Principal's Report

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

The Department of Education and Training is working closely with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to plan for and respond to the likely impact on our schools. DET advice is in accordance with national public health guidelines and current information from the Australian Chief Medical Officer and Victorian Chief Health Officer. The most current advice on excluding students/staff from education settings is as follows:

Parents/guardians/carers should ensure that any child/student returning from either:

mainland China (not including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) from 1 February
Iran from 1 March
or the Republic of Korea on or after 5 March 2020

is isolated at home and should not attend education settings for 14 days.

Any child/student returning from Italy, must present for health screening at the borders as directed.

This recommendation does not apply retrospectively.

If a staff member or student is in one of the categories below, the school is required to contact DHHS:

The person is a confirmed case of COVID-19
The person is a close contact of a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the past 14 days

‘Close contact’ is defined by DHHS as someone who has had at least 15 minutes of face-to-face contact with a confirmed case, or shared a closed space with someone for more than two hours with a confirmed case.

Should any of our students fall into either of these categories please inform the school immediately.

WORKING BEE this Saturday

Please read the information relating to the working bee this Saturday. We have many, many, projects organised for this Saturday and I would like to see two representatives from each class at the working bee. This will allow us to complete many of the tasks and improve our grounds for the students.

SCHOOL COUNCIL

The Annual General Meeting will be held prior to the School Council meeting. The Annual Report will be presented at this meeting on Tuesday 24th March at 7pm in the staffroom. We invite members of the school community to attend. Following the AGM the first meeting of our new school council will be held.

SCHOOL CHARGE

A reminder that the school charge is due before the end of term. Alternatively, the school charge can be paid in three instalments:

Instalment 1 – term 1 - $100
Instalment 2 – Start of term 2 - $100
Instalment 3 – Start of term 3 - $100

SCHOOL COUNCIL SUB-COMMITTEES

The sub-committees of School Council play a vital role in the supporting the operations of the school. These committees meet once before each School Council meeting and make recommendations to the council around various projects. You do not need to be elected to a sub-committee but need to make a commitment to attend the meetings and contribute to the workings of the committee. Membership is open to all parents.

Sub-committees:

• Assist council in the work that needs to be done. They report regularly at school council meetings, provide advice and make recommendations to school council which has the final responsibility for decisions. Sub-committees cannot make decisions for school council; rather they make recommendations to council

• Are open to non-school council members and therefore provide opportunities to involve people in the school who are not members of school council

• The Council sub-committees sometimes have working parties that are set up for a specific task for a set period of time. An example of a working party might be related to the development of a policy – for example a “healthy eating” working party or a “sun smart” working party. Working parties are covered by the same rules as sub-committees. They cannot make decisions but instead make recommendations to either a sub-committee or school council.

I would like to encourage parents to consider being part of a sub-committee. If you have an interest in gardening, you may consider being part of the buildings and grounds sub-committee. Below is an outline of the type of work covered by the sub-committees at HPS:

Buildings and grounds – planning and developing the school's facilities such as its buildings and grounds; organising working bees and other actions to maintain or improve the appearance of the school; provide advice to school council on external groups who may be using the school’s facilities
Education – developing the educational policy for school council including camps and excursions, student welfare, student leadership and professional development. It may also involve developing school wide policies such as occupational health and safety, anti-discrimination and integration policies; possibly monitoring the implementation of the strategic plan; reviewing school data such as NAPLAN, school level data
Community Connections and Fundraising – developing ways for the school to work more actively with its community, including parents and carers and the wider community; developing fund raising activities for the school, including sponsorship for school events and developing school functions to build the school community.
School Age Care – to ensure our School Age Care Program is running effectively and meets standards and regulations
Finance – ensures the smooth running of the school’s financial operations.

If you are interested in being part of one of these committees, please feel free to let the office know and your details will be passed onto the convenor.

Janet Ringrose

Principal