Dear Families,

It is lovely to see everyone back at school this week. It is a challenging world that we live in at the moment, but all of our community have adjusted well to resuming school in Term Three, even with the challenges of crossing the border each day.

We have updated our Return to School Operations guide to ensure the continuation of students practising good hygiene, staggered pick up times, students having their own personal resources, staff continue to social distance and the increased cleaning is continuing.

As you would be aware, the Victorian Government has introduced new measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire.

These measures do not apply to schools in regional and rural Victoria, including ours.

The health advice is that schools can continue to operate while observing health measures recommended by the Victorian Chief Health Officer.

The Victorian Chief Health Officer has confirmed that the use of face masks or coverings by adults or children is not recommended in schools at this time.

If you, your child, or a family member develops symptoms of a fever, chills or sweats, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose, loss of smell or taste, you should get tested at a coronavirus (COVID-19) testing facility and stay home.

If you would like health information from the Department of Health and Human Services, you can visit dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus

ESS Building Update

The Stage Two building works are nearly complete and are looking fantastic. Paul Marshall (Principal of Echuca Specialist School), Anthea, and I attended a site meeting on Tuesday where we undertook the training on how to operate the new building.

The ESS staff and students have planned a transition to the new school site. All students will visit the school and will spend a session in the new spaces prior to the formal move.

During these sessions, students will complete a walkthrough, discuss the spaces and become familiar with the surroundings.

The transition week will be week 4 of this term. This will consist of Monday 3rd of August (pupil free) and 4th- 6th (transition visits) and Friday 7th of August (pupil free). These pupil free days are for ESS only. The classroom teachers will provide information regarding which students will visit on which day.

We look forward to welcoming the ESS on-site as part of the Co-Location.

Curriculum Day

Please note the 31st of July will be a whole school curriculum day. I apologise the timeline of notifying families has been shorter than we would have liked due to the current restrictions in place. We were unsure if we could run this day. The staff will be engaged in Literacy PD and we will begin work on the School Review.

Radio Advertisement

Keep an ear out for our new radio advertisements on Edge FM and 1521 QN radio. Our school song even makes an appearance. We are hoping that this will spread the word about the fantastic things we do at ETRS.

Smoking

Smoking is not permitted within or around the school. Smokers are asked to refrain from smoking near the school gates and must be at least 4 metres from any entry or exit point. We kindly ask that cigarette butts are picked up and disposed of responsibly.

Assemblies

This term we will continue hosting assemblies via Webex. We will be moving assemblies to fortnightly. These will happen on the even week, starting in Week 2. Teachers will award two Student of the Weeks at each assembly. Assemblies will be open to parents in Week 4. A link will be forwarded to families.

Reading Journals

We have decided that Reading Journals need to be returned on Friday. Please ensure the journals are in your child bag each Friday. Thank you for your support of this.

Foundation 2021 Enrolments

All enrolment documents are available to download from our website. You may also contact the school and we can send the information to you via email or the post.

If you know of any families who are interested in enrolling, please ask them to contact the school. Thank you to our families who are getting the good word out in the community about our school, word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising and consequently, we are fielding an increased number of inquiries about our school.

Unfortunately until the Health Advice changes we are unable to do school tours.

School Wide Positive Behaviour

Next term's value is: Responsibility

Next week's behaviour focus is: I will arrive on time.

Happy Birthday