Welcome back for Term 3. It was fabulous to have had so many of our families able to join us last week for our PBL assembly. I was certainly impressed with how many students have achieve the level of Cadet so far and I look forward to seeing how many Lieutenants we are able to celebrate this term.
COVID-smart settings in Term 3
As the new term gets underway, I would like to provide you with the advice that has been communicated through the NSW Department of Education about our COVID-smart settings in Term 3. These have been developed in consultation with NSW Health and are aligned to the NSW Government’s general community settings.
Many of our existing COVID-smart measures continue into Term 3, including:
- staying home if unwell, even if you have a negative RAT, until you are free of symptoms
- rapid antigen testing for symptomatic students and close contacts able to return to school
- strongly encouraging mask wearing, particularly for the first 4 weeks of term
- strongly encouraging all eligible students and their families to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and the flu
- maximising natural ventilation
- good hygiene practices
- strict requirements for close contacts attending school
- responding to local COVID-19 conditions
Some things are changing this term;
- COVID-19 vaccination policy update – the mandate requiring COVID-19 vaccination will be lifted for staff in most school settings from 1 August 2022. We will continue to encourage all staff, students and our school community to keep up to date with their vaccinations, including getting a booster shot when eligible.
- Boosted day cleaning – our cleaning model has shifted slightly and will now be more concentrated during school hours.
Responding to our local situation.
We will continue to liaise with NSW Health and the department's Health and Safety Case Management team to ensure our COVID-smart settings keep up with the latest developments. If local conditions require it, this may mean reintroducing temporary additional COVID-smart measures to act as a 'circuit breaker', including:
- mandating mask wearing for all staff (primary school settings)
- postponing or limiting non-essential activities like excursions, indoor assemblies and visitors to the school
- directing cohorts to learn remotely for short periods of time.
Stage 3 Camp Guidelines
We will send further information to families regarding our approach to covid smart settings for our stage 3 camp, however, please note that under the current NSW Department of Education guidelines, no student or staff member identified as a close contact will be permitted to participate in overnight activities.
Lost Property Box
To ensure the safety of all students in the canteen area, the lost property box will be moved this afternoon to its new position on the verandah between K Blue and the staffroom.
Education Week
We are looking forward to celebrating Education Week with you next week. We have a range of activities planned across the week, including open classrooms on Wednesday and our fabulous Book Fair in the library that will run throughout the week.
We will be monitoring the impact of covid in our school community and should any plans need to be changed to add a further layer of safety, we will be sure to notify you.
Athletics Carnival
Congratulations to all the students who competed in the school athletics carnival on Monday. It was great to see so many students compete and it was pleasing to see the Hammondville sportsmanship on display. It was a testing day with technical issues delaying the start of the day and interrupting the scheduled events. Thank you to the parents and students for being patient with this as the issues with the electronic timing gates were out of our control.
A big congratulations to Cailyn Iro for breaking two school records in the 12/13 years girls 200m and high jump, Riley Death for breaking the school record in the junior boys high jump and to Lara Penney for breaking the school record in the junior girls discus.
We look forward to having a strong team represent our school at the upcoming zone carnival.
We look forward to a fabulous term of learning with you.
With gratitude
Jodie Clark
Principal
