The Issue Highlights

COVID-19 Update: Letter attached about Face Masks Strongly Recommended, 6 Packs of RATs provided to students for Term 3, fourth Winter Booster
Congratulations Rameth on being appointed Area Manager for TheirCare (OSHC). Thank you to Natalia Giglietta for your work setting up our OSHC Demonstration Pilot and for your time on School Council.
Welcome Marg Keatley as a new Community Member of School Council.
Winter Fete Donations: $1000 to be donated to State Schools Relief, $1000 to be donated to SecondBite, $1000 gifted to our classes for running their stalls.
Approved Professional Practice Day (Pupil Free Day) - 16th September 2022 (Last Day of Term 3). No OSHC will run on this day.
eSafety Commissioner: 2022 webinars, eSafety Guide/Book, supporting mental health and digital technologies.
Student Support Group (SSGs) Parent-Teacher Meetings - NOW Tuesday Week 4 (2nd August 2022). We always aim for 100% participation from families.
DET August Census. Please return your form back to us no later than Monday 25th July 2022. Thank you.
Student of the Week from our PBIS rewards system.
Showcase of students' learning from across the school in Primary and Secondary.
For the most up-to-date calendar dates, always refer to the Xuno Calendar in your Parent Portal.

Dear Families,

We are now well in the swing of Term 3. Our students have had a good first two weeks back at school. Our Year 3/4 classes have begun their swimming program at Caroline Springs Swim Centre. Many of our classes are participating in a swimming program this term. Our 9/10 Hungry Jackson cafe has a new production team serving two different pasta options. We have a number of events coming up, including: Year 9-12 Formal, Book Week, Prep-2 Late Night & Year 3/4 Sleepover. Please see the additional Newsletter Issue 10 from last week with other important information for Term 3.

COVID-19 Update

Please find attached a short letter signed by each of the 3 school sectors (Government, Catholic and independent), which explains this will be a consistent expectation across all schools in Victoria this winter.

Face Masks

It is strongly recommended by the Victorian Department of Health that face masks are worn in indoor settings, with face masks mandatory for those aged 8 and over who are household contacts and attending school. This is because the wearing of masks is effective in reducing the transmission of COVID-19.

It is the department’s expectation that, through to the end of winter, students aged 8 and over and staff will wear masks when in class, except where removing a mask is necessary for clear communication or when a particular activity requires the removal of a mask.

Masks are not required to be worn outdoors but can be worn when physical distancing is not possible. This expectation should not constrain student participation in the full range of school activities, including music, sport and performances. We thank parents and carers in supporting this expectation. Schools are not required or expected to sanction students or staff who do not meet this expectation.

Wearing masks is a simple step we can all take this winter to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases and ensure our schools are as safe as possible. We have a large supply of N95 masks available from the office if families would like some. Please collect from the office. Lawful exemptions continue to apply.

For more information, please visit: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/face-masks

Rapid Antigen Testing (RATs) & Positive Cases

A reminder that it is recommended that rapid antigen tests are used by students and staff when symptomatic. Rapid antigen tests are also required to be used for five days if a student or staff member is an identified close contact of a confirmed case, and they are attending or working at a school onsite. From Tuesday 11th July, if you're re-exposed to a positive case after your isolation period end, you are now only exempt from testing and isolating for four weeks - reduced from 12 weeks.

Your 6 packs of 5 tests were sent home to those at school on Tuesday 12th July. If your child was absent from school on this day you can request your RATs from the office or through your child's class teacher.

The ongoing supply of RATs to families in our school will ensure that parents and carers will have them should you need them if your child is a household contact or has symptoms. Families must continue to notify the Department of Health and the school if their child returns a positive RAT result. Additionally, you should inform us if any of your children are household contacts.

After doing the tests at home, if it is positive, you will need to:

let the school know on the via the Jackson COVID Hotline 03 9366 4322; Option 4 and/or dedicated email address covid@jacksons.vic.edu.au. There is a message bank on the phone for when the phone is unmanned by our rostered COVID Officer. Families are able to message the mobile number and/or email address 24 hours a day. Please note we will only be able to respond to messages and calls within office hours.
keep your child at home for 7 days
contact the Department of Health via the COVID-19 Positive Rapid Antigen Test Self-Reporting Form or call centre on 1800 675 398.

For more information please visit: https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/keeping-schools-free-rapid-antigen-tests

Booster Vaccinations

Vaccination remains the best way to protect students and staff in school settings. Your ongoing support in encouraging children aged 5 to 11 to get vaccinated, and staff and students aged 16 and 17 to get their third dose, remains critical. The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) recommends an additional booster dose of Comirnaty (Pfizer) COVID-19 vaccine for eligible 12 to 15-year-olds who have completed a primary course of vaccination 3 or more months ago and:

are severely immunocompromised
have a disability with significant or complex health needs
have a medical condition that increases the risk of severe COVID-19 illness.

ATAGI also recommends an additional booster of the COVID-19 vaccine for people aged 16 to 30 who have:

a disability with significant or complex health needs
a medical condition that increases the risk of severe COVID-19 illness.

We strongly encourage you and your child have a winter booster if you are eligible. As per previous advice, if a person has had a recently confirmed COVID-19 infection, they should delay their next recommended COVID-19 vaccination until 3 months after their infection.

School Council & Their Care (OSHC) Update

Natalia who was a Community Member of School Council and the Area Manager for Their Care (OSHC) has now resigned from her position. We thank Natalia for her work in establishing our DET funded OSHC Demonstration Program and wish her all the very best in her new role. Today I met with TheirCare CEO, Mike Abela. Rameth has been appointed as the new Area Manager appointed. Parents/Carers can continue to communicate with TheirCare through our school-based OSHC Project Manager - Karen Hamilton.

I would also like to officially welcome Marg Keatley as a new Community Member to our School Council. Marg has worked with the school for many years liaising with and supporting many of our families. Marg no longer works for DET as the Keilor-St Albans Student Support Services (SSS) Team Leader. It is a privilege to have Marg's expertise available to us as a School Council member and we look forward to working with her.

Winter Fete Donations

In Term 2 we had our first Winter Fete since 2019 seeing up to 100 families attend. Due to your support we raised over $3000! School Council have decided to donate $1000 each to State Schools Relief and SecondBite for their continued support and contribution to our school. State Schools’ Relief is a not-for-profit organisation that provides much needed financial assistance to many of our families. SecondBite provide all Breakfast Club ingredients and also much needed food packages for our community. School Council have also gifted $1000 back to our students for displaying many of our employability skills in preparing for and running their stalls. Classes can use this to develop their own party day to celebrate their hard work.

For more information, please visit: https://stateschoolsrelief.org.au/ or to donate to State Schools Relief click here: https://www.givenow.com.au/stateschoolsrelief

Professional Practice Days - 16th September Pupil Free Day

A new Victorian Government Schools Agreement has been approved by the Fair Work Commission for Teaching Service Employees. The Department of Education and Training (DET) has provided schools with the option to hold each teacher’s allocated professional practice day on the same day for all staff. This is to enable the most effective and efficient use of this day and due to state-wide staffing issues of replacement/casual staff.

As a result, School Council have agreed to schedule the last day of Term 3 (16th September 2022) as a pupil free day to allow the school to run our Term 3 professional practice day. Students will therefore not be required to attend school on this day. We thank you in advance for your support.

In 2023, DET will recommend that schools hold one of the two 2023 professional practice days on the same day for all staff. In 2024, we will recommend that the remaining professional practice day be also held on a common day. We will of course notify families well in advance when these dates are set by School Council.

SDTP buses and OSHC will not operate on this day.

eSafety Commissioner

Click Here: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/webinars

The eSafety Guide has information about the latest games, apps and social media, including how to protect information and report inappropriate content.
eSafety has an Online Safety Book for parents, carers and grandparents (in six languages) which covers key online safety issues for young people and includes a range of practical advice on what to do if things go wrong. These resources cover the big issues and has tips for the hard to have conversations.

The eSafety Commissioner blogs are a good resource to use in communication with parent and carer communities.

Learn how to report cyberbullying, image-based abuse and illegal content. Issues that happen on social media out of school hours are reportable to Victoria Police.

Student Support Group (SSGs) Parent-Teacher Meetings

In Week 4 our Parent-Teacher Student Support Group (SSG) Meetings will take place. Parents/Carers now have the option to either attend in person in the hall or instead have their SSG over the phone or on Microsoft Teams. Please remember to let the school know your preferred time for the SSG Meeting next week as it is important that you are able to discuss your child’s Individual Learning Plan goals. We aim to have every child’s parent or carer meet with the classroom teacher to discuss the learning of each child. When parents/carers and the school work closely in partnership research informs us the students have better outcomes.

DET August Census

Twice annually in February and August, the DET conducts a census in every school to support the development of the school budget (SRP). As part of the upcoming August Census, DET collects family occupation and education and Language other than English (LOTE) data which determines our Social Disadvantage equity funding.

To support us with the data collection for the upcoming August census, can we kindly ask that you review the data that we currently have on the system for you, and if any information is incorrect, please cross it out and write the correct information next to the field. If you can kindly return this form to us by no later than Monday 25th July 2022, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for cooperating with us on this.

Best wishes,

Anthony

Students of the Week