Dear families,

The Victorian Government announced that Victoria moved to the Last Step of the roadmap for reopening from 11:59 pm, Sunday 22 November 2020. As a result of the changes announced, some important updates have been made to school operations.

The main areas that have changed for us as a school:

Limitations on who can visit school premises no longer apply (although contract tracing/record keeping of visits is in place for anyone on site for more than 15 minutes)
Face masks are to be worn indoors. Outside they are to be worn when not adhering to a physical distancing, this is 1.5m apart.
COVID testing is still required if a child has symptoms. Sharing a negative test on their return is no longer required so long as all symptoms have been resolved.
Hayfever season is here. Parents/carers should consider getting a GP certificate to show that a child has hayfever and they are safe to be at school.
Limits on how many people can attend an open space are in place. We will be displaying posters next week in our open spaces to show this. Total venue capacity (including students, staff and visitors) of 150 indoors or 300 outdoors in one space.
Non-essential visitors, such as guest speakers and incursion leaders, are now allowed to attend school on-site, subject to gathering limits. Activities involving parent volunteers can also resume.
Face-to-face year level assemblies and graduations can occur at full capacity if they are exclusively attended by students and staff only.
Indoor sports can resume as well as inter-school events.
Drink fountains will be cleaned and re-opened from Monday 30th November.
Music programs will no longer have the same restrictions and singing indoors is now allowed in groups of 5 students.

As a result of these changes we will be making the following updates to our upcoming events:

Prep transition session 4 will be held at school on Wednesday 2nd December between 9:00 am (sharp) and 11:00 am. The students will be in 4 larger class groups. The theme is 'meet the specialists'. Note: This may not be their final class groups.
Prep Parent Information Night will be held at Lilydale High School in their Theatre on Thursday 3rd December between 6:30 pm and 7:30 pm. (We do not have the capacity to hold this at school)
The state-wide transition day will be held at school for prep children on Tuesday 8th December from 9:15 am - 12:00 pm.
Current year 6 students will attend their high schools for their transition on this date. Information will be shared directly with parents/carers.
Our Graduation Party will be held in the school gym for grade 6 children and staff on Tuesday 15th December from 4.00 pm - 6:30 pm. Note the grade 6 students are free to go home at 1:30 pm that day with parental permission to get changed into their smart/casual clothing. If you would like your child to stay at school they will be most welcome to stay with us.
There will be a video made the week before with the children completing their graduation speech. This will be made available for parents to purchase for a small cost.

The shift back to schools operating as normal is great news for all of us in our community and is very welcome news for myself and our staff.

If you have any questions please contact me via email or through the office. I would like to share a huge thank you for the support you have shown for the conditions we have all been asked to work with over the last few months. There has never been the need to have an awkward conversation with anyone about compliance with the conditions. I want to say thank you for that as school we are grateful that you have worked with us so brilliantly at drop-off and pick-up to make school work for our children.

In other news, there was a large snakeskin found at school. Please be mindful if you use the grounds at the weekend. Today as a precaution the grass areas have been closed. After a visit and further follow up by the Snake Hunter, it was deemed to be a prank.

We have not used our curriculum days this year as they always seemed to fall when the students returned to school. Wednesday 16th will be our final day at school. Thursday 17th teachers will be planning 2021 and also available for any clarifying queries from reports. Friday 18th will be our final curriculum day and will focus on operational set-up for 2021. We want the quickest and smoothest start to next year to make up for the disruptions in 2020.

Have a wonderful weekend. We are looking forward to a busy, but very rewarding last 3 weeks.

Craig Bradley - Principal

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

DECEMBER