Congratulations
We send our congratulations to the Parkinson family (Kirsty, Xavier, Matthew, Eliza, Caitlyn and Rebecca) on the safe arrival of Claire Theresa on Friday 8th May.
Return to Onsite Schooling
We have received extensive advice from the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria regarding the phased return to onsite schooling. To ensure the health and safety of all in our school community and comply with the guidelines regarding physical distancing and hygiene, quite a few measures will need to be taken.
Students in Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 will return to school from Tuesday 26 May.
To support all school staff to prepare for this transition, Monday 25 May will be a pupil-free day.
All other year levels will return to school from Tuesday 9 June.
For those students (Yrs 3-6) who cannot be supervised at home, the existing model of onsite schooling will remain in place during the two-week period from Tuesday 26 May to Tuesday 9 June. The current process that we are using to enable parents and carers to indicate the days or part-days for which onsite schooling is required, will continue for this two-week period.
All students in the year levels returning to onsite learning are expected to attend school. Schools are not expected to provide a home-based learning program for students in these year levels, or in specialist schools, where parents elect to keep these students at home, except where this is based on medical advice. For those families, please contact us so we can make an appropriate plan. This same approach is being taken by all Catholic and government schools in Victoria.
If your child is ill or is feeling unwell, they must not attend school. They must remain home and seek medical advice.
Staggered Finish
In an attempt to avoid large gatherings of adults, we have devised a staggered dismissal process. Students being picked up will be dismissed in their house groups so that siblings come out together. They will be dismissed in 5 minute intervals. We will have the opportunity to practise it with smaller numbers before all classes resume on 9th June and there may be some tweaks along the way. We do ask for your patience and cooperation with this.
Parents will be expected to remain in their cars and leave as soon as they have their children on board
3:00pm Classes dismissed
Bus travellers and students walking or riding home gather in the hall
House groups gather in designated areas - MacKillop(3/4) Polding(F/1) Samaritan(1/2) Winnen(Library)
3:05pm MacKillop (Green) House led out through carpark door to front of school
3:10pm Polding (Yellow) House led out through carpark door to front of school
3:15pm Samaritan (Blue) House led out through carpark door to front of school
3:20pm Winnen (Red) House led out through carpark door to front of school
3:25pm Bus travellers and students walking or riding home are led out through
side gate
Knowing when your children will be dismissed may help you to time your arrival for pick-up.
Hand Hygiene and Cleaning
To support the health and wellbeing of all students and staff, our school will continue an enhanced cleaning routine and will encourage frequent handwashing.
Students will be expected to practise hand hygiene before and after each learning block and before eating. This will be closely monitored by staff and will be a teaching focus in the early days of our return.
We have received Enhanced School Cleaning Guidelines from the Catholic Education Commission and have engaged our cleaning contractor to undertake an extended routine cleaning of the school environment.
Staggered Breaks
You will have read in media reports that some schools are having to consider staggered breaks. This is to avoid large numbers of adults congregating in the staff room. We have established a number of drink and food preparation areas for staff to use and identified larger spaces for them to spend their break times so, at this stage, it has not been necessary to stagger breaks.
Report Writing Day
Friday 29th May is a pupil-free day. This is to enable teachers to work on Semester 1 student reports. Reports will be available to parents through PAM from 4:00pm on Friday 19th June. There will be some changes to the reporting format in light of our remote learning this term. These changes will be shared with you in the coming weeks.
Attendance Records
Please remember that we are still required to keep attendance records of students whether they are working at home or at school. We will mark every student present unless notified by parents through PAM that their children will not be doing school work because of illness or other reason on that day.
Enrolments 2021
The period for accepting enrolments for our 2021 Foundation classes is Monday 1st June to Friday 19th June. We had planned to have a Parent Information Evening on Tuesday 26th May at 7.30pm. This has been postponed until further notice. If you know of a family considering enrolling their child at St Patrick’s, please direct them to our website or to call the school for information.
Kind regards,
Peter Sanderson
Principal