Spring Farm Public School

2020 Newsletter Term 1 Week 9

Upcoming Events

Monday 27th April

Staff Development Day

NO STUDENTS AT SCHOOL

Tuesday 28th AprilStudents return for Term 2

From the Principal

Please download the Skoolbag app for all school information: https://www.skoolbag.com.au/parentinstructions.pdf

 

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been a busy and challenging time for our school community, our country and for the world. I believe the best thing we can do is to be the best role models for our children and community.  Essentially, demonstrating to our children and to the community how to deal with this type of adversity because in the end, we will all get through this!

 

Please keep on reinforcing good hygiene practices, following social distancing procedures and demonstrating to our students/ children the importance of caring for our elderly, our sick and looking out for our neighbours!

 

The links below may provide you with advice and strategies to support your children and family. 

https://www.mysouthernhealth.com/parents-tell-children-coronavirus/

 

https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/school-safety/novel-coronavirus.html

 

Finally, if you believe your child may require counsellor support please contact the school via email to arrange a meeting with Mr O’Reilly.  In addition, if families need support or clarification, please email the school and we will do our best to answer questions either through notices or provide direct response.

Please ensure you have the up-to-date Skoolbag app, SeeSaw app and have provided your current email address to the school to ensure access to CareMonkey, for ongoing notifications and learning.

 

If you require food assistance please refer to the chart below.

School operations

School absences

If you are keeping your child/children home from school for the rest of the term, please state this in your reply either via skoolbag or the school email. For example, Alex Kent will not be returning until after school holidays due to COVID-19.

 

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

 

Schools remain open

The health advice on schools remains unchanged.  Our Chief Medical Officers indicate that our schools should remain open for education provision at this time.

 

The Government and Department are encouraging you to keep your child at home from Tuesday 24th March to contribute to supporting the community response to COVID-19. The school’s doors will remain open for those students whose parents are in the essential services or who are vulnerable.

 

As updated expert information comes to the Department, who are in constant liaison with NSW Health, we will keep you informed of any impact on school operations via skoolbag. Due to student numbers and staffing, classes maybe combined.

 

Supporting continuity of learning for all students

Please be considerate that our staff are working hard to develop a suite of learning resources and options for students to undertake from home. With all of the immediate announcements and procedures that needed to put into place to keep the school operational, the staff are not only teaching students in their own classrooms, they are covering for other staff members who need to self-isolate, as well as organising online learning resources at the same time.

 

I ask for your patience and understanding in the online learning approach as this will take time to coordinate, to align with our school’s scope and sequences, to refer to various syllabus’ documents, to connect with resources and to place on the SeeSaw app so that all students can access at home.

 

I thank you for the positive messages that have been sent to the school by the community for acknowledging our staff who are working tirelessly to support students, their colleagues and community.

Regards

Donovan Jance

Principal

Food Assistance Services

Previous Updates and new procedures

Additional precautions must be taken if you are sending your child to school:

Mornings:         Please drop your child/children to the gate. Parents must not enter the school. Students will be going straight into class.

Afternoons:       Please observe the 1.5m/4m2 social distancing rules when collecting child/children.

General:              Please do not bring cupcakes/food for sharing.

                             Dismissal procedures remain the same.

All contact with teachers must be via school phone or email.                       

Please be mindful that our office staff are experiencing increased call volumes at this point in time. If your question/concern is not urgent, we recommend emailing the school at springfarm-p.School@det.nsw.edu.au. 


At home learning

A basic starter pack for all students was sent home Monday 23rd March. Stage specific learning packs will be developed in the coming days and made accessible to all students.

Please monitor Skoolbag and CareMonkey for further information.

We appreciate your patience as we explore the best methods of at home learning for our students.

For the remainder of the term, The NSW Government has announced that there will be one single unit of work available for students to ensure consistency in curriculum delivery. This means that whether students are at school or at home, they will be accessing the same learning opportunities as their peers.

On some occasions, we may need to rearrange class timetables as a result of the current changes and your child may not be with their usual class teacher(s). All students either attending school or remaining at home will be accessing the same learning content. 


Cancelling or rescheduling of planned school events and precautions

  • All school assemblies (whole school, class assemblies will be cancelled)
  • Easter Hat parade will be cancelled
  • All excursions will be cancelled until further notice for e.g Parliament House and Camden Show
  • Scripture classes will be cancelled until further notice
  • Parent helpers will be cancelled until further notice
  • In-school ANZAC Day commemoration will be postponed
  • Cross Country  has been cancelled for 2020
  • Athletics Carnival  will be rescheduled
  • GALA Days for Term 2 are cancelled for 2020
  • ALL Zone/District, Sydney South West, NSWPSSA and NSWCHSSA activities will be 'temporarily ceased until further notice'
  • Enforcement of directives including self-isolation, travel, exclusion of external community members and volunteers who may work in the school
  • Cancellation of a number of activities and events that involve community members coming into the school or students leaving the school eg P&C meetings
  • Unwell students and staff being asked to remain at home
  • Students and staff who become unwell at school to be sent home as soon as possible
  • Isolation of unwell students (students who present with cold or flu like symptoms) until their parents/carers arrive to take them home
  • Temporary cessation until further notice of whole school meetings
  • Temporary cessation until further notice of school events including extra-curricular activities
  • Provision of liquid soap and paper towel for all classrooms
  • Monitoring of student handwashing before/after eating following play in the playground and at other times throughout the day
  • Provision of tissues for students
  • Regular reinforcement of hygiene procedures with students
  • Request for parents/carers to drop students at the school gate as close to bell time as possible. In exceptional circumstances if you need to bring your child into the school, we request that you leave as soon as possible
  • Increased cleaning and sanitising of hard surfaces
  • New lining up procedures for morning, lunch and recess and promotion of social distancing
  • Encouragement of air flow through classrooms and outdoor learning when the weather permits and it is appropriate for teachers’ daily programs
  • Encouragement of students bringing drinks to school rather than using the bubblers

Thank you for your understanding during this difficult time.

STIMULUS PACKAGE INFO

 

 

 

 

All fact sheets above, and further info can be found HERE - https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus/households

Online and Phone Counselling Services

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Spring Farm Public School