Welcome Back!

Welcome back to the start of a new school year. I hope you’ve all had a safe and well-earned break after another challenging year in 2021 for us all. We should all be immensely proud of our success and resilience in navigating through whilst continuing to offer quality and authentic learning opportunities for our students. 

I have no doubt that January for many of us hasn't been the holiday we anticipated with some testing positive, been close household contacts and had to isolate or had holiday plans disrupted due to the new Omicron variant. I do hope that you are at least returning rested for the beginning of our new school year. Personally, it has been lovely to spend quality time together as a family. There is no doubt that Omicron will pose new challenges for us to overcome as we manage more positive cases across our community and predicted staffing challenges due to isolation. This will be another heroic team effort as we approach our third year of this pandemic, but I am confident that together we will tackle whatever comes our way as we have done so before.

Workforce & HR

On behalf of the Jackson School Community, I would like to officially welcome our new staff for 2022. Leadership: Michelle (LT), Teachers: Kat (7/8), Alison (5/6), Pagan (PA), Michael (CRT/PA); ESS: Stephanie (9/10), Tori (Art Therapy). A full staff list is available in the Admin Update page.

For 2022, we have restructured our leadership team roles to ensure the delivery of our School Strategic Plan (SSP) aligned to the revised Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (FISO 2.0). These positions were externally advertised with many of our previous leadership team being successful in these new roles. Congratulations to Kelly, Gabi, Sean, Bern and Julie. We are also fortunate that Michelle is joining us as a Leading Teacher from Jacana where she previously led Student Engagement & Wellbeing. We look forward to working with you. 

Jaclyn, Gabrielle M, Uzer, Eva, Sean, Jo, Vu and Ian have been appointed as PLT Leaders for 2022. PLT Leaders will be led by our Learning Specialists for Primary & Secondary ( Gabi and Sean).

Congratulations to all of the staff who were successful in being appointed to a new position or position of responsibility for 2022.

For more information about our staffing and our revised school structure please visit the Workforce & HR page.

COVID Overview & Operations Guide Update

Following the announcement by the Premier and the Minister for Education on Sunday 23 January, DET has published key information about the school operations settings expected to be in place for the first 4 weeks of Term 1 2022. The full version of the revised Operations Guide can be downloaded below and a summary will be given to you on our first Curriculum Day. As we become accustomed to our "COVID Normal” lives, restrictions remain in place for staff. These include: 

• daily free rapid antigen testing (RATs for staff and students)
• new approach to reporting and managing positive results
• tiered staffing arrangements (internal, CRTs, split classes, surge support staff)
• ventilation (we now have 54 air purifiers across the school) and windows should be open to increase air flow
• vaccination (99.7% double dose, third/booster mandated by 25th Feb 2022)
• regular hand washing/sanitisation, social distancing
• face masks are mandatory in schools (students Year 3-12 are recommended. Disability exemptions remain)
• safety information and training — staff should complete the eLearn module School infection prevention and control as soon as possible
• second staffroom in Food Tech remains open to reduce congestion and mixing

Download the updated School Operations Guide below. For the most up-to-date version please log in and click here.

For a more detailed summary of the changes please see the COVID page.

Buildings & Grounds

A number of building and grounds works have been completed over the holidays. They include the modernisation of the Admin building. The staffroom has been plastered with the addition of a window in the front half to allow more natural light for staff. We have created new collaborative leadership offices due to our reduced office space with new glass sliding doors and plastered ceilings and lights. New glass doors to replace the sliders in the Year 5-8 Hub. Painting of external walls as well as other maintenance and minor works. Thank you to Phil Cox for managing these projects. 

Early this year we will also complete a number of school-funded projects, including: a large basketball court canopy for outdoor learning, additional storage on the oval for PE and Games equipment, new Primary decking storage for resources and recess/lunch equipment, landscaping and shade for the front of the school in preparation for our new Community Cafe.

Final preparations are now underway for our Asset Management Plan (AMP) for our school redevelopment project. We will go out to tender for a builder in February with our Project Manager and Architects. The VSBA will coordinate the removal and/or demolition of the portables in Term 1. The project is due to commence in Term 2. As a school we have contributed $1 million towards these modernisation works bringing the project total to $11 million. This year will be difficult as we all squash into a smaller site during the building works. Thank you for your flexibility in moving to set-up for the new school year. The AMP is due for completion by 2023. 

For more information please click on the Asset Management Plan page. 

Curriculum Days - Friday 28th and Monday 31st

Our curriculum days will commence at 9 am on Friday 28th and Monday 31st. Individual morning tea and lunch will be provided on Friday only. There will not be a coffee van this year due to availability. Due to our new challenges faced with the Omicron variant and DET guidelines, both Curriculum Days will take place remotely on Microsoft Teams. Please meet in your PLT Leader's room at 8:45. Staff meetings and professional development activities should be held remotely for the first 4 weeks of term one wherever feasible.

The first curriculum day on  will be focused on operational guidelines outlined in this bulletin to begin the school year. We will also launch our new strategic plan (SSP) for the next four years aligned to FISO 2.0 (Learning & Wellbeing). We will also take a closer look at The Jackson Learner and how we will integrate the Employability Skills across our school.

Our curriculum day on Monday will be focused on our whole-school Wellbeing strategic priority, including improvements to PBIS. Allied Health will share improvements to its service delivery for 2022 and also introduce some Social Skills activities that can be incorporated into our daily programs. Health Support Plans and associated items will also be discussed.

Finally...

It was lovely to see our students who were participating in our OSHC Holiday Program whilst they were on their first excursion to the zoo in early January. Thank you to Karen for your work with Their Care over January. Karen will formally start in her new role as OSHC Project Manager this week. It wasn't as smooth sailing due to staff absences with Omicron. Dusty paid them a visit too!

For more detailed information on other areas of School Operations please click on the pages on the left for important updates ready to start the school year. These include: termly dates, timetables, staff lists, absences procedures and COVID Operation Guidelines. Highlights of these will be discussed on Friday.

This year we celebrate 150 years of public education (1872-2022) as well as the Year of the Tiger for Chinese New Year/Tết (Vietnamese Lunar New Year). The Chinese Zodiac Sign of the Tiger reflects positive qualities including being kind, adventurous and enthusiastic. With this, it is with great enthusiasm we return to school this week and I am looking forward to us all beginning a new year of adventures together.

Anthony