News from Nurse Jess

Dear Yarrabah Community,

I hope you are all staying well and safe at home with your family. I thought I would provide an update on how we are dealing with COVID-19 at Yarrabah. Currently we have no reported cases of COVID-19 within our school community.

For staff and students that are on site, we are ensuring that we are abiding by social distancing rules and implementing best practice when it comes to hygiene. Ensuring the health and safety of everyone that is onsite remains our key focus.

The Department of Education has provided all schools with the necessary Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to ensure staff and students are well protected whilst onsite. I have focused on educating staff on the correct use of PPE to ensure that we are minimising the risk of cross contamination.

All staff who are working onsite have been instructed to complete an online course provided by the Department of Health that focuses on Infection Control in relation to COVID-19. This course enables the staff to gain a better understanding on the virus, how it is transmitted and how to best protect themselves and others during this pandemic.

Classrooms that are allocated to onsite learning are provided with all equipment necessary to carry out proper hand hygiene practices. High touch surfaces within the classrooms are frequently disinfected throughout the day.

Although I am working remotely, I am on call during school hours to allow the staff to contact me with any health concerns they may have. I am available to help assess the health of students on site and establish whether they are able to remain at school. As you can appreciate the importance of keeping everyone healthy onsite we are unable to have any student who is unwell at school and they will be sent home if we deem necessary.

Although our preference is that if you can learn from home that you do so, I want to reassure you that at Yarrabah we are at the forefront of keeping our students and staff who have to be onsite healthy and well.

You are all doing an amazing job during these unprecedented times and I applaud you for your efforts!

Stay healthy and well and keep washing those hands!

Nurse Jess

On another note,  some of you may have seen me popping up in your Seesaw feeds discussing numerous health topics with the kids I have attached below last week’s edition all about germs and how to be a germbuster! I hope you are enjoying them! 

Another side to my life you may not know about is that I have been a Calisthenics coach for 14 years and competed myself for 20 years. Teaching kids to dance is another passion and love of mine and I have been lucky enough to share this with the younger sections of our school. It’s a bit of fun which is so important during these trying times. Feel free to check out last week’s session and have a dance in your lounge room!