COVIDSafe Measures & Reminders (Term 2, 2022) as of 24.6.2022

Please see below for some COVIDSafe measures (in no particular order) that will continue to be in place (in line with the latest CECV School Operations Guide).

These include:

Vaccination requirements

All education workers (including volunteers) that attend an education facility and that work in close proximity to children, students or staff must be fully vaccinated (boosted) or have an exemption.

This includes parent helpers, canteen or tuckshop assistants, reading helpers, excursion supervisors or classroom or working bee volunteers.

As per the above, any volunteer performing any work at a school is classed as an education worker and they must be fully vaccinated (boosted) or have an exemption.

COVID-19 vaccinations for students are not required for them to attend school but vaccination for students is highly encouraged. If your child has not yet had their first dose, please try to organise this soon.

For more information on how to book a vaccination, including important information about vaccination for children aged 5 to 11, visit the Vaccination information for children and teenagers page on the coronavirus.vic.gov.au website.

Staff COVID-19 Vaccination mandate

As was previously mentioned, ALL staff who attend on-site at Sacred Heart Kew have complied with the COVID-19 vaccination mandate ordered by the Victorian Chief Health Officer. All staff who work at Sacred Heart Kew have received three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Face masks (as previously advised)

Face masks are not required in any school setting any longer. This means students in Years 3 to 6, staff and visitors in primary schools are no longer required to wear face masks. Any student or staff member who wishes to wear a mask may do so, including those who are medically at-risk and who are 'Household contacts'.

Cleaning and Hygiene

Our school buildings and classrooms continue to be regularly cleaned and sanitised each day. Our children and staff continue to practise regular COVIDSafe hygiene practices each day, with both soap and Hand sanitiser available for use in all areas of the school.

Classrooms/Buildings (ventilation and fresh air flow in all areas)

All classrooms and shared spaces have increased fresh air flow. This includes natural ventilation such as: keeping windows, doors and vents open during the day in indoor spaces. The use of mechanical ventilation (such as air conditioning units and ceiling fans) is also operating in these indoor spaces, to maintain a comfortable temperature and sufficient air flow at all times. Flexible and physically distanced seating arrangements where possible will also occur.

Air Purifiers

Air Purifiers have been placed in all classroom/learning spaces, including 'high traffic' areas across the school. These will continue to operate throughout the school each day.

Parents On-site

As per the current School Operations Guide, parents are able to come on-site at this time. However, you are encouraged to drop off and pick up children outside the school gates.

Parents can drop their children off at their classroom each day. We kindly ask that you drop your child off at the classroom and leave immediately. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding with this.

MOST RECENT CHANGES

A further change to the pandemic orders is that from 11.59 pm on Friday 24 June, parents/carers who are COVID-19 positive can leave self-isolation to transport children to or from school via private vehicle.

The parent/carer must travel directly to and from the school only. They must remain in the vehicle at all times, unless it is reasonably necessary to leave the vehicle to walk the child to and from the entrance of the school safely. They must wear a face mask at all times.

General 'safety’ behaviours at School Drop Off and Pick Up

St John’s Parade

If picking up your children from the St John’s Parade ‘2 minute pick up’ point, please do not park in this area. This is solely a ‘pick up’ point and constant traffic flow is vitally important in this area.

Cotham Road

A reminder too that each afternoon parents can wait for your child(ren) outside the Church and on the footpath (Cotham Road), in front of the school. This area is larger than the St John’s Parade area and can be accessed from the Cotham Road pedestrian entrance.

Kiss and Drop

Our Kiss and Drop gates open from 8.30am - 8.45am in the morning and again from 3.15pm - 3.35pm in the afternoon.
As stated above, ‘Kiss and Drop’ continues to be our preferred method of drop off and pick up of children. For this practice to run smoothly we greatly rely on all parents' support. As a whole school community we need to ensure that traffic flow is maintained, we cannot have cars parked during this process.
If your children cannot do their seat belt up immediately upon entering the car, you must use the 2 minute drop off, pick up instead. Please have your surname displayed on your visor (or in an elevated vertical position) so we can ensure smooth delivery of your child(ren) to each awaiting car.

The school day

As we can all appreciate, within the school setting, separating children from their peers (at all times) can be a difficult task. With this in mind, (where possible) we have reduced the times and activities where children from different year levels interact with each other indoors.

Other important COVIDSafe measures include:

Rapid Antigen Testing

As previously mentioned, please see below for an update to some of our COVIDSafe measures, in particular, the use of RAT kits for the remainder of Term 2.

The Victorian Government will continue to provide rapid antigen tests (RATs) for use by students and staff for the remainder of Term 2.

Schools will continue to be provided with the same weekly quantity of RATs. Another box of RAT's were handed out to all children today for the school holiday period.

It is now recommended that RATs are used by students and staff ONLY when symptomatic. However, RATs are required to be used (each day) for five days if a student or staff member is a close contact of a confirmed case and they are attending or working at a school.

Students and staff must continue to notify the Department of Health and their school if they return a positive RAT result.

Thanks everyone for your ongoing support and understanding with all of the above, as we continue to keep everyone healthy and safe within our school community.

Process for positive COVID cases within the school community (and Household contact changes)

Parents are to contact the school if their child tests positive to COVID-19 and parents are also to inform the school when their child is deemed a 'household contact'.

Parents are also to lodge the positive COVID-19 test result with the DH Covid hotline/website.

Household Contact changes

If your child is deemed as a 'household contact' they can return to school as long as they undertake rapid antigen tests (RAT) 5 times within their 7-day period and wear face masks indoors if they are aged 8 and above unless they have a valid exemption.

However, if any household contact returns a positive RAT result during this period, they must isolate for 7 days and not attend school.

As mentioned above, if your child is deemed a ‘household contact’, please communicate this information with the school as soon as possible.

When a Covid positive case is identified with the school setting, ONLY the class/year level families of the positive case will be notified and encouraged to monitor their child for symptoms.

Children who are unwell (with Covid like symptoms)

A reminder of the importance of children not attending school if they are feeling unwell, however mild their symptoms may be. Any child who presents with symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19), however mild, should get tested as soon as possible.

If a child presents as unwell, parents will be contacted immediately to collect their child. As you can appreciate we are unable to have unwell children remain at school under our current COVIDSafe plan.

Families are highly encouraged to follow ALL directions provided to them by the Department of Health (DH). Children should not return to school until all symptoms have been resolved.

Thanks to all parents for your support and cooperation with the above items as we do our very best to keep all school community members healthy and safe during this time.

Reflection