Leadership & Management

Week 4 Term 4

Dear Parents and Carers,

It was lovely welcoming the return of most of our students last week seeing them engage with their peers and teachers. These few weeks of staggered return have provided further opportunities for the children to reacquaint themselves with their school friends and school routines. 

YEAR 1/2

YEAR 5/6

An updated outline of the return to school times and days are provided for you in today’s newsletter. You will notice that the return for ALL students have been brought forward to November 3rd.  

A number of safety protocols are in place to ensure the wellbeing of individuals, our school community and the wider community. Your adherence to these safety protocols at this time is appreciated and required. 

RETURN TO SCHOOL Monday Oct 25-Oct 29

 RETURN TO SCHOOL Monday Nov 1-Nov 3

COVID -19 UPDATE:

Please refer to our new page in our newsletter titled COVID-19. On this page we will upload any information which outlines regulations and procedures associated with how we are keeping our school COVID-SAFE.

The following documents are on this page:

• Management of school COVID-19 cases
• Role of mask wearing
• Ventilation /Air purifiers
• St Fidelis Primary School COVID Safe
• COVID -19 Champion

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR FAMILIES 

If your family is in isolation can you please notify the School Principal or Mr Jennings our (OH&S and COVID-liaison officer ) as soon as possible. This information is important to manage your child’s learning and his / her return school plan.

SACRAMENT INFORMATION - 2021

Due to our lockdown period, it is impossible to celebrate all the Sacraments we had planned for 2021 this year with five weeks remaining after all students are back onsite (November 3 ). 

Father Linh and Father Greg have three parishes, which means three schools to accommodate in their calendar. They have weddings scheduled, which makes it impossible to find a weekend for every school to celebrate all the sacraments prior to Christmas. 

I appreciate this is disappointing especially for the students and families who have had Eucharist (First Holy Communion) cancelled twice, however, I thank you in advance for your understanding during these times. 

PLEASE NOTE: Fr Linh and Fr Greg are more than happy to celebrate the Sacrament of First Holy Communion (Eucharist) during a Parish Mass (11:00am) if any family would like this to happen this year (2021).

Masses are not resuming until Sunday November 7 at St Fidelis. If you choose to take this option please notify Mark MacGregor of your preferred Sunday and he will inform Fr Linh and Fr Greg. It will NOT be a school event.

PARISH NEWS 

- A message from Fr Linh and Fr Greg

Returning to Church, Mass and Community beginning November 2nd.

As we move from 70% vaccination to 80% vaccination our Victorian community is progressively opening up, including our Churches. This week our Brunswick-Moreland Mission Executive met and discussed the process for opening our Churches.

It was agreed that our churches will open for Mass and services when 80% of the population have been vaccinated.

This will allow 150 fully vaccinated parishioners at Mass. It is anticipated that the first liturgies will be a weekday Mass and a Communion Service, on Tuesday 2nd November, with the weekend of 6/7th being the first Sunday liturgies.

The current Sunday online liturgies will remain until these dates.

When we do open for Mass and services, parishioners will, according to Victorian Government Law, need to QR or sign into the Church.

In addition, parishioners must show their vaccination certificate on entry. For parishioners of the Mission, who do not wish to provide their vaccination status, an additional Mass will be provided each Sunday afternoon at 3pm. There will be further details about this Mass next week.

Pre-booking for some services may be required. Further information on procedures for maintaining a COVID safe restart to our face-to-face liturgies will be provided over the next weeks.

As you can appreciate, this is a major issue for our volunteers to organise in a legal, fair and just way. We are grateful to our volunteer parishioners. Let us always be courteous and kind to one another in this stressful time.

Regards

Fr Linh and Fr Greg

WORLD TEACHERS' DAY 

Our teachers at St Fidelis (with support from parents and carers) have ensured education continued this year and last despite major challenges. It has reinforced the significant role teachers’ play in the lives of children and students, their families, and communities. 

On Friday 29 October, take a moment to send your child’s teacher a thank you message or ask your child to write them a note of thanks.  A simple act of gratitude goes along way. 

World Teachers’ Day is held internationally in early October. As it falls during the school holidays for many parts of Australia, we celebrate a little later. 

On Friday our Whole School Prayer focuses on “Jesus as our Teacher” and we pray for all the teachers in our school and around the world 

Thank you 

Take care and see you soon

Manuela