From the Principal
Dear Parents and Carers,
A warm welcome back to St Simon’s students and families as we embark on another school year, a year where we continue to face the challenge of the pandemic however we are hopeful there is an increase in the routine and consistency of lives within the school and broader communities.
School newsletter
The school newsletter is published each week and sent out via email and Skoolbag App.
It is a vital communication tool for the operation of the school and so we strongly encourage all families to create and maintain a regular routine of checking with all the notices and information shared.
Event Postponement
Please note the scheduled Welcome Morning Tea for Prep Families on Thursday 3rd February and All families on Friday 4th February has been POSTPONED due to current advice from the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools.
I am working with our Parents’ Association to find a new date for these events a little later in the term.
This Week...
In future newsletters, I will address topics related to the start of year matters including the beginning of year school mass and parent-teacher interviews, changes in our parish governance, the retirement of Fr Kevin and the 40th-anniversary celebrations of St Simon’s School.
This week I will be reiterating the COVID-19 procedures and practices related to the safe return to school.
Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) Kits
The supply of RATs for students from the state government is available for collection from the school office. Thank you to the families who have already picked up their kits over the last three days.
Students and staff are encouraged to conduct the tests at home and must report any positive test results to their school and the Department of Health. (please report only positive results to the school)
In primary schools, tests should be conducted twice weekly, on days that suit families. As a school community, we will be pushing out reminder notifications on Monday and Wednesday mornings for families to test their students. However, if you adopt another routine that is fine also.
If a student receives a positive test result at any time, they (parents) must report this through the Department of Health system (Rapid antigen tests | Coronavirus Victoria) or via the coronavirus hotline at 1800 675 398.
Students (or their parents) must also report a positive result to their school by sending an email to office@ssrowville.catholic.edu.au.; this is so the school can support them, record that they will be absent while in 7-day isolation, and let the rest of the school community know there has been a positive case onsite and that they should monitor for symptoms.
Students and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19, have completed their 7-day isolation period and are subsequently asymptomatic do not need to undertake surveillance testing for 30 days.
Reporting positive cases to the school community
I am anticipating that most days moving forward, there will be regular communication to parents stating how many positive cases we have in the school community on a given day and from which class level or site area within the school. (We hope this is not the case, however, it is more than likely)
This message will be sent out through Operoo email and will be a reminder to parents to monitor their children for symptoms before sending them to school each day. The use of the twice-weekly rapid antigen testing will assist in these circumstances.
Parents and visitors to the school
All visitors to the school site (except for the school drop off and pick routines) must show a valid vaccination status certificate. As a guide, if you enter a school building or past the external gates for more than 15 minutes for dropoff and pick up, you are required to have a valid certificate.
I appreciate the strong support the school has received from the parent community regarding this process during the student assessment days this week.
Any visitors (parents) inside school buildings must be wearing a fitted face mask, maintain good hand hygiene and social distance. Visitors in school buildings should be kept to a minimum over these next few weeks.
School Staggered Dismissal
In 2022 the staggering dismissal routine from last year will continue:
- Students in Red and Blue House will be dismissed at 3:05 pm.
- Students in Green and Yellow House will be dismissed at 3:15 pm
Parents and families are to wait, social distanced, on the basketball court area for their children to come to them.
The Prep Car park Drive Through will operate in the same manner as last year with students able to be picked up from the school car park via the drive-through lane.
The St Simon's School staff as a whole is looking forward to continuing our partnership with families in moving long the faith and learning journey for our students.
God bless
Tom Wursthorn
Principal