Bring on 12 October!                                                                        16 September 

Firstly, thank you to our Parents Group for organising another successful virtual disco. Over 200 families participated last Saturday - fantastic!

How exciting to be preparing to welcome back our Prep - Year 2 students on Monday 12 October. Thank you to everyone who has been supporting and following the Stage 4 restrictions. By limiting movement, we are starting to glimpse that light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel.

This eNews is about expected arrangements from 12 October, and we know parents will understand these are subject to change. Unfortunately, the school grounds remain unavailable to the community at any time (including weekends or holidays), with the exception of students while they are attending school.

Schools have now received the (latest) DET Return to School Operations Guide - it has become a series! We were informed yesterday to expect another update to the Operations Guide in Week 1 next term, so will let you know if any of these plans change.

Whilst we are trying to keep things as similar as possible, there are more changes, so please read carefully. For families who enrolled children at LPS since May, all this information will be new.

Applications for On-Site Attendance for Years 3 - 6 students from 12 October:

This is one thing that currently remains the same. Parents requesting onsite attendance need to meet the same strict criteria. Applications, using the same 'blue' form, are due weekly by 4 p.m. Wednesdays.

Key changes that affect next term:

• Only staff required at school are onsite, not all staff. In particular, this affects supervision of entry and exit gates and temperature checks.
• All students need to be temperature-checked on arrival. With so many students, this is huge! You can help us by checking your child's temperature every morning before school, as students with a temperature that is over 37.4 degrees will be sent home immediately.
• All computers (Netbooks and iPads) that are currently on loan can remain on loan until Monday 7 December, at which time all devices must be returned to the school. We will just update the end date for all borrowers.

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
  • 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 12 October (Prep -  Year 2 and approved students)

The focus at this time is on 're-training' Prep - Year 2 students to enter/leave the school safely without their parents or Year 3 - 6 siblings. To achieve this, we will again 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)
• Years 3 - 6 students approved for on-site supervision continue to attend between 9am and 3pm

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 remain at 40 minutes and 20 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 for a temperature check, 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 for a temperature check, 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.

Parents will be called to collect any students with a temperature above 37.4 degrees, or any student who appears unwell, following DET guidelines. If your child has allergies or seasonal conditions, please make any preparations needed and provide the school with relevant paperwork, if we do not already have it.

Arrangements for Pick Up

We revert to only using Janet St RED GATE and Pakenham St BLUE GATE for entry and exit again, due to reduced numbers of staff onsite. 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. We introduced 'red gate' and 'blue gate' last time to help students who couldn't remember which gate they used.

• 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 Monday 12 October.
• 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 or outside of your allocated time – 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. All students attending school need to be registered with OSHClub (there is no fee for registration). Sorry - we cannot have children waiting in, or being picked up from, the office area.
• Hand washing and sanitising routines during the school day remain in place.

Things children need to bring to school from week 2, Term 4:

• Filled water bottle/s as taps still cannot be used. Make sure your child can open and close any containers independently.
• Lunch and snack (reminder: there are no lunch orders)
• 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 for the moment:

• 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 7 December.

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, face shields, 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!
• Epic! Active Learn/Bug Club, Story Box Library and Sunshine Online will continue to be utilised for home reading purposes to limit the use of shared equipment. 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 until further notice by DET, 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 yet.
• Please remember that the first week of Term 4 (October 5 to 9) will continue to be Learning from Home for all students. Years Prep - 2 return on Monday 12 October.

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

As we are tweaking previous arrangements, we should slip into this routine easily next term!

Best wishes for a safe and happy break. A huge thank you to all our staff for their professionalism, energy and resilience again this term. We will be so pleased to see children walking through those gates!

Kim