PRINCIPAL'S REPORT
Erin Wright - Principal
A huge thank you to the whole SCSC community for working together to support our young people, and each other, during this most recent lock down and period of remote learning. We are now able as a school to pivot to a remote learning situation quickly, but this does not make it any easier in terms of us missing all of the comforts and additional supports that the physical school setting provides. We are all so glad to be back on site now.
There are several measures that the Department of Education has put into place for schools to ensure the return on site and safe and manageable, based on advice from the Department of Health.
Some important things to note about our current COVID-safe measures are:
Face Masks – are required indoors and outdoors by all community members. This includes on the way to and from school. Students with mask exemptions are noted on Compass for staff awareness. Please ensure that your child/ren have a face mask with them each day.
Limiting contact – we have asked students to remain as much as possible in either the area of the College designated for their year levels: 7,8 and 9 students are to spend break times in the designated Middle Years courtyards, and the 10, 11 and 12 students in the Senior Years courtyard. Specific year levels have access to the gym at break times on different days
Excursions and Camps – these can proceed as long as single school groups are attending/staying in the location and there is no mixing of schools. The College’s Administration team have done a lot of work with our teachers to contact venues and ensure that we can still send the majority of our excursions out. There may be specific requirements that venues ask of us during this time, so please look out on Compass for any announcements relevant to excursions that your child/ren may be participating in.
Snow Camps (Year 10 and VET Sport and Rec) – it was announced that anyone travelling to the alpine area of Victoria must have a negative COVID test within 72 hours of arrival. Our camps are not planned for a few weeks, but the College is following up advice from DET around what needs to be done to support these camps being able to proceed. We will update families as we receive advice and confirmation of actions that need to be taken.
Other Events this Term – we have some other events planning this term, including the College Production and the Senior School Formal. These events are not planned for a few weeks yet, so we will watch restrictions and hope that these ease in time for us to facilitate these events this term.
Non-essential visitors not allowed on site – parents are not allowed on site currently. The only non-school staff allowed on site are health and wellbeing related services. Parent meetings can continue to be facilitated via Google Meet or phone. Whilst this is not ideal in some situations, we appreciate your understanding of the need to adhere to this requirement at this time. Please also call the administration office for any payments or questions that you have instead of coming in.
The College has three main focus areas for the return to on site learning:
1. Attendance – we want all students to be back on site, engaged in face-to-face learning and connecting with their peers in a positive manner.
2. Wellbeing – staff will continue to monitor student wellbeing and we appreciate your support in responding to any of our concerns so that we can work in partnership to support our young people. Please contact your child/ren’s mentor teacher if you are concerned or want to know what support may be available for your child if you feel they are in need.
3. Learning – this is what our teachers do best and we look forward to continuing to scaffold and support our students to catch up if things were missed during remote learning, and to focus on staying on track for the remainder of this term. Parents can access feedback on Canvas to also see how your child/ren are going in each subject.