Welcome to a safe and happy 2022 at Laburnum Primary School.

We have certainly breathed a sigh of relief that students are resuming school next week and will continue to maintain our COVIDSafe Plan. However, as Dr Jordana Hunter and Dr Stephen Duckett (Grattan Institute) were quoted in The Age after Sunday's government announcement, 'keeping schools open won’t be easy. It will require commitment, flexibility, and goodwill from the whole community, not just teachers...rules can only make a difference if they are followed. Parents and the broader community will need to play their part.'

Most importantly, and especially over the next four critical weeks, please remember to keep your child at home if they are unwell, even with the mildest symptoms, which can be characteristic of COVID-19 in children. School staff are not permitted to use rapid antigen tests on students, so unwell students will be sent home as usual. With your support, we hope to have every student enjoy a full term 1 at school.

The following information has been provided by DET, with school-specific details added.

LPS students are returning to school from Tuesday, 1 February and will be in classrooms for Term 1.

We will make sure your child is as safe as possible, with a focus on:

• washing hands
• mask wearing – masks are required indoors for all staff and students in Years 3 - 6. It is strongly recommended that Prep - Year 2 students also wear masks. We hope to maintain the high commitment to this simple safety measure again in 2022. 
  Although we anticipate receiving an initial batch of 'spare' masks, please provide masks for your own child, as previously.
• physical distancing
• rapid antigen testing.

Free rapid antigen tests

Free rapid antigen tests will be available for the first four weeks of Term 1 2022 for students and staff.

Testing is strongly recommended twice a week for students and staff. The more testing that is done, the more likely that cases will be detected early.

You do not need to buy your own RAT kits for your LPS child.

We will let you know once the test kits are available and, at this stage, hope to distribute an initial pack of 5 tests for each student on Monday 31 January. If an adult in your family cannot attend school on that day, please ask a friend to collect your child's rapid antigen tests, so that all students can be tested before school resumes on Tuesday. 

As we have not been advised of delivery dates, please wait for an email confirmation that rapid antigen tests have arrived, with details of collection points.

After doing the rapid antigen test at home, if it is positive, you will need to:

• let the school know by email
• keep your child at home for 7 days
• contact the Department of Health via the COVID-19 Positive Rapid Antigen Test Self-Reporting Form or call centre on 1800 675 398.

A video about Rapid Antigen Testing, in many different languages, is available online.

Air Purifiers

Laburnum has received our shipment of Air Purifiers and located them throughout the school this week. As Minister Merlino noted at Sunday's news conference, they are prioritised for shared spaces and not located in every classroom. However, we have been able to ensure there is at least one air purifier in each double classroom.

Resuming School from 1 February, 2022

At this critical stage of the return to school, especially during the first four weeks, we intend to continue most of our Term 4, 2021 arrangements. As a very large school, we will minimise traffic onsite, reducing possible transmission of COVID-19. We ask for parents' support in doing this, again.

• Only essential visitors should enter the school buildings and they must wear face masks and be vaccinated. Accordingly, we ask that parents call or email the office, rather than visit in person.
• At this time, we ask parents not to enter classrooms or corridors.
• Continued staggered pick up times will be used:
  To minimise congregation and maximise social distancing of children and adults, as we did last term, we ask parents to wait for their children outside the school gates whenever possible.
  Families with surnames A-L will have their children dismissed at 3:20 p.m.; M-Z surnames will be dismissed at 3:30p.m.
  As we’ve seen, our students easily adapted to being picked up or dropped off outside the school gates and meeting their siblings in the playground. They were incredibly independent in following these arrangements.
• Lunch and recess breaks will be staggered to minimise cohorts mixing in the playground.

New students

• Students starting LPS for the first time in Years 1 – 6 can go directly to their classroom, with their classmates, from 8:50 a.m. If your child did not attend Orientation Day, they should go to the office.
  
  
• Families of 2022 Prep students should refer to the Additional Arrangements for Preps page in this eNews.

Getting vaccinated

Once we have completed the first four weeks of school, and depending on the impact of COVID-19 on school operations, we hope that these arrangements can be relaxed. When that occurs, parents and carers must be fully vaccinated or have a medical exception (with limited exceptions) to enter any school buildings.

All staff working in schools need to be fully vaccinated or have a verified medical exception.

Despite this, schools have been advised that some schools will be severely impacted and staff replacements are a significant concern. We already experienced this in Term 4. If a teacher gets COVID-19, we will follow our usual teacher replacement processes. Due to teacher shortages and isolation requirements, this may be challenging. We may need to redeploy our flexible Specialist teachers, as we did in 2021.

COVID-19 vaccinations are not required for students to attend school, but vaccination for students is important. Please try to organise your child’s vaccinations before school resumes.

For more information on how to book a vaccination, including important information about vaccination for children aged 5 to 11, refer to Vaccination information for children and teenagers.

Notification of COVID cases

Schools are no longer required to do contact tracing. We will notify the community if we know a positive case has been onsite. This is something we've not had to do yet at LPS; hopefully, we can maintain that impressive statistic!

We will, as usual, update parents as needed when new information is available.

Thanks for your support and stay safe everyone.

Kim

Our Vision:    Learn   •   Thrive  •   Contribute

In addition to the previous page, the following information is specific to Prep 2022 families. We are all incredibly excited to be welcoming our new Prep students for the 2022 school year! 

Please note the details below to ensure a smooth and calm transition into Laburnum Primary School.

Drop Off and Pick Up

On Tuesday 1 February or Thursday 3 February, students starting Prep should be taken to the Prep line up area by a parent, to meet their teacher at 9:30 a.m. In the interests of the health and safety of all students, parents and staff, please plan to ‘drop and go’.

Designated locations (please see map above):
Prep K, Prep P & Prep R- outside Art room entry doors
Prep C & Prep W - outside canteen entry doors

Please bring along your child's clearly labelled book box (see example label below) and leave this outside in the specified area, marked by orange witches' hats. These will be delivered to your child's classroom by school staff.

Example book box label:
Name - Jo Bloggs
Class - Prep K

Pick up of Prep students on these days will be from the same location at 12:30 p.m.

Please teach your child which gate to use for future pick ups, when teachers will be supervising their departure.

From Friday 4 February - students commence 'regular' school days from 9am - 3.30pm, except Wednesdays in February.

Your child will continue to meet as a class at their designated locations for drop off and pick up, until further advised. 

Please review the 'Principal's Update' newsletter page in this edition for additional details. 

Tuesday 1 February or Thursday 3 February afternoon - Individual parent-teacher meetings.

These will be held online via Webex. Teachers will email details to parents of students in their class.

Prep Wednesday Assessments in February 

On your scheduled date and time, please enter the school via the Janet St entrance. Parents should wait with their child at the designated time and location (which is the usual line up area for your child) until the classroom teacher collects your child from this space. The assessment will take an hour. When the assessment is completed, the teacher will return your child to the original drop off point for parent pick up. As we are unable to provide a waiting area during the assessment, we ask that parents leave the school during this time.

Designated locations (please see map above):
Prep K, Prep P & Prep R- outside Art room entry doors
Prep C & Prep W - outside canteen entry doors

Parents should refer to previous emails/letters in regards to individual Parent-Teacher Meetings and scheduled Prep Assessments on Wednesdays in February. 

Our Vision:    Learn   •   Thrive  •   Contribute