Dear Valentine families,

This week has been tricky. As we traverse through midterm we are in a position where we have higher absenteeism than normal in both our student and staff cohorts. We are trying our very hardest to ensure that our classes have known teachers when we need to replace the class teacher.

We thank our community for the comprehensive way they are communicating with us during this time. The phone calls coming in to alert us to positive cases and family isolation requirements have been very much appreciated. We feel well informed, and the administration staff enjoy touching base with our families as they manage their situations.

It is imperative that we manage this well across our school and our systems designed to receive information, then inform those who need to know - this is working well.

I would like to thank our staff for their strict attendance to all guidelines, their genuine feelings of frustration when they have to be off sick or in isolation situations with their families or indeed, being at school each day being flexible and kind in their offerings as they demonstrate how we really look out for each other in our school.

Our students are so happy to be at school. They are displaying stronger levels of resilience, and this is a definite positive. I would like to sincerely thank our parents as the continuation of dropping students at our gates each morning is very much appreciated as we are still trying to manage our way through a COVID smart period. It really does help us at school to not have extra human beings on our site at the moment. We have of course applied the latest guidelines that do not require cohorting anymore, but we have kept our separate lunchtimes and are now incorporating K-2 and 3-6 playground designs. This allows us better management of students on site.