St John the Baptist Ferntree Gully Newsletter

All children on their return to school are required to be wearing their correct summer school uniform. If you require summer uniform items you can order them on Flexischools by Monday 11th October and Fleur will have your order ready for pick up or they can be sent home with your child when they are back onsite. 

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 Friday the 15th October. Only requests placed in writing and received by this date will be considered.

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. 

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.

Link to purchase - https://www.entbook.com.au/188321n