Our Lady of Fatima COVID safe Plan

As the pandemic has progressed Our Lady of Fatima has maintained a COVID safety Plan and updated this plan regularly to ensure the safety, health and wellbeing of all members of the community. This plan guides the extra structures and protocols that we are required to maintain as communicated by MACS.

We thank you for supporting all changes to our school and helping us to adhere to all aspects of this plan.

Please refer to all letters and updates via Skoolbag for all the latest updates.

Mandatory Vaccinations for staff in MACS schools

The Victorian Government has released the COVID-19 Mandatory Vaccination Directions, which clarify the vaccination requirements for schools and school-based employees.

The Directions require employees and volunteers of schools or education entities that attend a school to have their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine by 25 October or a booking within one week of that date, with full vaccination required by 15 December unless a medical exemption applies.

All employees and volunteers in Victorian Catholic schools will need to comply with the COVID-19 Mandatory Vaccination Directions and must have received their first dose by 25 October. This includes principals, teachers, administration and education support staff, casual relief teachers and pre-service teachers.

The Directions are publicly available and can be accessed on the Department of Health website.

Vaccination requirements for visitors and parents onsite

The School Operations Guide has recently been updated (9/11/21) with new guidance regarding the use of QR code check-ins, verification of vaccination status and retention of relevant information that applies for:

employees, volunteers and other workers performing work in schools
visitors (such as parents and carers) attending school sites.

Please be are aware that there was a lack of clarity regarding the vaccination requirements for parents and carers attending school sites until Tuesday 9th November, which has made it challenging for Principal's to plan and organise upcoming events for our school communities. The updated information, which has been worked through with the Department of Health and the Department of Education and Training, now makes it much easier and clearer for us to navigate this complex context.

Please note the following:

All visitors attending schools, including for drop off and pick up must adhere to physical distancing, density limits, face mask requirements and practise respiratory etiquette and good hand hygiene.
Visitors to the outside spaces of the school grounds (including parents) do not need to use the QR codes if only coming onsite for pick up or drop off or remaining outside such as attending basketball training after school.
Visitors attending school sites for drop off and pick up who do not enter school buildings do not need to comply with vaccination requirements.
Visitors to the school grounds entering buildings (including parents) are required to use the QR codes. This includes coming into the office.
Visitors who enter school buildings must also have had at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by 29 November 2021 or have a valid medical exception with the following limited exceptions
- when attending to administer medical treatment to their own child when the treatment cannot be administered by the school
- when attending to collect their child who is unwell and cannot leave the school building unaccompanied by their parent/carer.
- when attending for a momentary period that does not involve any sustained contact with staff or students, for example, to collect a completed art project or similar.
Visitors attending any event or activity inside a school building including, but not limited to tours, graduations, kindergarten transition, whole of school events are required to show evidence of vaccinations. Assembly will remain for students and staff only and many other events will be organised remotely such as graduation for the remainder of the school year.
Meetings and other discussions (such as Student Support Group meetings) with visitors who do not meet vaccination requirements should be held virtually.
Any visitor who needs to access an early childhood education and care service (including OSHC) and is required to traverse school building to access the service is required to check in using the Victorian Government QR Code Service but do not need to show their vaccination status.
Sighting Vaccination Status when visually verifying the vaccination status of a visitor, no information is required to be recorded or retained. It is recommended that this verification occur at an easily controllable location such as an entrance to the school grounds or an entrance to a school building.

Return to normal drop off and pick up

We will resume normal drop off and pick up procedures from next Monday 15th November. We strongly encourage you to drop off where possible at either of the gates joining the car park, to utilise the school crossing by dropping off on the other side of the road or to walk your child into the grounds and drop off outside classrooms. We will keep the procedures in place of not entering classrooms to remain as covid safe as possible. We would also ask that parents maintain social distancing and not congregate in the school grounds.

If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me at school.

Warm regards,

Patrika Rowley

Masks

We are continuing to see a high number of corona virus cases across Victoria.

I want to reassure you that our school with your great support is doing everything possible to contain and slow the spread of the virus, and ensure the health and safety of our whole school community.

To keep our school safe, and reduce students catching and spreading COVID-19, we have put a range of measures in place based on health advice from the Australian and Victorian governments.

These measures include encouraging vaccination of eligible cohorts, ventilation of indoor spaces, and a range of COVID Safe measures including onsite daily cleaning of all high touch surfaces, doorways, handles and thoroughfares, regular use of hand sanitiser, increased use of outdoor spaces and the wearing of masks.

It is important that schools and the school community adhere to all of these COVID Safe measures, not just the introduction of masks.

I am aware that some parents have concerns regarding mask-wearing. On the whole our students are managing this very positively and we are proud of them.

When worn properly, masks can play an important role in reducing the transmission risks of COVID-19 that could happen from common activities in school. We know COVID-19 can be transmitted among children, and between children and adults. When teachers, staff and students consistently and correctly wear a mask, they help protect themselves and their friends, teachers and classmates from COVID-19.

Our Lady of Fatima is required to follow the directions of the Victorian Chief Health Officer, and our teachers and staff are positively and respectfully ensuring that masks are worn in school when inside for Years 3 and above.

The lawful exceptions for not wearing a mask are listed on the government’s Coronavirus Victoria website.

Thank you for supporting us to implement COVID Safe measures at our school to keep your children safe.

STEM Update

'Tapping into student curiosity and allowing them to create, test and re-create.'