Welcome to the 2022 school year. We hope you have all had a great holiday with your friends and families and are looking forward to an exciting year of learning. Despite the hybrid start to the year it has been great to see so many smiling faces – even if many of them are obscured by masks.
Clearly this is not the start we anticipated or prefer but all staff have been working extremely hard to support all of our students with their learning, whether it be online or face-to-face. Please know we are all here to support you and your children to navigate through these challenging times.
We implore you to follow the directions as set out in previous emails; as of Monday no parents will be allowed on site. Reception teachers will meet their classes at the front of the school and year 1 students can walk through the front gate to the Junior Primary courtyard. All other students must be signed in at the tables at the front of the school by an adult before moving to the amphitheatre for further instructions. Please ensure you maintain physical distancing requirement at all times and be patient; we have an extremely large cohort of students from years 2-6 attending school.
All year 3 – 6 students are asked to wear masks as it is strongly recommended by SA Health. We are able to give them to students while we have stocks. Unfortunately we have already had our first positive case of COVID. In these times we will be following department protocols to ensure we minimise the spread and details of who has tested positive will not be shared with the community.
Below is the protocol we will be following for your information:
o Students (and staff) are identified as a classroom contact if they shared a classroom or interacted with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 (teacher, SSO, ancillary staff or student)
o Parents will be informed if their child has been identified as a classroom contact initially via text then with a follow up email. Students are then required to follow the instructions on the letter which include:
· if the student has symptoms, they must not attend school and get tested as soon as possible
· students (aside from the positive case/s) will be encouraged to continue attending school if they don’t have any symptoms
· student attendance at OSHC should be avoided where possible for 7 days
These are challenging times for us all and we will need to continue to work together as we move into the school year. Despite this we are happy to welcome two new teachers to our staff; Tom Clayton and Marty Czerwinski. Sharon K is working at another site and we are very lucky to have Tracey McNeil as her replacement in the Front Office. I am sure you will give them a warm welcome when the time is right.
We are all very much looking forward to seeing you all on Monday of week 3, February 14. Until that time – thank you to all the parents who have supported their children with remote learning and our amazing community who continue to show us kindness and understanding in these trickiest of times.
