Speers Point Public School Newsletter

Covid restrictions news is changing faster than I can write the newsletter this week.  I think I’m now on third rewrite, but it’s all with good news. Let’s get this published before it changes again. 

Cohorting – from Monday 28th February we are no longer required to operate in the cohorting model and will be moving back to our family focused setting. This is very welcomed news for our Kinder students who have been keen to see siblings at school. It also makes many day to day operations a lot easier.

Masks – Masks will continue to be required indoors for all school staff, volunteers and visitors including parents and carers in primary schools until Friday 4 March. This means that from Monday 7 March, masks will no longer be mandatory for all staff. However, those who wish to continue to use them will be supported to do so.

RATs - From Monday 28 February, we will move to symptomatic testing. Tests are to be used at your discretion such as if your child is symptomatic or there are cases in their class. Students are no longer required to test twice a week, only when needed. This week we will be sending home in bags 8 tests per student to cover symptomatic testing. Beyond that, students and staff can access PCR tests or buy their own rapid antigen tests as these are now freely available and accessible in the community. 

If a student receives a positive RAT test, they need to :

• record the positive RAT result through Service NSW website or Service NSW app
• notify the school of the positive RAT or PCR test result as soon as possible
• follow NSW Health advice link to isolate for 7 days.

Visitors - From Monday 28 February, visitors can be allowed back on school sites regardless of their vaccination status. Our school will consider activities such as assemblies and other gatherings in the coming days. We will let you know if these can proceed with our school in a COVID-smart way. All visitors are asked to follow our usual sign-in and sign-out process.

QR Code Sign-In – The QR code sign in is directly linked to our school visitors sign-in book (we no longer have a paper sign-in book). Visitors are still required to sign-in when coming on site to the school.

Our school will continue to ensure our layered COVID-smart measures are in place.  This will include vaccinations, maximising natural ventilation in learning spaces, continued good hand hygiene practices and enhanced cleaning.

Teachers have started student led, 3-way conferences with parents. These meetings are specifically set for student, parents and teacher to talk about and set the learning goals for the student over this semester.

Students are then able to work towards these goals, which are reported on in student reports at the end of the semester as a progress update. This makes parent input at the beginning an important step in the process and I strongly encourage all parents to book in for one of these conferences. 

Congratulations to all of our swimmers who competed in the Swimming Carnival this week. I have had so much praise come through for the effort of all of our swimmers – getting in and having a go! Such a great achievement.

We had 3 students go on to compete at Zone, well done Parker, Zara and Cassidy. Parker will go on to the next step and represent at regional. Well done! 

Last week I had a good look around the school to see just how many students were not wearing, or did not have a school hat. In line with sun-safe requirements, our students have alternative shaded areas to play if they are not wearing hats at lunch or recess. We don’t prescribe to “no hat, no play” – rather “no hat, play in the shade.”

However in our primary / Fernleigh cohort, a great number of students reported not having a hat at all. This becomes very difficult for staff to plan or conduct outdoor learning, sport or other outdoor activities as students are required to wear hats when outside in the sun.

Please ensure your children have school hats and have them with them every day. It is part of our school uniform. 

As our school is widely renowned as a very inclusive school, we focus on the individual needs of all of our students and their safety. While some of our students have well developed personal safety boundaries, including road safety, other students are still developing in this area.

For our school, it is important that we close and lock our gates during the day for safety. The gate on Main Rd is locked promptly after 9am and reopens just before 3pm. As this gate closes after the 9am bell, any student arriving late to school needs to enter via the Bell St entrance.

On Bell St, our school has two sets of gates. The inner gate is locked after 9am bell, limiting entrance to the school via the office where office staff are able to account for who is entering the school during school hours. The gate directly on Bell St is closed from 9.15am and requires the use of the intercom to gain entry. We need to ensure this gate is closed at all times during the day. 

With our school day starting at 9am, staff are not on supervision until 8.30am. As OSHC uses our hall and grounds in the morning, for safety, gates are not open until 8.30am. 

Please do not drop of or send students to school before 8.30am. This is a critical safety matter. Most mornings I’m seeing some 10 to 15 students arriving before 8.30am. If you child requires care before school, our onsite OSHC provider is Big Childcare www.bigchildcare.com.au

As most people know, Bell St isn’t ideal as it is a narrow road with street parking. While the morning drop-off flows well with a half hour drop-off window, it’s more congested at the 3pm pick-up.

To ease this, our Support classes move to pick up just before 3pm, so we can ensure our students have a safe transition. We have raised concerns with Bell St congestion with council before, however as the congestion is a very narrow time-frame in the day, it is not on their radar.

 There are several points to keep in mind to help us, and to keep Bell St flowing. 

• We have several students who require wheelchair access or have increased safety needs. These vehicles have access to the carpark to avoid delays on Bell St. (If walking, please be aware of any vehicles coming in or leaving the school carpark).

• There are 3 transport vehicles for Assisted Student Travel. As per their contract, they require a priority pick-up. As they usually arrive around 2:30 and are gone by 2:50pm, please leave space for these vehicles. If that fails, I would be forced to provide access to these vehicles into the carpark, leaving wheelchair bound students requiring roadside pick-up. This I really want to avoid for obvious reasons.

• The Kiss ‘n’ Ride zone is legally a “no parking” space, which extends along the entire length of the school, including in front of the car park. This means legally you can not be more than 3 m from your car and there for 5 minutes. Sometimes we have concerns or complaints from our neighbours as to parking, congestion etc. which they also refer to council. A council response could lead to a ranger sweep of the street, resulting in parking fines. A 5 minute inconvenience is not worth the fine.  

• Where possible, I always suggest to parents to go south bound on Bell St (ie from 8th Street to park St) with the flow of traffic / kiss ‘n ride. It’s a two-way street, but in the brief 3pm window the more vehicles going the one direction the smoother the flow is. 

We had put this on hold for the last few years, however this year we asking families to consider making the Voluntary Contribution payment. These funds go directly to support our students through teaching and learning resources, We have always aimed to reduce the payments we ask families for, and often cover such extra programs like Reading Eggs, Wushka and Math Seeds. The contribution helps funds the hands-on learning resources we use in the classroom every day.  

Monday 14 March - P&C Meeting - 6.30pm

Friday 18 March - Hunter Water Show K-2

Friday 8 April - Crazy Hair/Easter Hat Parade

Friday 8 April - Last day of Term 1

Monday 25 April - ANZAC DAY

Tuesday 26 April - Staff Development Day - no students

Wednesday 27 April - Students return for Term 2

If anyone has any uniforms they no longer require,  it would be greatly appreciated if you could donate them to the school to add to our second hand uniform pool. 

Please bring all donations to the office.

Thank you

CLASS BORROWING 

Could you please return any outstanding library books.  Thank you

Welcome to Week Five! Confused? Week 1 was when the teachers started back at school. Years 1-6 started in Week 2, and Kinder started in Week 3. We’re halfway through the term already! Now that the beginning of term chaos is starting to settle, we would like to invite our SPPS community to a Welcome Morning Tea. On Monday 28th after school drop off, we will meet at Cherry Rd Park in Eleebana. There is a coffee cart within walking distance and a playground (with toilets) for pre-schoolers. This is a great way to meet other caregivers from the school and ask any questions you might have.

A big congratulations to all our students who participated in the swimming carnival on Monday. You have made your house proud. We had a number of students represent SPPS at the Zone Swimming Carnival on Tuesday. It is really exciting to watch our school superstars develop their talents and we look forward to watching their progress! 

The P&C’s AGM was held in Week 4. We farewelled our previous President, Megan Gitsham, our Treasurer, Stefanie Dick and our Vice President, Haley Tibbetts. Together they have made many valuable contributions to our school community. We welcome Morgan Davidson to the Executive.

Committee as our new Vice President. Isabel Tinsey is staying on as Secretary and Elisha James is our new President.

The canteen has made a cracking start for the year and is doing its part to celebrate diversity. Last Friday we had more grandparent volunteers than parents, and the men out-numbered the women! The canteen will be open on Fridays this year and we are blown away by the support we have received so far, both in volunteers and sales.