Welcome back to term 3. I hope everyone is feeling refreshed and relaxed. Children seemed bright and happy on arrival this morning.
As you will be aware, unfortunately, based on the latest health advice, Phase 5 of the WA COVID-19 roadmap, due to be implemented on Saturday, 18 July, has been pushed back by the WA Government. The new tentative date is Saturday, 1 August.
For us at school, this means term 3 commences with the current phase 4 restrictions still in place.
Schools must continue with the enhanced cleaning routines that have been ongoing since March. This means we are still employing additional cleaners for continuous cleaning of high contact surfaces during the day. We continue to support good personal hygiene using soap and water or hand sanitiser, and encourage personal water bottles, rather than bubblers. Shared equipment is being cleaned and no balls etc may be brought from home.
Unwell staff and students should remain at home.
Families who are not able to return to Western Australia from NSW or Victoria due to recent border restrictions, please could you let me know. I am aware this has affected some of our students, who will revert to learning from home via Connect. Teachers will liaise with families on this.
Western Australians must continue to keep up physical distancing, and our visitors on site policy, including drop off and pick up, remains as is: please drop children at the gate in the mornings since the site has just been cleaned and teachers are preparing for the day. Adults may pick children up at the gate or on site from 3.00pm, but as per government guidelines, must physically distance and avoid gathering, can’t enter classrooms and should leave after pick up to allow cleaning to start.
We are still planning to run our scheduled cross country carnival off site next week and I will update you on the guidelines for that soon.
P&C school banking will restart next Tuesday and will be located on the library veranda nearest the mailbox. The canteen continues online on Wednesdays and Fridays.
I know that a few parents are very keen to enter classrooms/the site before school. Hopefully you can appreciate that my first priority is to follow guidelines to make our worksite an efficient and safe place for children and staff, just as other employers are doing across all industries.
It is so sad to see that many schools around the world remain completely closed and we feel very fortunate that our WA schools are open. As Mark McGowan says, we must continue to take the safety of everyone seriously.
Thank you so much for supporting us in this. Our community has been amazing – flexible and kind. Let’s hope things improve this term.
Lisa Dentith