Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome Back!
I hope you and your family had a lovely Easter break and enjoyed some of the beautiful South Coast weather that was on offer. We have a busy start to Term 2 with our ANZAC service to be held this Friday, commencing at 10:30am. Our Year 3 and 5 students will be participating in the NAPLAN assessments during weeks 3 and 4 and our students will be kept engaged with a range of in class experiences throughout the term.
COVID Guidelines
Term 2 COVID guidelines remain largely similar to those at the end of Term 1 with the exception of changes to students and staff who are household contacts. Information on this is detailed below.
Attending School as a Close Contact
Last week’s announcement to ease the isolation requirements for close contacts will enable students and staff who are close contacts and have no symptoms to continue to attend school if they follow guidelines agreed with NSW Health. Close contacts attending school will need to adhere to the following:
- They must notify the school and their outside of school hours care (OOSHC) provider if they are intending to return under this provision.
- They should conduct a daily RAT and return a negative result each morning before attending school for 5 school days.
- Primary school students are recommended to wear a mask indoors (except when eating or exercising).
- Any visitor to a school site who is a close contact is required to advise the school that they are a close contact before they come on site. These visitors should conduct a daily RAT and return a negative result before attending. They must also wear a mask indoors at all times. Schools should consider if the visit can be conducted virtually.
RAT Kits
Another batch of RAT Kits will be sent home with students next Tuesday. As with previous collections, parents will be asked to complete a quick Survey Monkey survey to identify whether they would like kits to be sent home with students or collected from the office. The survey link will be sent out via the Skoolbag app tomorrow.
Additional RAT kits will also be available at the office if they are needed at any time.
Student Illness
If a student is unwell and has any COVID-19 symptoms please have them perform a test.
If the test comes back negative for COVID-19, the student should still not return to school until they no longer have symptoms, or they have a medical certificate confirming that symptoms are explained by another diagnosis (such as hay fever).
Health advice is that students who are sick should always stay home to rest and recover and avoid putting other students and staff at risk of getting sick.
Positive Cases
If a student or staff member receives a positive RAT test, they need to:
· record the positive RAT result through the 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 to isolate for 7 days.
Registering your child’s positive RAT with Service NSW is a requirement of the Public Health Order and helps NSW Health track COVID-19 in schools and address any public health issues early on if required.
Industrial Stoppage – Wednesday 4 May
The NSW Teachers Federation has called for a 24 hour stoppage next Wednesday 4th May. A number of our teachers have indicated that they will participate in the stoppage which means regular classes will be impacted. I am currently ascertaining supervision levels for next Wednesday and will let you know in coming days of the operational status our school.
Communication
Please continue to keep up to date with school events through this weekly 'Newsletter', as well as our Skoolbag App. Please keep in regular contact with your child’s teacher throughout the term and reach out if you would like to discuss any aspect of your child’s schooling.
Have a great term,
Rod White
Principal
