From the Principal

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to Term 2. I am very proud of the staff who have worked very hard to make the start of term go as smoothly as possible and to provide parents with choice.

We have started with about 66% of students returning and this has grown to 83% yesterday. The staff have designed a model for students attending and for those families still choosing to remain at home. This will be reviewed in Week 3 by the Department with plans to be announced for Week 4 onwards. These plans will be fine tuned on a daily basis, depending upon the virus’ progression.

Students who are attending school are remaining in their existing classes and being taught by their current teachers. The normal specialist teacher program is up and running.

Students who are remaining at home will be able to access a streamlined version of the Distance Learning resource developed by classroom teachers. This will be available via a link from a Connect message that you will receive from your teacher. This will provide some similarity with the work that students will be completing at school. Instead of video conferencing etc. the classroom teacher will be making contact by phone once per week. If you are having Connect/connection/linking issues, please contact the front office.

Drop off and pick up

Parents and visitors are being kept out of school grounds for the moment, this is at the start of the day, the end of the day and if there is a early/late pick up or drop off of students or equipment. We are assisting with the younger students. Staff will be available to assist the younger students being dropped off (from 8:30) and being picked up (from 3:00-3:30). If you are running late or need to attend the school for any reason, please ring the school office on 9266 6700 and you will be met at the gate.

If it is raining during the afternoon pickup time you will have the option of driving through the staff car park. Kindy students, PP, Yr. 1 and 2 students will be waiting under cover here. Please do not park, but pull in parallel to the front playground/ shelter. Other than during this wet weather arrangement, we ask that parents do not enter the car park.

Reporting

In Semester 1 there will be no reporting against an A-E scale. The reports will come home as per the normal processes, but will contain teacher comments.

Other things happening in the school:

To provide extra peace of mind, the school is implementing an extended cleaning regime. This includes day time cleaning staff providing twice daily cleaning of regularly touched surfaces. It also includes cleaning of playground equipment. Although concerns around students and social distancing have reduced we are still implementing common sense measures such as regular washing of hands and trying to reduce physical contact between students.
The school is having all of the toilets (except PP) upgraded. They will be completing the work in clusters and have started with the Kindergarten, the administration and Cluster 1. They have completed the demolition work for these toilets on the holidays and are now working on the upgrades. During this process the Kindergarten students will access the toilets in the Pre Primary. Cluster 1 students will access the toilets in Cluster 3.
This week the roof is also having maintenance work completed. This is designed to reduce the number of leaks during winter.

Staffing

To support the teachers and families who are still choosing to work from home we have increased the hours of Mr Kellow and Ms Hall.
Ms Thomson has taken some personal leave for a few weeks. During this time Mrs Kidd will be working in the office as Deputy Principal.
During this Term our School Psychologist Val Cousins will be on leave. She is being replaced by Gayle Pitcher who will be supporting the school.

Thanking you for your patience during this time and hopefully we will be back to normal as soon as possible.

Clive Emby