Uncertain Times

When we returned to school late January Coronavirus was just a new word in our medical dictionary and people had some trepidation and angst but felt comfortable and confident enough to continue life as usual for the greater part of our days without too much disruption or change. Fast forward 2 months and it is now no longer a medical word with some consequence but a pandemic that has enveloped more than 150 countries around the world. So many unknowns. So much distress and concern. These are indeed unprecedented and uncertain times. Both Federal and State governments of Australia have taken a clear stance that children are best kept in schools as they are the least vulnerable members of our communities and that school is safe and provides a sense of stability and normality for families and wider community in general.

Things have escalated this week with the declaration of a state of emergency at the beginning of the week. The measures we have put in at TSPS have been under advisement from the Department of Education.

I am very grateful to my teaching community at TSPS. The teachers have continued with their lessons and have worked with students who are attending to maintain calm and reassure them that we are doing all we can to keep them well and safe. I am also very proud of our students in attendance who have continued their learning with calmness and a sense of responsibility and maturity.

We are lucky as a Private Public Partnership school, that our cleaning and hygiene actions are quite good. Cushman and Wakefield, who provide our cleaning have increased their level of cleaning to what is referred to as Stage 6- with site cleaning increased throughout the day as well as more intense disinfecting and cleaning everyday. Soap is available in toilet areas for our students and hand sanitisers are in each learning space.

I remind families to practise healthy habits such as washing hands with soap or hand washes very regularly and that coughs and colds be caught in elbows. We have taken great steps to support social distancing measures and have cancelled every event until further notice and tried where best to minimise contact including refraining from handshakes and other physical contacts. It is not always possible to do this within classrooms but we are doing all we can.

I also ask families to be vigilant in the case of self isolation. If members of families and friends have returned from overseas as of Monday March 16th especially must self isolate for fourteen (14) days. A reminder that any relatives or friends who have done so are NOT to be coming into school to collect students.

I completely understand, respect and support any parent's decision to keep their children at home. The students who are attending are receiving the tuition as planned and for families who have chosen to keep students at home, we have prepared a generic Learning Plan accessible via Compass, Facebook or on our website. A hard copy has also been sent home with students who have been in attendance and copies are available at the front office. I commend the leadership team in particular for its work in organising the schedule of learning. I encourage those families who have made the decision to keep their children at home to consider any possible real life learning opportunities- from cooking together to reading books, to keeping journals and writing about their days.

Please keep checking updates on Compass as I have and will continue to add any new information on a regular basis. There have been quite a lot of information this week and as this situation progresses there will be more updates.

Please also note: if your child is unwell for whatever reason eg gastro, colds, upset tummies please do not send them to school. We have been advised by the department that if a child arrives at school unwell that families must be contacted to collect the students and keep them at home till symptoms are clear. Please contact the school to inform of any student absence as soon as possible on the day of the absence.

The Department of Education has made available translated documents in a number of languages information regarding the Coronavirus and how to best protect your family.

Please click on the link provided to access these documents. Languages include Arabic, Cantonese, Greek, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Khmer, Korean, Mandarin, Persian (Farsi), Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Tamil, Turkish and Vietnamese.

https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/translated-resources-coronavirus-disease-covid-19

For those who may be finding it difficult to speak to your children about the current situation Unicef has provided a link about how to speak to children and reassure them. Please see the link below for helpful guidelines.

https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/how-talk-your-child-about-coronavirus-covid-19

I also ask our community to think back to two months ago when our wonderful country was in the grips of another national crisis -that of the bushfires of our summer just past and before that the dreadful situation of drought being experienced by our farmers as they struggled to provide for our nation. As a nation, we came together to offer support through kindness and empathy. Let's be doing the same in this time of uncertainty. There are families in our community who will be experiencing hardships. Our compassion and care will help us look out for each other. Let's look for how we can assist the vulnerable and hard done by.

I have really appreciated the kind words of confidence, support, encouragement and thanks from many parents and carers as to how we have continued to operate. This is a team effort and we are here for our students and our families.

Should our school close, we are ready to deliver on line programming and ask parents to ensure that access to Compass in particular is in readiness for this work to be disseminated.

State schools remain open for now and at present will only be closed if there is a confirmed case at present. This is however a day by day proposition as things can change at any time and what was relevant yesterday may not be tomorrow. We need to be understanding and adaptable in this current climate.

Together we will get through this.

Happy Things to Share

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden

Our Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden / Science program has begun. We are in discussions with architects as to the scoping of the building of our kitchen. In the meantime I commend Tenille Roberts who has taken on board the teaching and learning of this program and the students have been loving it! At the moment the program is focused more on the garden with students working in the spaces to weed, seed and cultivate some of our vegetables. We will be redesigning our outdoor gardens as part of the program. Students have also been able to make simple foods such as lettuce cup tacos and flatbreads with hummus dips. Every precaution is being taken when students work in these spaces especially at this time of concern, and the practice would be no different in normal times. Again safe food handling, food preparation and hygienic practices are paramount and exercised.

Student WellBeing Centre

The Well Being team led by Alex Wren and including Porshian Naidoo, Stephanie Doyle (speechies), Patricia van den Broeck (social worker) and Julia Wood (ES team member) have done incredible work to create our WellBeing Hub in Sapphire. The programs they have been preparing for and the work they are doing with our students are wonderful. I am so pleased that as a school we have this capacity and these wonderful practitioners who support our teachers and students on a daily basis.

GIrls Night In

On March 11 (before social distancing practices were enacted) more than 100 female students from Year 3-6 and their significant female adults joined many staff members and guests in an evening about empowering young women. This came about in response to the state government's female hygiene dispenser installations in all schools in Victoria. Those present were treated to inspiring talks by The Grange P-12 College Girl's Football team, a female paramedic and a police officer as well as learning about all things female. Such a positive evening. I thank all who attended and supported the planning team- Roz Bowles, Courtney Merryfull, Ainsley Smith, Nicole Spitalieri, Alex Wren, Heather Marshall and Terry Van Zyl (all wonderful female role models themselves). It is hoped to plan a Boys Night In - as soon as the current climate permits.

School Council 2020

It is my pleasure to introduce to you all the members of the School Council for 2020.

Parent members-

Rhonda Velkovski

Alex Tardif

David Gibilisco

Meenakshi Singh

Rahul Bhat

Thantanath Khantatswas

Community Seconded

Misty Palmer (Arndell Park)

Kranthi Kummera (YMCA)

DET reps

Cass Beckman

Michael Gerber

Shirley Lamb

Linda Danese

Other

Heather Johnson

Remaining Dates for School Council Meetings 2020

All meetings with the exception of March 24th are on Wednesday evenings beginning at 6.30pm.

Finance Committee meets at 5.30pm on the same day.

March 24th (Tuesday)

29th April

27th May

29th July

19th August

16th September

14th October

18th November

9th December – End of Year Celebration Dinner

I thank outgoing members of council for their commitment and support- Wade Green, Priyanka Bajpai, Magan Bhardwaj and Ange Demeca.

I look forward to working with the new council. The Annual Report will be delivered as part of the AGM on Tuesday March 24th. Normally this meeting is open to all community members but given the current climate it will only be presented to School Council members. It will be available on the TSPS website in due course. The meeting itself may be postponed if new updates suggest otherwise.

Prep 2021

Hard to believe but we are already taking enrolments for 2021. Please note that enrolments are now open and that packs can be collected from the reception area. Prior to doing so families need to check that they reside within our school zone. Given the current climate we have had to suspend school tours for the time being, but when we are able to run these we will do so. If you are aware of any families who have have children who live in our area and need to enrol for 2021 please pass this notification on to them.

Road Safety

Sadly, I find myself yet again addressing this concern about traffic conditions around the school in particular at drop off and pick up times. A week ago my worst nightmare almost eventuated when a nasty car accident happened near Arndell Park Community Centre involving families from our school trying to manoeuvre school pick up zones. Luckily there were no critical or severe injuries but it could have been worse.I thank and commend staff and parents who came to assistance of the people involved in the situation (administering First Aid and keeping people calm), whilst waiting for ambulance and police to arrive. I can not express in any other other than to reiterate the need to slow down, exercise caution, read the road signs and adhere to them and please be patient!

Also just a note that given the current health climate, some of the crossing supervisors will not always be able to patrol the crossings. We are working with the Council and if we are aware of unmanned crossings we will do our best to patrol. Again it remains the responsibility of drivers to be very vigilant and slow down for the safety of all our children.

End of Term 1

Term 1 ends Friday March 27 at 2.00pm. If nothing else changes from the Department of Education, this will be the end of a very different term of schooling. I ask that all parents and carers note the time of dismissal as 2.00pm.

All being well school is scheduled to resume Tuesday April 14th due to the Easter vacation period attached to the end of the holidays.

If the Department makes the decision to close schools the school community will be informed as soon as possible.

Please stay safe and well everyone.

Be kind

Yours in Education

Linda Danese (Principal)

Around the Community

Upcoming events