From the Principal

 We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which our school stands, 

the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.

Dear Families and Friends,

Welcome back to Term 3. We hope you all had the opportunity to spend time with loved ones. This term promises to be another busy one with many exciting events planned.

New Look Newsletter

As announced last term in the newsletter, this week we are introducing a new look newsletter. There is a number of reasons why we've decided to go down this path including:

• the ability to co-construct the newsletter with many people working on the one issue at the same time
• layout - hopefully easier to find items of interest more quickly
• instant publication - once published it is instantly uploaded to our web site and emails directed to all subscribers

We hope you enjoy a new look newsletter - still filled with the same great information - feedback welcomed.

Prayer

This week we introduced the new Child Safe Standards. Below is a prayer we shared as a staff  during our presentation.

Lord, 

Please keep all children safe and protect them from harm. 

Cover them in your care and keep them in the safety of your powerful presence. 

We pray for you to protect their coming and going, and to remind them that you’re always with them. 

Give them alertness, spiritual discernment, and wisdom to make the best choices. 

We thank you God, as you walk ahead of them, beside them, and behind them. 

Amen.

Minor Works

Over the holidays we had some minor works completed. They involved replacing the carpet in the foyer and front officers (a result of the floods earlier in the year) and replacing the lights in the PAC and giving the walls a fresh coat of paint. It's important that we keep the school looking good and to a high standard. You also can play a part - check out the invitation to our next Working Bee - the first for a long time.

Covid Update

Thanks everyone for your ongoing support with regard the Covid-19 regulations. The updated School Operations Guidelines don't suggest a great deal of change so we will continue to do what we can to keep everyone safe. Below are listed some of the changes: 

Vaccination Status

• From Saturday 25 June, all school staff (including principals, teachers, administration and education support staff, including casual relief teachers (CRT’s), pre-service teachers, and Outside School Hours Care staff), volunteers, contractors and visitors are no longer required to meet COVID-19 vaccination requirements to attend work.

Rapid Antigen Tests

• The Victorian Government is providing up to three further deliveries of rapid antigen tests in Term 3 and again in Term 4 to schools. It is recommended that rapid antigen tests are used by students and staff when symptomatic. 
• Household contacts are required to test negative using a rapid antigen test on at least 5 out of 7 if they are attending or working at a school onsite. If staff or students receive a positive test result at any time, they must report this through the Department of Health system (Rapid antigen tests | Coronavirus Victoria) or via the coronavirus hotline at 1800 675 398. Students (or their parents) must also report a positive result to their school by phone or written notification; this is so the school can support them, record that they will be absent while in 7-day isolation, and let the rest of the school community know there has been a positive case onsite and that they should monitor for symptoms. 
• Students and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19, have completed their 7-day isolation period and are subsequently asymptomatic do not need to undertake surveillance testing for twelve weeks. 

Face masks 

• Current advice from the Victorian Government on the wearing of face masks is available here: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/face-masks. It states: Wearing a face mask can help protect you and those around you. Face masks stop droplets spreading when you talk, cough, sneeze and laugh, which lowers your chance of spreading or catching the virus.

Household Contacts

• Where a student is a household contact of a positive case (that is, they have spent more than four hours with someone who has COVID-19 inside a house, accommodation, or care facility) they must inform the school. Household and household-like contacts are no longer required to quarantine as long as they take additional safety measures in the 7 days that would have been their quarantine period. If household contacts do not undertake the safety measures, they are required to isolate and test on Day one and Day 6 of isolation. Household contacts are required to inform the school that they are attending during the 7 day period.
• Parents/carers are able to leave isolation if other arrangements cannot be made to transport their non-infectious child via private vehicle to and/or from school. The person leaving self-isolation must travel directly to and from the location, making no stops, unless there is an emergency or as required by law. They must remain in the vehicle at all times, unless it is reasonably necessary to leave the vehicle to deliver the person to and from school, and must wear a face covering whilst outside the place of self-isolation.

Child Safe Standards (CSS)

In July 2021, the Victorian Government announced new Child Safe Standards (CSS) to further strengthen child safe environments and protect children from abuse. The new CSS come into effect on Friday 1 July 2022.

From 1 July 2022, 11 new Victorian Child Safe Standards replaced Victoria’s seven current Child Safe Standards and principles in place since 2016.

The revised Victorian CSS support greater national consistency, reflecting the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, developed following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The CSS include new requirements, including:

• the involvement of families and students in child safety efforts
• focus on the safety of Aboriginal children and young people
• management of the risk of child abuse in online environments
• governance, systems and processes to keep students safe.

As a whole staff this week, we took time in our professional learning meetings to analyse and become familiar with the updated Victorian Child Safety Standards, as set out in Ministerial Order 1359. We reviewed the history and development of the standards and what has occurred in the implementation over the past eight years since the original Child Safety Standards were released. Both the previous and current Child Safety Standards recognise that all children are vulnerable and require schools to take steps to prevent child abuse and to build a culture of safety. Each of the eleven standards, guides us in what we need to do to maintain safe environments. As a staff we listed the various actions that we take in each of the 11 areas and made recommendations for future actions. We were delightfully surprised at the number of strategies that are already in place and felt confident we could do even more to contribute to our safe environment. Refer to our Student Wellbeing page for more information

Early Arrivals

Please be aware that supervision of students commences at 8:40 am and concludes at 3:45 pm (3:30pm on Monday). Students should not be left at school outside of these hours, unless previous arrangements have been made. Usually staff are here well and truly beyond these hours, but they often have other commitments – meetings, planning, etc. We would hate for any child to be left here unsupervised. If you are running late, please don’t hesitate to let us know. If you require supervision outside of these hours, please contact Camp Australia.

Please note that the staff/parish carpark should not be used for:

• drop off before school (including Running Club) or 
• pick up after school (3:15pm – 3:45pm)

Please use the pedestrian gates.

Thank you. 

Look forward to working with you all for the rest of the year.