St John the Baptist Ferntree Gully Newsletter

Letter from the Principal

Tuesday October 12th 2021

Dear Families

At this stage the roadmap for the children returning to school is still on track. I understand that for some families you may feel anxious with your children returning to school. We have our covid safe policy in place. All staff who will be teaching your children have been vaccinated. The government will be issuing air purifiers to all schools over the coming weeks. Children in Years 3-6 and all staff are required to be wearing masks according to the public health guidelines. Masks are optional for children in Prep-2. If your child has an exemption from wearing a mask please let me know via a phone call to the office or via email - 

cmason@sjferntreegully.catholic.edu.au

Last term I placed the following link in the school newsletter. The video is a discussion between medical experts from the Royal Children's Hospital. Many parents have expressed to me that it did allay some of their fears regarding the risk of COVID-19 to their children’s health. If you haven’t had a chance to watch it I thought it may be timely once more. 

COVID-19 and children's health link

Drop Off & Pick Up

From Monday 18th October our drop off and pick up procedure will revert back to our regular systems. We will no longer have the top basketball court/carpark area open due to the increasing number of children returning to school. Teachers will be on duty before and after school once more. Parents are able to enter the school buildings. Any parent who enters the buildings is required to sign in via our QR Code. If parents are not entering the school buildings you do not need to sign in. 

Sunsmart Policy

As part of our Sunsmart Policy all children and staff are required to wear a hat during playtime. To keep our children and staff safe from the damage of the sun our no hat no play policy will be in place for all of Term 4. 

Uniform Update

All children on their return to school are required to be wearing their correct summer school uniform. Fleur has filled all orders that were placed by yesterdays cut off date Your order is ready for pick up or it can be sent home with your child when they are back onsite. 

Prep Transition

Our Transition Program for our Preps of 2022 is currently on hold. We are awaiting directions as to when we will have permission to host our transition program onsite. 

2022 Class Groupings

As a staff we give significant time and consideration to your child’s class placement each year. We look at the academic, social and emotional needs of all the children and work on creating the most positive class groupings to ensure that each child will transition well into their new class and flourish throughout the year. I am very grateful that for the most part our parents trust the staff and the decisions we make for your child’s class placement. In exceptional circumstances we understand that sometimes families may need to make a class placement request for their child. If you have a request for your child's placement next year you will need to place it in writing via email - cmason@sjferntreegully.catholic.edu.au by this Friday the 15th October. Only requests placed in writing and received by this date will be considered.

Term 4 Public Holidays & Staff Professional Development Days

Monday 1st November: Report Writing (no school for students)

Tuesday 2nd November: Melbourne Cup Public Holiday (no school for students or staff)

Wednesday 17th November: Staff Professional Development Day: 2022 Planning (no school for students)

Melbourne Archdiocese School Improvement Surveys (MACSSIS)

On an annual basis we survey our staff, students and parents. These surveys are a low impact, high return set of tools for creating, collecting, analysing, interpreting and using data to inform Catholic school improvement. MACSSIS produces perception data. This data tells us about what different people in our school community think and feel about our learning environment.

The surveys gather data from:

  • students in Years 4–6

  • families

  • teachers and non-teaching staff 

Survey questions cover several domains, which vary across the student, family and staff datasets. This year's survey window will be open from Thursday 7 October to Thursday 28 October 2021. Families will be randomly selected to complete the survey. All children from Years 4-6 and all teaching and non-teaching staff will be surveyed during this time. I look forward to hearing the perceptions of our community in order for us to continue to strive for school improvement. 

QR Code Check-In and Face Masks

The government has updated their health guidelines regarding face masks for Victorian students. Face masks  are required for students in Year 3 to Year 6, only when indoors on school premises, unless an exception applies.  

All adults must be in a face mask both indoors and outdoors according to the current guidelines. 

If you are entering any school buildings it is a Victorian Government mandate that you check in via our QR code. We are limiting access to buildings for our families until we have further easing of restrictions. We are also asking families not to gather before or after school. Whilst this is hard as we enjoy being together hopefully our caution will keep everyone in our community safe and hopefully able to gather once more in the not too distant future. Thankyou for supporting us to implement our COVID safe plan by observing these protocols. 

Stay home when unwell 

The most important action our school community can take to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 is to ensure that any unwell staff and students remain at home and get tested, even with the mildest of symptoms. 

Students with underlying conditions (such as hay fever or asthma)

If a student has persistent symptoms due to an underlying condition such as hay fever or asthma, the student should still be tested for COVID-19 if they develop symptoms that are different to or worse than their usual symptoms. Students whose symptoms are clearly typical for their underlying condition can continue to attend school. Parents/carers should also consider getting a medical certificate from the child’s treating GP to confirm that it is safe for them to attend school with persistent symptoms that may overlap with some of the symptoms of COVID-19 such as cough or runny nose. 

Young children with persistent mild symptoms

For younger children (in Prep to Year 2) who have had a negative COVID-19 test that was taken after they developed symptoms, the decision about return to school should be made in conjunction with the child’s treating GP. If the GP is satisfied the child has recovered from their acute illness, is otherwise well and does not need a repeat COVID-19 test, the child can return even if they are not completely free of symptoms. Any worsening of symptoms will require review and repeat COVID-19 testing, if considered appropriate by the doctor. Students with a negative COVID-19 test whose symptoms have completely resolved do not need a medical certificate to return to school.

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