Dear Parents and Carers,

I begin by saying a belated Happy Mother’s day to the Mothers, Grandmothers and Mother figures in our community. I hope you enjoyed a relaxing day last Sunday and were well looked after by your families.

I would like to express my deepest thanks to each of you for your support and loyalty to the school, during what has been a challenging time for you and your families. You have been fantastic in supporting your child/ren with their learning during this period. Staff have been magnificent in the way they have adapted to provide a remote learning program in such a short period of time. We all became teachers to work with children and have really missed our daily interactions with them. We have missed their constant energy, humour, laughter and the joy they give each of us. We are very excited to have the students return to us next Monday 18^th May. All students are invited to return to school next Monday 18th May.

As we prepare to have the children return to school for face-to-face teaching, it is essential that measures relating to personal hygiene and the health and safety of all members of our community are known and understood.

Below is some clear information on the arrangements and measures based on the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) guidelines, which aim to establish, where reasonably possible, best practice in relation to health and hygiene at schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We hope this will give you confidence in your child’s return to school and assist you in supporting the staff as we welcome students back into classrooms.

Extra hygiene and safety practices in place for when the children return to school:

• Increased cleaning schedules and resources onsite during the school day to wipe down and disinfect high-touch areas, including classrooms and common spaces, in addition to regular daily cleaning.
• Provision of extra hand sanitiser across the school.
• Provision of extra hand soap for children to wash their hands frequently, particularly before and after recess and lunch time.
• Frequent reminders to ensure children are practising good personal hygiene. This means, covering mouths and noses when coughing and sneezing or coughing and sneezing into inner elbow, frequent hand washing, not sharing food or drinks and minimising physical contact.
• Please ensure your child brings a water bottle and pencil case (if they have one) to school each day.
• Our school playground equipment and bubblers will continue to remain closed for the foreseeable future.
• No child is to attend school if they are showing any cold or flu-like symptoms. They must remain at home, and stay away from school until they are no longer showing symptoms or have attended a GP who has instructed that they are fit and safe to return. 

• If your child, or family members or other close contacts are tested for COVID-19, your child is not to attend school until the results of those tests are known and are negative. Please advise the school if this situation occurs. 

• If your child has a medical condition that places them at greater risk from a return to face-to-face teaching at this time, please contact their teacher so that we can discuss their needs in greater detail and develop an appropriate plan for their circumstances. 

• We are attempting to minimise the number of adults coming onto the premises to reduce the possible risk of COVID-19 transmission. Please make appointments ahead of time and if possible, telephone or use email as the preferred method of contact with your child’s teacher or staff member. 

• PICK UP AND DROP OFF ARRANGEMENTS - if dropping your child to school by private vehicle, please say goodbye to your child at the front door or the gates (next to the carpark) in the morning. In the afternoons, please park at the Church carpark and wait in your car until the end of day bell has gone. Once the bell has gone teachers will walk the students to the double gate next to the carpark. Please wait outside the gate. There will be markings on the ground to show you where to stand and your child/ren will walk over to you as you reach the front of the line. Strict social distancing measures will be in place, as we want to avoid social clustering. 

• At this stage, there will be no assemblies or large gatherings of students for the remainder of this term. An exception to this is any evacuation or emergency procedure that may be required. (Fire alarm etc.) 

• If your intention is to keep your child at home please contact their teacher so that we can discuss their needs in greater detail and develop an appropriate learning plan for their circumstances. Online learning will be available for students to complete at home and will be provided through the current platforms (Seesaw and Google Classrooms). Face to face online conferences and daily online check-ins will cease from the 18th May. 

• After 18th May, if a situation arises where it is deemed not safe by health authorities for students or staff to be onsite, we will be able to move back to our comprehensive remote learning program as required. 

• If you intend to keep your child at home please email the school on the following email address Rachel.Smith@cg.catholic.edu.au

I again thank you for your ongoing support of our school. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like any further clarification on any of these matters.

I continue to keep your family and the wider community in my prayers.

God bless.

Rachel Smith
Principal