Leadership
Special Covid-19 Edition - Wednesday 18/08/2021
Today's newsletter outlines new Covid -19 rules, restrictions and procedures we all now need to abided by as a community. Due to our latest Lockdown it is necessary as the school leader to share them with the community. Please read as there have been some significant changes made for this lockdown.
Extended restrictions in metropolitan Melbourne and authorised worker permits
Due to the ongoing level of community transmission of coronavirus in Victoria, the current lockdown across Melbourne will be extended until 11:59pm on Thursday 2 September.
To help slow the spread of the virus, we need your support in complying with the new strengthened restrictions and helping our public health team to get ahead of this virus.
We request parents, carers and families continue to do the right thing by following all health directives. This includes making careful and supportive choices about accessing on-site supervision at school.
From today, Wednesday 18 August, under the new strengthened restrictions in place across metropolitan Melbourne, an authorised worker PERMIT will be required for authorised workers to attend a workplace.
This also means that from today, parents and carers in metropolitan Melbourne can only request on-site supervision for their child/ren in the below categories:
Category A
Children where both parents and or carers are considered authorised workers who cannot work from home, work for an authorised provider and where no other supervision arrangements can be made:
- Where there are two parents/carers, both must be authorised workers, working outside the home in order for their children to be eligible for on-site provision.
- For single parents/ carers, the authorised worker must be working outside the home in order for their children to be eligible for on-site provision.
Parents and carers who are authorised workers will need an authorised worker permit from their employers to access on-site supervision for their child/ren in Category A.
Category B
On-site supervision continues to be available for the below students:
Children experiencing vulnerability, including:
- in out-of-home care
- deemed vulnerable by a government agency, funded family or family violence service, and assessed as requiring education and care outside the family home
- identified by a school or early childhood service as vulnerable, (including via referral from a government agency, or funded family or family violence service, homeless or youth justice service or mental health or other health service)
- Where a parent/carer indicates that a student with a disability is vulnerable because they cannot learn from home, and/or informs the school the student is vulnerable due to family stress, the school must provide on-site supervision for that student. This may apply to students enrolled in specialist schools and students with a disability enrolled in mainstream schools.
Category B.
For those requesting on-site learning under Category A, a copy of your authorised worker permit or permits must be submitted to the school as soon as practicable after it is issued. We ask that in the case of both parents are in this category, then we require both permits to be emailed to the school email address.
A permit is not required under Category B.
Category B does not include situations where families feel overwhelmed with the challenges of home schooling.
I know this may well be a challenging time. There are a number of supports available. These include:
- A short video produced by headspace with tips and strategies for parents and carers during lockdown
- Student Mental Health and Wellbeing resources for advice
- Advice for students about how to adapt during COVID-19
- Resources for learning from home
- Translated resources for learning from home
As part of the phased COVID-19 vaccination rollout, more Victorian parents, carers, and students are now able to receive the COVID-19 vaccines.
With more appointments now available over the next two weeks, we encourage you to book your vaccine at Victorian Government’s COVID-19 vaccine online booking system.
For more information about eligibility, refer to coronavirus.vic.gov.au or use the Australian Government’s COVID-19 vaccine eligibility checker.
I trust our school community will ensure we do the right thing at this time, by complying with the restrictions in place and making careful and supportive decisions that limit movement through the community.
Thank you again, for supporting your child’s learning during this time.
Please email me at newlands.ps@education.vic.gov.au with any questions.