eNews #6    Getting Ready for School                                                   21 May

It will be fantastic to welcome back Prep - Year 2 students next Tuesday. As noted in the last eNews, at this stage we have only made arrangements for those students and our staff from next week.

After the student-free day on Monday 25 May, we will monitor the arrangements for return to school for Prep - Year 2 (below) and use these as a foundation for planning the Year 3 - 6 students’ return. Families are reminded that the 9 June return to school remains dependent on the advice of Victoria’s Chief Health Officer.

Before 9 June, our remaining PLCs will have their Professional Practice Days. Webex class meetings are cancelled for these levels on the following days:

• Year 3 - Friday 29 May
• Year 4 - Tuesday 2 June
• Year 5 and 6 - Wednesday 3 June

Importantly, when your child returns to school, our teachers will have an increased focus on wellbeing, as well as reinstating Learning to Learn, as we do at the start of each term.

Schools have now received the DET Return to School Operational Guide. I am copying small parts of this advice into this eNews to ensure consistency with other schools and convey some of the directions under which we are operating. I apologise for the unavoidable detail in this eNews – please read carefully, and especially if you have a child in Prep - Year 2.

Staggered start and finish

• Schools must give consideration to steps that can be taken to reduce the number of adults congregating outside the school at any one time, including parents and carers at peak times such as drop-off and pick-ups.
• Decisions will be informed by local circumstances, school layout, design and street frontage and will differ from school to school. 
• Schools are required to pay specific attention to:
  • allocating staff to ensure students are safely supervised
  • staggering start and finish times by groups, while also enabling siblings to arrive/leave together at the same time and be safely supervised while on the school site (noting there may be some impact on total instructional time)
  • asking parents to avoid or minimise time around the school grounds. Families will need to plan for and adapt to altered arrangements to arrive at specified times
  • signage to remind staff, students and families of the need for changed behaviours
  • staggering lunch and recess to reduce mixing of year levels where possible and reducing possible congestion in staff rooms
  • where possible, allocating different areas of the school grounds to different year levels during breaks, in order to reduce mixing amongst different year levels.

The following Drop off and Pick up arrangements are for 26 May - 5 June (Prep – Year 2 and approved students)

Our LPS plan for start and finish arrangements and times has been endorsed by the Regional Office. The focus at this time is on 'training' Prep - Year 2 students to enter/leave the school safely without their parents or
Year 3 - 6 siblings. To achieve this, we will have two ‘school days’:

• Students with surnames A - L can attend school between 8.45 a.m. and 2.55 p.m. (last group leaves).
• Students with surnames M - Z can attend school between 9.10 a.m. and 3.20 p.m. (last group leaves).

By 9:30 a.m., we anticipate every student attending will be in class and ready to learn, with the roll being marked then and the Pakenham St gate locked. Only the main Janet St gate will be open during the day, as usual.

Lunch and recess times have also been shortened to 40 minutes and 15 minutes to accommodate the DET guidelines.

Arrangements for Drop off

Students with surnames A - L should be dropped off at school between 8:45 and 9:00 a.m., via the Janet St or Pakenham St entrance. Unfortunately, parents cannot enter the school grounds and must socially distance. Students will go straight to their classrooms, unless dropping mobile phones at the office. The DET Students Using Mobile Phones Policy remains in place. Students will then stay inside while staff outside in the playground supervise the next arrivals. There is no ‘before school’ play outside.

Students with surnames M - Z should be dropped off at school between 9:05 and 9:20 a.m., via the Janet St or Pakenham St entrance.  Unfortunately, parents cannot enter the school grounds and must socially distance. Students will also go straight to their classrooms unless dropping mobile phones at the office. The DET Students Using Mobile Phones Policy remains in place. There is no ‘before school’ play outside.

Students who are attending OSHClub will join their classes as usual by 8:50 a.m.


Arrangements for Pick Up

This is more complicated than arrival, as we need to use every available staff member to ensure students are supervised and then delivered safely to parents/carers, who will be outside the school gates:

• Students with mobile phones will go to the office to pick up their phones before leaving.
• Students without siblings at school will go to the pick-up areas first.
• While these students are leaving, remaining students will be grouped with their siblings and then go to the pick-up areas.

Parents, please note:

• If you need to practise a drop off/pick up routine with your child, please do so before Tuesday 26 May.
• If you are picking up by car, please make your vehicle recognisable to your child. We have lots of black, white and silver cars! Think about a large name sign on the dashboard or side window, or a scarf etc.
• Please do not arrive too early – we have 2 minute pick up zones and will just need to move cars on to keep pick up and traffic flowing.
• Students awaiting pick up in Janet St or Pakenham St will stand against the school fence if being picked up by vehicles. Please note these areas are reserved for teachers and students involved in car pick-ups.
• No-one is to cross Janet St in front of the school; traffic is moving eastwards only for pick up, so you will need to enter Janet St from Middleborough Rd.
• Students walking or riding home with parents – parents will need to socially distance and wait in the areas indicated above on the map.
• School crossing supervision has been adjusted to cater for the times above.
• If parents are late, students will need to go to OSHClub and a fee will be charged. Sorry - we cannot have children waiting in, or being picked up from, the office area.

Things children need to bring to school next week:

• Filled water bottle/s. Make sure your child can open and close any containers independently.
• Lunch and snack (reminder: there are no lunch orders this term)
• Learning from Home stationery, workbooks, cards etc.
• Learning from Home completed tasks (these can be brought in over the first few days and will be shared on Friday)

Things children need to leave at home next week:

• Library and take home books, including independent reading boxes.
• Computers or iPads – devices on loan from the school do not need to be returned until 13 July.

What else do parents need to know?

• Playground equipment can be used by students who attend school during school hours and should be cleaned by our cleaners.
• Staff have been provided with Personal Protective Equipment (masks, gloves, aprons/smocks). Please discuss this with your child.
• If your child is late to school, please call our office and a staff member will collect them from the Janet St gate. We hope this doesn’t need to happen!
• As schools need to consider the necessity of using shared equipment at this time, we will continue to provide some online resources to families until the end of term. These include Epic! Story Box Library and Sunshine Online for reading. For this reason, students do not need to borrow or return any library or take home books yet.
• If your child has an appointment during school hours, please call our office and a staff member will bring them to the Janet St gate.
• Years 3 - 6 (or other) children are not allowed at school between 25 May and 8 June, unless they have been approved for onsite attendance.
• All communication with teachers needs to be by email, phone or Webex. Unfortunately, teachers cannot have face to face meetings with parents this term.
• Please remember that Monday 25 May is a student-free day (so no Webex meetings). There is no OSHClub on that day, due to their preparations for return to school.

At this stage, we anticipate the arrival and departure times listed above may continue after 9 June for all students, and in the same family groupings. However, depending on our experiences over the next few weeks, feedback from our staff and the broader social conditions, these may change, as could the entry/exit points.

Finally, thank you to parents who have offered to donate sanitiser and tissues to the school. We're always happy to accept these donations, so please email our office so we can organise this further.

We are still learning as we go and being very flexible. Thanks again for your patience.

Kim