Dear Community,
As you can imagine, we have had a rather unsettled few weeks here at Scarborough Primary School, however we are all working as hard as we can to provide a safe and positive learning environment for your children. Whilst updates have and will be regularly posted on Skoolbag, it is hard to give specific timing around these as the nature of the current situation is changing so rapidly. Please be assured that we will give you any relevant and trustworthy information as soon as it comes to hand. If you could encourage any parent, who hasn’t already, to download and access the Skoolbag App, that would be much appreciated. This is the source from which you will find the most up to date information.
Below is some information based largely around queries that I have had during the last week, as well as some other bits and pieces that I think may be relevant to you. Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have and I will answer to the best of my ability. Below is hopefully a helpful snapshot, but I’m sure there are some things I’ve neglected to include. Please also beware that this information is based on the situation today – things may have changed again by tomorrow.
Firstly, we don't have any information around school closures that isn't in the media. As a school we will most probably find out this information the same time as you.
However, I can tell you the few things that we do know, both from the Department of Education and from our local context.
From a strategic perspective:
- We have no input into if and when we close. We simply follow the direction given by the Government via the Department of Education. Basically, we stay open until they direct us to close and have no capacity to do otherwise.
- Our decisions are all in line with Department of Education advice. Department of Education advice comes directly from the Department of Health.
- We are given a minimum of 3 updates a week by the Department to offer guidance and directives around what we need to do to manage the situation. The Department have also set up a COVID-19 team to support principals and they have been very helpful on the occasions that I have contacted them for advice in the last week or two. We will continue to adjust our day to day operations as advice is updated.
- I can assure you that if there was a positive test in our school community, you would be informed. There are very strict guidelines around that. The information around us being informed of a positive test comes directly from the public health authorities rather than it being left to individuals to let us know. Positive tests returned by a student or staff member would lead to automatic closure for anywhere from 2-14 days, determined by the state’s chief medical officer. The chief medical officer would also decide what action would be required if it were a parent or other community member.
- As of today, Education Ministers have decided that NAPLAN 2020 will not proceed.
On a more practical level:
- At this stage all meetings, assemblies, excursions, sporting carnivals etc for this term have been cancelled as per advice. This is likely to extend throughout Term 2 if applicable.
- Every day we are working through 'risk management' strategies to keep our community as safe as we can. Some things we do may seem like overkill, however every decision made is done with the utmost thought and with a ‘better safe than sorry’ perspective. Having said that, we are also trying to deliver a sense of normality for the students.
- We are strongly targeting hygiene practices and protocols and practicing the social distancing practices that have been recommended for schools by the Department of Health where humanly possible. We have supplies of essential cleaner’s products, soap and toilet paper that will last us until school shuts down, either because of necessity or because of the holidays.
- Our community have been great in keeping unwell children home - we have high absentee levels at the moment which show our messages are being taken seriously and we thank you for this. I will however reiterate now, please do not send sick children to school.
- We do have several families choosing to keep their children home until further notice and we understand and respect their decision. This number is understandably growing each day.
- Staff are doing okay. As in any organisation, we do have several who are in high risk categories and they are also thought of when decisions are made. Staff are briefed regularly and we have very open lines of communication.
- Department has advised that teachers should primarily focus on delivering their face to face curriculum and managing the situation at the school rather than sending home work to those choosing to withdraw. However, our wonderful teachers are generally happy to send home things like spelling lists, Mathletics tasks etc that are easy enough to organise and do not detract from their primary focus.
- We are also currently working to ensure that we have enough online learning platforms available to assist teachers in providing some level of curriculum if/when a forced closure occurs.
I know there is a lot of uncertainty out there which we completely understand, but all I can say to try to ease this, is that we are working as hard as we can to try to keep everyone as safe as possible.
Please do not hesitate to email me at sarah.dawson@education.wa.edu.au if you have any queries at all and I will do my very best to answer them.
Take care, stay safe and continue to think of others, as this is the Scarborough community spirit.
