From the Principal

Welcome to IPS.

Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you for all your support during these past few weeks of remote and flexible learning.

Following advice from the Chief Health Officer, the Victorian Government has advised that schools can begin a phased return to on-site schooling.

In the first stage, students in Foundation, Grade 1 and Grade 2 will return to school from Tuesday 26th May.

To support all school staff to prepare for this transition, Monday 25th May will be a pupil-free day.

With regard to the IPS Out of School Hours Care program (OSHC) significant preparation around risk mitigation and organisation is planned for the 25th May therefore the OSHC program will NOT be running that day.

In the second stage of our return to on-site schooling, all other year levels will return to school from Tuesday 9th June.

For those students who cannot be supervised at home and vulnerable children, the existing model of on-site schooling will remain in place during the two-week period from Tuesday 26th May to Tuesday 9th June.

The current process that we are using to enable parents and carers to indicate the days or part-days for which on-site schooling is required will continue for this two-week period.

All other students in these grades and year levels will continue learning from home until Tuesday 9th June.

Once a year level has returned, all students will be expected to attend school as normal. This means if you choose to keep your child/children home after their year level has returned to on-site schooling, we can no longer support their learning from home.

This does not apply to children who need to be absent for health or medical reasons. For those families, please contact us so we can make an appropriate plan.

This same approach is being taken by all government schools in Victoria.

To support the health and wellbeing of all our students and staff, our school will continue an enhanced cleaning routine and will encourage frequent hand washing.

If your child is ill or is feeling unwell, they must not attend school. They must remain home and seek medical advice.

While the Chief Health Officer has advised that students will not be required to maintain physical distancing at school, there will be a number of important changes to our school operations, consistent with health advice to all schools that will apply to adults. I will provide more detail about our local school context as soon as possible, but it is important to note that changes will include:

• adjusted arrangements for drop off and pick up which may include staggered school start and finish times;
• restrictions on access to the school site for anyone other than immediate school staff and students;
• the way we conduct parent-teacher meetings and interviews

We understand that some families may feel anxious about this move back to classroom teaching and learning. I can assure you that this decision has been taken on the basis of the best health advice available to our state.

More information about the return to school and coronavirus (COVID-19) can be found on the Department’s website, which will continue to be updated:

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/department/Pages/coronavirus.aspx

Thank you for your continued support and patience during this time. We look forward to welcoming our students back to the classroom.

Specialist Programs - remote school.

We have a wonderful Specialist program at IPS and what better way to showcase all of them than in a short movie.

Mrs Wright reads "Pig the  Tourist"

Feel like a story?

Listen to Mrs Wright read "Pig the  Tourist"

Check out this week's movies, stories, raps and procedures on the Learning from home pages.

Come share with us.

This week I received some inspiring writings from Year 6 as well as some marvelous photos and videos.  Please show your children and inspire them to send me something for next week's newsletter. Email your contributions to ivanhoeprimaryvic@gmail.com 

Finally

Over the next week , as I receive more information from the Department of Education and the State Government, we will provide you with instructions and share our thinking on the safest way to get your children back to school.

Some of the advice may prove inconvenient but it will be important for all of us to adhere to the procedures that we put in place.  The  consequences of failing to comply may very well lead to illness resulting, at best, in the backward step of closing our school for a significant period of time.

Remember! Stay safe and stay connected.

Thank you.

Mark Kent

Principal