Dear Parents and Carers,
There has been a bit in the media recently about the new rapid antigen testing protocol that schools and parents will be able to opt into if we have a confirmed COVID case at school and subsequent primary close contacts. The protocol is aimed to reduce the amount of time student need to spend at home during quarantine by adding daily rapid antigen test in the second week.
For families participating in the at-home rapid antigen testing program, children must still quarantine at home for seven days. On day six of quarantine, the child must get a standard (PCR) test at a local COVID-19 testing site. If the test is negative, they must provide the results to the school, and can then return to school on day eight.
Students will then be required to return a negative rapid antigen test result each morning from days eight to 14 on school days, which must be reported to your school by 8:30am before they arrive at school.
It is important to note that rapid antigen testing does not replace PCR testing for the purpose of diagnosis of COVID-19 in children, staff and students, regardless of their vaccination status.
This protocol does not reduce the importance of the “Stay at home when unwell and get tested” policy.
Anyone unwell must remain at home and get tested for COVID-19 with a PCR test, even with the mildest of symptoms, regardless of a negative rapid antigen test result.
Year Five Leadership Program
The Year five teachers are currently working with their students to support them to prepare of the school captain and other leadership roles around the school. We have opportunities for student to hone their leadership skills through the following student leadership roles. School Captains, Student Council Captains, Prep/Year 6 Buddy Captains, Environmental Captains, Cultural Captains, Technology Captains, Arts Captains, Sport Captains and House Captains. Each of the roles has a specific set of guidelines to support the development of student leadership across the 2022 year and a teacher will support the students with these roles. It is a program that we aim to strengthen through incorporating student voice and providing the students with a sense of agency in 2022.
Camps and Excursions
We are putting the final touches on the camping and activity week excursions and incursions. We are very excited that we have been able to connect with local business owner Chris Humphries at Wild Action Zoo to create some tailored incursions to enhance the student experiences for the Year 3-6 students in activities week. Chris has planned to bring some blockbuster animals to excite and engage out students.
Transition and step-up processes
With the end of the year fast approaching we are beginning our transition process with students through several “step-up” activities over the coming weeks. During these activities, the student from a one year group “step-up” to the next year group for an hour to experience what it might be like to be in the older year group, there is an opportunity to ask questions and experience some of the school work set out for these year groups. We do three of these mornings between now and the end of the year to help prepare our students. The students will find out their new teacher and classmates in the final week of the school year.
The year six and new foundation students also have the opportunity to visit their new schools to experience that next step and we are in regular contact with the local kinder and the secondary school our students attend.
2022 Foundation Transition
Today we had our third transition for 2022 foundation students. We will be doing a final transition on the 24th of November and a parent information session on the 6th of December. Please check your emails for more information. We look forward to welcoming all of the new students and new families.
Visitors Onsite
From the 1st of November, parents and visitors will be allowed back on site at school. All parents who enter the school building are required to wear a facemask and check in using the QR codes and visitor’s book. Facemasks do not need to be worn outside, however people must adhere to physical distancing requirements.
Vaccination Requirements for Parent Helpers
There may be activities later in the term where we seek parent helpers, these can go ahead from now. Any visitor or volunteer performing work in schools are required to be fully vaccinated by 29 November (unless a medical exemption applies) to attend on site.
Under the COVID-19 Mandatory Vaccination (Specified Facilities) directions issued by the Victorian Chief Health Officer, schools must ensure that all visitors and volunteers who attend the school comply with vaccination requirements.
Parents that wish to volunteer on camp, excursions or school activities must supply vaccination information to the school indicating their vaccination status. This can be in the form of the following;
· a letter from a medical practitioner confirming the person’s vaccination status or confirming a person is medically exempt.
· A certificate of immunisation
· An immunisation history statement obtained from the Australian Immunisation Register.
The school will maintain a vaccination register for visitors and volunteers.
A visitor or volunteer attending a school site as a parent or carer for the purposes of collecting or dropping off children is not considered to be attending for work purposes and will be subject to the same requirements as all other parents collecting and dropping off children.
Kind Regards and Sampai jumpa (until next time
Matt Forrest
