Dear families,

I trust that you found family time during the last two weeks that was as normal as possible. I know we had a number of families and staff who were isolating during the school holidays, which we know is not fun at all. Fortunately, with the change in close contact rules, we are anticipating less absences of teachers and school service offices during term two than we had during term one.

I have added below what we know are still requirements for the first four weeks of this term. Face masks are required indoors at all times, though if you can socially distance in the schoolyard, they are now not required in the yard itself. This does bring it into line with what is happening within our community.

You will observe that your child’s teacher is continuing to wear a mask for the most part when working with students, however they are permitted to remove their mask if it is going to impede the teaching. Wearing a mask is mandatory other than where they have a medical exemption which gives approval for them not to wear a mask.

Meetings between teachers and parents may occur indoors as long as adults are wearing masks and remaining 1.5 m apart. During term one we had work done to improve the ventilation in all of our classrooms. Quite a number of our air conditioning units provided fresh air as well as cooling. We do have a small number of air purifiers in those rooms which The Department has deemed appropriate.

Please note that there is still an emphasis on vaccination by the Government and the differing requirements between vaccinated and unvaccinated people still exist as described below.

In order to maintain a healthy environment, we will continue to send home any child who presents as being even mildly unwell. Please monitor your children closely and if they are unwell in the morning before school, then it is an appropriate course of action to keep them home and under observation. They can return to school when they have no cold like or COVID like symptoms.

I am sure that we are all looking forward to a much smoother school term and I know that teachers are planning with this expectation in mind.

Kind regards,
Steve Freeman
Principal


Face Masks

For the first 4 weeks of term 2, when indoors, face masks will continue to be:

  • required for all adults (including visitors)
  • strongly recommended for students in years 3 to 6.

The use of face masks in education settings will be reassessed by the Emergency Management Committee and the department ahead of the start of week 5.

Exemptions will continue to be made for visitors and staff who have a medical condition, such as problems with their breathing, a serious skin condition on the face, a disability, or a mental health condition.

Vaccination policy for non-employees (volunteers)

The Vaccination policy for non-employees will be effective from Monday 2 May.

This policy applies to all non-employees, including volunteers, governing councillors and other service providers who:

  • engage in work or perform duties at our school, or other service operated by the department

Unvaccinated non-employees must comply with the additional safety measures which include undertaking a RAT and returning a negative result, wearing a face mask at all times while indoors and staying at home if they have any COVID-19 symptoms or are even mildly unwell.


The policy does not apply to:

  • a parent attending an education and early childhood setting in their capacity as a parent (such as when collecting their child from school)