COVID-Safe School Operations

Masks

As you would be well aware through media reports, the wearing of face masks indoors in school environments is now strongly recommended by the Department of Health and directed by Government agencies.

Yesterday the Deputy Secretary of the Victorian Education Department and Training, The Chief Executive Officer for Independent Schools Victoria, and the Executive Director of Catholic Education Commission Victoria wrote to their communities detailing their expectation that: through to the end of winter, students aged eight and over and staff wear masks when in class, except where removing a mask is necessary for clear communication or when a particular activity requires the removal of a mask (see the link below).

Therefore all schools are asked to communicate this expectation to their communities and seek their support for this collective effort.

So this means that from now until the end of winter:

All students in Years 3-6 are expected to wear a mask indoors (except where removing a mask is necessary for clear communication)
All staff are expected to wear a mask indoors (except where removing a mask is necessary for clear communication)
Families are asked to supply masks for their children to wear at school
Parents entering classrooms and office areas are expected to wear masks as you play an important part in modeling COVID-Safe behaviour

Rapid Antigen Tests

This Friday, families will receive one final supply of Rapid Antigen Tests. Thereafter, if additional RATs are required, families can collect them from the school office.

COVID-19 case reporting requirements

Case reporting obligations for Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) remain the same in Term 3, as per requirements of the current pandemic orders. Parents are asked to contact the school should their child test positive to COVID-19.

Reduction of Testing and Isolation Exemption Period

The period of time when someone is considered a recently confirmed case and therefore exempt from testing and isolation requirements has been reduced from the previous 12 weeks to four weeks.

This means that students who are household contacts of people with COVID-19 are not exempt from the testing and isolation requirements after four weeks of completing isolation with COVID-19. Previously, this period was 12 weeks.

This means that a student or staff member who is a household contact and wishes to attend school must take five RATs over seven days and receive negative test results, and wear a face mask (if over eight years old) in indoor spaces.

This applies from four weeks after the end of an isolation period when they were a case.

Families and staff will also have to report being a household contact to their school after this four-week period.

Positive Behaviour

Continuing on from our Positive Behaviour Policy as introduced last week, parents are also expected to model the values we uphold as a community, and as such all parents/carers of children attending Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) are asked to abide by a particular set of behaviours. This ensures a respectful learning environment that is safe, positive, and supportive for all students, staff and visitors of the School.

This MACS Code of Conduct is based on the following principles that everyone at Corpus Christi School:

has the right to be safe
has the right to be treated with respect and be valued even in disagreement
has the right to participate within a secure environment without interference, intimidation, harassment, bullying, or discrimination
is encouraged to be respectful, polite, courteous and considerate of others
has the right to be supported and challenged as ongoing learners.

These principles should be most familiar to you as they virtually mirror that which form the cornerstones of our Student Behaviour Matrix (and Policy) which is currently being rolled out in each learning community.

Hence we put forward to you our Parent/Carer Code of Conduct (see below) which we ask all parents and carers to read and sign.

Now normally this would be done upon enrolment yet for existing parents we will be sending this out via Operoo and request that you keep an eye out for the form and follow the prompts.

Next week we will be releasing the corresponding Student Code of Conduct where we will also be seeking your assistance.

School Board Update

On Tuesday, June 21st the Combined School Boards (Corpus Christi/St Augustine's & Annunciation Schools) met to focus on Wellbeing and the school community post-COVID.

During this time we looked at what well-being means within a Catholic context. We accessed the Kids Helpline data to understand how the Pandemic impacted student well-being. The Board then broke into small groups to brainstorm concerns regarding the well-being for staff, students and parents.

Some of the common threads included:

Increased anxiety
Isolation
Disengagement
Drop in Physical activity

The schools then met in their school groups to look at wellbeing in their own context and this was where our School Positive Behavioral Matrix was presented and endorsed as a Positive Behavior Support framework to document the way we recognize and respond to student behavior, where proactive strategies are designed aimed at decreasing behaviours of concern and replacing them with pro-social skills that lead to enhanced social competence.

Parents And Friends (PFA)

At last week's AGM for our Parents and Friends Association we elected our Office Bearers for 2022. We sincerely thank our nominations and congratulate:

President(s): AJ & Dwayne Deprez

Treasurer: Mel Daglish

Secretary: Natalie Angelone

It is wonderful to once again have an active PFA and we look forward to the opportunities they will provide.

For a full report, please refer to the new Parents & Friends Association page of this newsletter.

Student Reports & Portfolios

I trust you all had the opportunity to explore your child's Report and Portfolio and celebrated with them their successes. We ask that you return the Portfolio to school by the end of this week so that we can continue to add more work samples.

God bless

Anthony Hyde

(Principal)

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