Principal's Message

Hopefully Back for Good

It has been a very very long road for all our community members- Parents, guardians, staff and students-hopefully we are going to be back for the long haul this time. We still have some students and staff completing their 14 day quarantine period, but all is going well. 

During Term 4 we will continue to have school cleaning throughout the day (as we have done the entire past 18 months) and will continue to ask parents to use the 2 entry and exit gates. We will also continue to ask parents not to enter any of the classrooms and contact the grade teacher or the office for appointments.  We will continue to operate in a cautious manner in everything we do and follow all directions from the Department of Education and the Department of Health.

Masks Mandatory

Advice From Victoria’s Chief Health Officer- re Mask Wearing

Victoria’s Chief Health Officer has mandated that all students in Grade 3 and up must wear a mask only while they are indoors at school, unless they have a valid exception.  Exceptions include students with a physical or mental disability where their disability means it would not be suitable. Parent/carers of a student/s who meet the criteria for an exception must provide their approval in writing for their child/ren to not wear a mask to the school. The exception should be in the form of a written statement from the parent. 

One of our parents (who works at ATech Medical) has kindly offered to provide the school with level 3 high end, hospital grade face masks.  These come in a box of 100 and the cost is $12 per box ($2 will go to the school for every box sold). This is a very kind offer. It also provides a great convenience for our parents in these difficult times. Many thanks to Ayhan Aydin and his company for supporting our community.

Consideration for Class Placement 2022

At Rollins, we work thoughtfully to build future class groupings. Teachers work together (literally for hours) forming classes for the coming year. They consider student learning styles, behaviour needs, student personalities, gender (even numbers of boys and girls) and many other factors to create classrooms where students will work well together and with their teacher. It is a complex process. Our goal is always to create the most balanced classes possible.

Parents are invited to advise us of any considerations that they would like us to take into account for student placement in 2022. If you would like to take this opportunity, I ask that you provide your thoughts in writing to me, no later than Friday 29th October 2021. Please note, I have extended this date by another week as there has been so much going on for parents over the last couple of weeks (and years!). Unfortunately, we are unable to consider requests after this date. Please note we cannot meet requests for specific teachers and, although we try our best to meet all requests, we cannot give guarantees.

As always, please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns. 

No Assembly this Friday

Although it is Assembly Week this Friday I have cancelled assembly- a little too much going on at the moment! Next Assembly in 2 weeks- hopefully this will again be conducted by our student leaders.

CAMPS/Excursions 

I have had a number of questions about whether camps are going ahead. The answer to that is - I don't know at this stage. 

We are waiting for directions from the Department of Education and the Department of Health. As soon as we know we will inform parents.

Thank You to Everyone

The last week and a bit has been exceptionally challenging for all our community- more so than ever before.

The late notices of school closures would have been massive for our parent community as they try and juggle work, home and education demands.

I very much appreciate the tremendous and numerous supportive comments from the parent community- thank you so much for your help and understanding during this unprecedented situation. I would also like to thank my staff who have been amazing. 

A very special to Tim Callaghan who worked non stop over the weekend to assist me lodge documentation to DHHS and call all parents of students who may have been close contacts-I don't think this was the ideal way he wanted to spend his birthday!

Again, thank you to each member of our community- stay staff and look after all your family members-also remember to take some time for yourself so you are also in a good place.

Jenny