Term 4 Week 1 - Thursday, 15th October 2020

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to Orange East Public School for Term 4. We hope you had a great holiday and were able to enjoy some family time as well as this magnificent Orange Spring weather. Term 4 looks to be a very busy term.

This week our classes are straight back into work and it has been tremendous to see the children enjoying the opportunity to be with their friends and teachers. Many students have been able to recount some great stories of their holidays, with many travelling to a variety of places around NSW.

A reminder that we are coming into warmer weather and that students are asked to wear a school hat whenever they are outside. Please ensure your child has a school hat to wear and that it is labelled so we can return it if it is found. Also, with the school bubblers still closed, it is extremely important for all students to bring a labelled drink bottle every day.

COVID guidelines for Term 4 will see some relaxing of rules with the Kinder Transition Program back on and Year 6 Farewell Celebrations. However, we still have restrictions on all outside adults attending school. Please see the Covid Update section for more detailed information.

Finally, a reminder that the Tell Them From Me survey is open for one more week for parents/carers to give their input about our school. The information gathered in this survey is so valuable to the school, particularly this year as we work to develop our next four year school plan. I implore all parents and carers to take this opportunity to share your thoughts and guide the direction of our school in the years to come. More detailed information and the survey link can be found later in this newsletter. 

We look forward to a wonderful term with lots of great things happening for our students.

Regards,

Glen Bourke

Principal - OEPS

Update Department of Education Procedures – COVID-19

THINGS THAT REMAIN THE SAME OR HAVE NOW BEEN PERMITTED:

  • All students should be learning on-site (at school) unless they are unwell or have a medical certificate to support their absence.
  • Where possible, students will continue to stay within their relevant cohort group (i.e. class, year group, or stage) for all learning activities within the school in order to limit close contacts to the relevant student cohort.
  • Our school continues to receive additional cleaning in line with the AHPPC guidelines and advice from NSW Health. Targeted areas include high-touch areas and other hard surfaces, door handles, lockers, light switches and handrails in stairways and movement areas. There will also be additional cleaning of toilets and topping up of supplies like soap.
  • Heightened sanitation and hygiene practices across the school and with students in particular will remain a part of regular school life. Hand cleaning with soap and water or hand sanitiser will continue before and after all break times.
  • Scripture and Library can continue to take place.
  • Students are to bring water bottles to school for use, as bubblers have been turned off.
  • The School Canteen remains open but with continuing use of the QuickCliq app for purchases.
  • Kindergarten Orientation can occur from the 1st November with restrictions in place. Information about our updated transition program will be sent out to 2021 Kindergarten parents by the end of this week.
  • Year 7 Orientation can occur but must not commence before 12th November.
  • Students must not come to school if they are unwell. Even with very mild symptoms. If a student is unwell, staff will refer the student to the sick bay where they can be isolated and the school must arrange for the parent or carer to take the student home. If a student has been absent due to flu-like illness or develops flu-like symptoms while at school, they are not to return to school until they have a negative COVID-19 test and are symptom-free.
  • Year 6 graduation/farewell can go ahead with restrictions – we are currently planning this and will keep you informed.
  • There is now more scope for interschool sport - COVID safety plans must accompany all sporting fixtures.
  • There are revised guidelines around singing and performing arts. Class singing can occur as part of the curriculum providing teachers keep distance and the rooms are well ventilated.
  • P&C meetings will continue online only. P&C social events or functions including dinners, fundraisers, fetes and barbecues that involve parents and other adults are not permitted in Term 4.
  • School Assemblies are limited to 15 minutes but with no external visitors. We will continue to utilise the newsletter to acknowledge students' achievements via a ‘virtual assembly’ (Safe respectful Learner merits, Achievement Certificates, Homereading milestones, Principal’s Awards, Class of the Week, etc).
  • School-based activities that involve large gathering of adults are still not permitted. These include parent/community gatherings such as parent functions, working bees, fundraisers, school barbecues, large parent information evenings, and large on-site cultural events.

PARENTS/CARERS ARE PERMITTED TO VISIT THE SCHOOL FOR THE FOLLOWING PURPOSES ONLY:

  • Essential parent and carer meetings with teachers and/or school executives to discuss disciplinary or welfare matters where a virtual meeting solution is not available/suitable.
  • Parents and carers who attend a school administration building or another defined location for the purpose of picking up their child if they are unwell or where they have been asked to arrange for a COVID-19 test after their child has displayed flu-like symptoms while at school.
  • Parents and carers who need to be on-site for canteen and uniform shop duties.
  • Parent or carer volunteers required as educational support roles for activities that are essential to the delivery of the curriculum such as reading groups, music and kitchen garden areas. Teachers will be in touch if they require parent helpers.

 

Unfortunately non-essential adults are still not permitted on school grounds or at school events. This includes parents and carers except for face to face parent/teacher meetings that are essential (e.g. to discuss disciplinary or other welfare matters).

Note that all essential adults visiting a school must comply with the department’s COVID-safe requirements including personal hygiene, infection control and physical distancing guidelines. All essential visitors must sign the external visitors form located in the school office each time they visit the school regardless of the frequency and duration of the visit.

As always, your support and willingness to adapt to changed routines is very much appreciated and we are very thankful to have such an understanding community that values the health, safety and wellbeing of our students and staff.

Term 4 School Development Day

Earlier this year, we advised parents and carers of an intended variation of student attendance for the first Friday of Term 4. Our teachers were going to be taking part in a special professional development opportunity in conjunction with three other schools in town. Unfortunately due to Covid restrictions, this event is unable to go ahead as planned. This means that students will attend as per normal in Term 4. The first day of student attendance for Term 4 is Monday, 12th October and the last day is Wednesday, 16th December. 

STUDENTS WILL ATTEND AS PER NORMAL THIS FRIDAY, 15TH OCTOBER.

We apologise for any inconvenience this change may cause.

OEPS Out of School Hours Care (OSHC)

Thank you to everyone able to respond to the recent survey to establish potential need for an Orange East OSHC service. In total, we had 61 respondents and I am happy to report that the Department of Education has given us the green light to proceed to the tendering stage for the service. It is likely that our OSHC service will be up and running by the start of 2021! I will keep you updated on the progress of this service throughout the course of this term.

Tell Them From Me - Parent Survey

This Term, our school will be participating in the Partners in Learning parent survey, another part of the Tell Them From Me suite of surveys (student, teacher and parent surveys) on student engagement. The survey asks parents and carers questions about different factors that are known to impact on student wellbeing and engagement.

Running this survey will help our school understand parents’ and carers’ perspectives on their child’s experience at school. These include: communication between parents/carers and staff, activities and practices at home and parent/carer views on the school's support of learning and behaviour. This valuable feedback will help our school make practical improvements. 

The survey is conducted entirely online on smartphones, ipads, tablets, laptops or computers. The survey will typically take 15 minutes or less to complete and is completely confidential. The parent survey will be open between 9 September and 23 October. Although participating in the survey is entirely voluntary, your responses are very much appreciated. The survey is available in 23 languages.

More information about the survey is available at: http://surveys.cese.nsw.gov.au.

To access the survey for our school go to:

http://nsw.tellthemfromme.com/vjzj2

Changed Sports Days - Term 4

We wish to advise parents and carers that for Term 4 we are trialling some changes to our regular Sports Day. With over 270 students and 11 classes we have found that it is extremely difficult to run our sports day for all classes on the usual Wednesday – particularly as we avoid interrupting the morning Literacy block leaving us limited sessions for the remainder of the day.

To work around this challenge for the remainder of Term 4, we are going to trial spreading our sports sessions over two days.

PLEASE NOTE:

  • K-2 - Students in Kindergarten to Year 2 will now have their Sports Day on Thursday. This means that from next week onwards, K-2 students will need to wear their Sports Uniform on Thursday. All other days of the week they are to wear their Regular School Uniform.
  • Yr 3-6 - Students in Year 3 to Year 6 will continue to have their Sports Day on Wednesday. This means that Yr 3-6 students will continue to wear their Sports Uniform on Wednesday. All other days of the week they are to wear their Regular School Uniform.

This change will mean that there will be only three classes accessing school playgrounds/court areas and sports equipment for each sports session. The intention is for students to experience high quality, engaging sports sessions due to increased availability of equipment and playground space.

Planning of multiple sports days is common practice across most schools. Towards the end of this term we will review the merits of this change and make decisions as to the structure of sport in 2021.

Summer Uniform

As we finally start to feel some warmer weather, a reminder that during Term 4 it is compulsory for students to wear their maroon school bucket hat while playing in the playground, as well as during PE and Sport. Students not wearing the correct hat will be restricted to playing under the COLA/central lunch area.

Also a reminder as we move to our summer uniform that we have a high expectation for all students to be in the correct uniform. Wearing the uniform is not only important for the self-esteem of our students but promotes the school as a positive and proud part of the community. I have included the following table with the uniform requirements for Term 4 to assist parents/caregivers.

Smoking Near School

Over the course of the past week, concern has been raised in regards to smoking near the entrance of school grounds, in particular at the end of the school day while parents and caregivers wait to pick children up. Section 6A of the Smoke-free Environment Act 2000 designates a number of outdoor public places as being smoke-free. From the 7th January 2013, smoking has been banned within 4 metres of a pedestrian entrance point to or from a public building. Smoking is already banned in enclosed areas of public places, such as schools. The above law extends the smoking ban to cover the area within 4 metres of the pedestrian access points to the school, meaning all school gates. NSW Health is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Smoke-free Environment Act 2000 with potential penalties up to $550 for

anyone who fails to comply with the law. I hope this has provided some clarification in regard to this issue. NSW Health facts sheets are available from the school office on request.

Road Safety

On occasion, the school is informed by community members of students moving to and from school in an unsafe way. While we love to see students being active and walking or riding to/from school where it is possible, we need to work together as a community to ensure that our children understand and have the road-sense skills required to make this a safe activity. For this reason, over the next couple of months I will be sharing useful resources via the newsletter to encourage families to have important road safety discussions. The following website also has some very useful information and further links.

https://roadsafety.transport.nsw.gov.au/stayingsafe/children/index.html

Sick Children

We urge parents and carers to keep child/ren at home if they are feeling unwell, particularly if they have a cold, fever, cough, sore throat, any respiratory illness or flu-like symptoms. We are excited to have our child/ren back at school but we also have a priority to ensure our staff and students are kept healthy and safe. Also, if your child/ren arrive at school unwell or fall ill during the day, the office staff will call you to pick the child/ren up as soon as possible. 

The procedures are in place to protect the wellbeing of all members of the school community and remain of critical importance.

School Travel Applications for 2021

Applications for student travel in 2021 opened from Monday 12 October 2020.  Applications need to be submitted before 31 December 2020 to ensure that current student entitlements are updated and their current entitlement/card remains valid.

Please see the attached document for details.

Download

P&C News

OEPS Cook Book - DON"T MISS OUT!

One thing we all learned about lock-down was that everyone seemed to develop a new-found love of cooking. We thought that this would be a great time to capitalise on all of the masterchefs out there and create the OEPS Quran-Cook Book, a wonderful momento of a very interesting year!

The idea is simple – send us your best recipes with collection starting last term. Recipes MUST be handwritten or typed (not a photocopied page out of Jaime Oliver’s latest). Recipes should be emailed to: orangeeastpublicschool-Fund@pandcaffiliate.org.au, handed into the school office or can be entered directly into the Google Form (link below). You can send more than one recipe and we will make every effort to ensure as many as possible are included – however please be aware that in some instances some submissions may not be included (double-ups, too many in one category, etc). We will post regular updates about the number of recipes received in each category, which may help decision making around your submission.

Recipe categories include: Desserts/Cakes, One Pot Wonders, Quick Meals (10 minutes or less), Free Foods (GF, sugar free, allergy free, dairy free, etc), Slow Cooker or Fancy Foods.

Google Form Link - https://forms.gle/HVJ1MXQQUyVWnqmE9

For inclusion in the book, recipes must be sent by the end of September. Recipes should include an ingredients list and cooking method. We are hoping to sell the cook book at approximately $15 – pending final production costs.

Clothing Pool

Please be aware that the Clothing Pool is open every Thursday from 8:50 - 9:10am and again from 2:45 - 3:10pm in the afternoon.

Don't forget we are now in Summer uniform, of which we currently have a large supply of good used items.

A reminder to please ensure that you observe correct social distancing, including sanitation of hands and cough/sneeze etiquette.

Next Meeting

Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month during school term starting at 6:30pm. At the moment due to Covid restrictions meetings are being held via Zoom video conference. Our next meeting is at 6:30pm, Tuesday 20th October. Please contact the school office or the P&C for the Zoom details.


Assembly Reminders

Don't Forget Your Merits on Friday

We will continue with our ‘Virtual’ Assembly in Term 4 pending the further lifting of restrictions allowing our regular Friday Assembly to recommence. A reminder that ALL students K-6 can bring in their Blue Merits on a FRIDAY when they have achieved a set of 10. The Blue Merits/Achievement Certificate is to be handed to the class teacher on Friday morning.

The various awards will be sent back home with students either on the Friday or early the following week, depending on any printing or certificates that need to be completed by the office.

PLEASE NOTE - Due to the time taken to complete this new system and the volume of students, the administration of the awards is being completed by alternating each week between Infants (K-2) and Primary (3-6).

AS WE PRESENTED THE TERM 3 PBL AWARDS IN THE FINAL WEEK LAST TERM, THERE ARE NO ASSEMBLY AWARD PHOTOS FOR THIS WEEK.

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