing so often, it can be difficult to keep up, so please don't hesitate to get in touch to seek clarification. In this instance, please notify the classroom teacher of the result of the RAT.
Parent Communication via Class Dojo
The Class Dojo app is our main method of communicating with our families at Marangaroo, which is more important now than ever before. If you do not have access to Class Dojo, please phone the school to organise setup asap.
No Traffic Warden Until Further Notice
At present, Dan is unavailable to attend to his traffic warden duties. With a shortage of staffing options, unfortunately, his role is not being backfilled. As such, can parents please take extra precautions to ensure your child gets to school safely.
Caring C Reward - Postponed to this Friday
We had to postpone our first Caring C reward as a result of the COVID isolations. The new day for the reward will be this Friday 11 March. All students who were eligible for the reward on the day it was initially scheduled, will be able to attend and will participate in the activity they had already nominated. If you received notification of your child participating in the water activity last time, please send them to school with their bathers and a towel for this activity, which will take place at the end of the day.
(Virtual) Assembly Dates Moved
School assemblies will be held virtually until further notice. As the Echidnas have lost a week to prepare, we have pushed both of this term's assemblies back one week. This will mean the Echidnas' (3/4) assembly will now be held on Friday 18th March at 9am, via a web link. The Kookaburras' (4/5) assembly will be held on Friday 8th April at 9am, via a web link also. Keep an eye out for the web link on the Class Dojo app closer to time.
Year 5/6 Swimming
Thanks to Mr Cutting for coordinating the Year 5/6 swimming lessons. While the students have not been able to attend the lessons for the full two weeks as initially planned, they have enjoyed the last couple of days at the beach and will attend until the end of this week.
P&C President 2022
The P&C held their first (virtual) meeting last week. It was wonderful to see some new members in attendance, as well as many existing members. Our P&C do an amazing job of support students at Marangaroo through fundraising and school events, for which we are very grateful. This year, Mike Rowston was nominated as the P&C president. Mike has worked hard over the past few years to support the P&C and we welcome him to this role in 2022.
Adrian Keenan
Principal
adrian.keenan@education.wa.edu.au