Principal's Message

Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends,

I trust you have had a good week. The 'what ifs' that float around almost daily from our politicians I mentioned in last week's newsletter have now been decided for us. The sands have shifted again and our students will be returning to us before the original set date of the beginning of Term 3. The Foundation to Year 2 students will return on Tuesday 26th May, with Monday 25th May set by the government as a Teacher Only day. Moira has asked me to let you know that Whole School Day Care will be offered by her company on these days in our hall so if you are going to require this please contact her. Our Year 3-6 students will continue with our remote learning program until Tuesday 9th June when they will return to school for the final 3 weeks of term.

When our students return to us it will be a different school than that which we were all used to, for at least the remainder of the term. The key COVID 19 limiting factors of extremely regularly washing hands, using hand sanitizer and appropriate coughing and sneezing techniques will be expected. Children will be expected to only drink from their own water bottle. Though social distancing of students is not required in the school setting we will continue to encourage our students to be aware of this to limit the close proximity of one to another within the school.

Staff will continue to regularly disinfect surfaces in the classrooms periodically during the day such as tables, door handles and light switches. Playground equipment, including the sandpit toys, are being disinfected at the end of each break. We have been working with our cleaning company ensuring that deep cleaning and sanitising will happen each day.

Drop off and pick up will be through all 3 normal gates to spread families out. Class Teachers will be in their rooms from 8.45am. Students will need to be arriving at school until at least the end of term between 8.45 and 9am and going straight to their classes. We do not want groups of students congregating either before or after school. At this stage adventure playgrounds are still closed and given that the government have said parents and carers are not to enter the school grounds unless it is essential this is obviously not the time for parents to socialize before, during and after the school day in the yard.

We have been asked to stagger arrival and departure times for students. The above paragraph explains how this will be best achieved for arrival with the 3 entrances to the school open and the arrival times to be between 8.45 and 9am. In the afternoon I think it best that the Foundation students conclude their day at 3.15pm as I think that it will be essential for many parents to come onto site to pick them up. If all parents needing to be onsite could use social distancing measures of 1.5 metres and wait outside the grey double doors and not come inside, as we were doing at the end of last term, that would be much appreciated. The remainder of the school from Years 1-6 will be dismissed at the usual time and be able to exit through each of the 3 usual gates as quickly as possible.

As far as break times, with 135 students in grounds designed for 350 I see no reason to stagger playtimes. As such they will be 'business as usual' with staff encouraging social distancing wherever possible.

I realise there will be some changes required to your normal routines as a result of these strategies being implemented. However, these are far from normal times, and we put them in place to strive for the best health outcomes for everyone. I appreciate your understanding with this.

A reminder again that we are very aware of how stressful this time is for many families regarding health and financial circumstances. As a school community we will continue to do our best to support your family in ensuring an ongoing education for our students. Please let us know if there is something we may be able to do to support you.

Reports will be sent home at the end of term but I have moved the Parent Interviews into Term 3. These will most likely be in Week 1 and done remotely. Reports will be different this semester, which is to be expected. They will consist of tables in relation to the learning achieved in Term 1 with a comment on engagement with remote learning in Term 2. Part of the reporting for Term 2 will have a "Not Assessable" column. This will reflect where students have not completed set work in an area. It may be that the challenges of learning at home have been such for families that a child has not completed work in Italian, PE or Music to an extent that shows ongoing engagement. I fully understand and expect that this may be the case for some of our families during these incredibly challenging times. I just wanted to raise awareness that some families may see this in a report where their child, as an example, is quite a competent sportsperson or artist but they receive a "NA" mark. I hope this explanation helps with understanding of why that mark has been given. I obviously expect that your child will receive a more normal formatted report at the end of the year but who knows?

My thanks to Mrs Lauren Lacey and her husband Mark for creating the video which was shared this week. I hope it made you smile and have a bit of a laugh. I have no doubt my inspiration for dancing comes from Peter Garrett!

Well done to all our students and their teaching assistants for the work they have produced again this week. If there has been one thing I have really appreciated this term it has been being able to more regularly view student work......and I have been very impressed!!

As a reminder, from the 26th May, normal school uniform will be expected daily.

God is with us - let your light shine! I see this in the interactions of the students and staff onsite during this period. Those small moments of kindness and joy that happen are example of God in action to me.

For those needing to make contact with the Parish, Annie is working remotely but generally available. Fr Benneth is on a period of leave with Fr Andrew Jekot, PP of Aspendale and Mordialloc, acting as temporary administrator.

God Bless

Rod

School Attendance and Unexplained Absence

Please ensure you contact the school before 9:30am if your child is going to be absent or late by leaving a message on 9786 4736 and press #1.

If you are running late (after 9:00 am ) please attend the office to sign your child into school.

As per our policy this will be our morning routine for absences:

Parents will be contacted as soon as practicable on the morning a student is absent via a phone call or text message.

If parent does not reply or is unreachable the emergency contacts will be contacted by the school.

If there is still no response, and the school feels that the child is in danger, the police will be contacted.

Ongoing unexplained absences or lack of cooperation regarding student attendance will result in

a formal conference being organized. Unresolved attendance issues will be referred to D.H.H.S.

This is a legal requirement.