Welcome back to school!                                                                     27 July 2021 

We expect there are lots of smiles this afternoon, based on the Chief Health Officer's advice that schools in Melbourne will return to face-to-face learning and teaching on-site tomorrow.

A huge thanks to parents/carers for your fantastic work over the last couple of weeks, and our flexible staff as they planned in two and three day blocks for Learning from Home. 

As we've come to know, an 'easing' of restrictions isn't the same as 'normal' life during this critical time, so please read our return to school arrangements and links (below) carefully.

After the last lockdown, we trialled a different process for pick up and drop off that we will use until further notice, guided by the advice and guidelines of the Chief Health Officer and DET. This will continue until we receive an updated Operations Guide and possibly for several weeks in our large school context:

Visitors and parents must observe this guidance:

From 11:59 p.m. tonight, consistent with advice for the broader community, school staff, parents, visitors and secondary school students aged 12 or older, must wear a face mask at school, indoors and outdoors, unless an exception applies. 

As schools are required to limit non-essential visitors, parents will be unable to enter the school grounds this week, and until further notice, due to ongoing community health and safety concerns. 

If you need to pick up or drop off your child during the day, please call the office and a staff member will bring your child to the Janet St gate.

Student arrangements:

Classrooms will, as usual, be open from tomorrow for students and staff only from 8:50 a.m. and we’d love to see lots of smiling faces ready to start learning at 9 a.m.

Staff will be on duty at every gate, as usual.

• Janet St, Pakenham St and Blacks Walk gates will continue to be used for entry/exits.
• Only Janet St will be open between 9:00 a.m. and 3:20 p.m. each day; the other gates are locked.

For drop-off: please ensure your child enters the school grounds  by 8:55 a.m. Additional staff will be on duty to assist younger and new students into their classrooms.

For pick-up:

• Please provide clear instructions for your child about pick-up arrangements. It would be really helpful if you use the same gate for pick up and drop off every day, to avoid confusion.
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• Students in Prep and Year 1 who do not have siblings will be dismissed from 3:20 p.m. at the same gates listed above.
• All other parents should remain at a distance from the gates to allow these students and their parents to leave.
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• All remaining students will meet their siblings in the 'sibling meeting areas' onsite, or leave the school if they don't have siblings, from 3:30 p.m.
• At this time, the staff car park gate in Janet St will be opened for students who walk towards Middleborough Rd.
• All parents should wear masks, socially distance and avoid congregating around the gates. Your children can see you better if you are spread out!
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• Parents picking up students by car in the Janet St or Pakenham St pick up bays should remain in their vehicles to limit adult congregation please. 

If children are not picked up by 3:45 p.m., they will be taken to OSHClub. All families should be registered with OSHClub please. There is no cost for registration. 

Parents can enter the grounds outside of school hours to pick up/drop off from OSHClub, but must use OSHClub QR codes and cannot enter the buildings.

Staff Vaccination:

Schools are required to make provision for staff to get vaccinated, if they are eligible and wish to do so. This may affect your child's teacher in the coming weeks, and we thank you for your understanding.

Community Health and Safety: 

As we've previously communicated, the wellbeing of all students is our priority and information that might be of assistance to you in talking to your child about COVID-19 is available. If you are concerned about your child's wellbeing, please contact your child’s teacher via their Sentral mailbox. Other sources of support include Parent Line 13 22 89 and Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800.

The 'Spare' page of LFH on the school website is available for use if your child needs to stay home.

It is essential that if you, your child, or a family member develops symptoms of COVID-19, you should get tested at a COVID-19 testing facility and stay home until all symptoms have disappeared, even if your COVID test is negative. 

• As a High-Performing COVIDSafe school, we will not hesitate to contact parents immediately to collect children who are unwell or have any concerning symptoms, so please keep them at home.
• If a student has an underlying condition such as hay fever or asthma, they should still be tested for COVID-19 if they develop symptoms.
  We need to rely on medical advice to ensure everyone's safety. For this reason, we recommend that parents/carers should provide a medical certificate from their treating GP to confirm that it is safe for their child to attend school with persistent symptoms that may overlap with some of the symptoms of COVID-19.

Each family should regularly check the list of public exposure sites in Victoria (where a person with COVID-19 has attended), and if anyone in the family has attended a site at the times listed, follow the instructions given.

If you are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, please check out the website for information and bookings. Getting vaccinated goes a long way to keeping our communities safe and schools open.

Learning from Home packs and school devices:

• Please remember to send in all Learning from Home packs and completed work when your children return to school tomorrow.
• Families who have borrowed devices from school should return those by Friday please.
• When devices are returned, your child needs to take them to the school office, complete with charger and bag, not to their class teacher.
  
  

The unfortunate but temporary impact on the flow of the community into and through the school, due to restrictions, is in the interests of public health and safety. It is clear that our families and friends are not immune to this disease and limited movement of adults is currently our best protection. We certainly don't want another lockdown.

Until we receive updated information, it is unclear whether excursions and incursions can proceed.

Another eNews will follow as soon as we have additional information, with any further updates, school-specific information and answers to any questions you may have after reading this information.

Stay safe everyone, we look forward to school tomorrow!

Kim