Dear Parents and Carers

How wonderful it was to have almost all of our students back yesterday! We have all missed their smiling faces these past few months and it was lovely to get back to what we all do best. As I walked around to classes yesterday, I could see that students were excited to be able to catch up with their friends face-to-face and were very happy to see their teachers once again. There was a definite buzz in the air which we had really missed. 

Safety Measures for Students returning
As I mentioned in the letter sent home last week, we have increased cleaning and hygiene practices at school to help protect students. Students who are showing signs of illness will be isolated in a space away from other students and adults until they are collected to go home. The ACT Department of Health has released a video to help parents understand the need for social distancing in schools. In the video it talks about some parents being able to come onto school grounds, but schools making decisions on how this might occur to keep all safe. The school and Catholic Education has determined that the best way to ensure this safety is for parents to drop-off and pick-up their children without getting out of the car (except for parents and carers of ELC) and to book appointments to come into the school building. Here is the video link to help you understand the kinds of things you can do to help.

Drop-off and Pick-up
While school is back and restrictions are easing, we still have a long way to go before the whole nation is able to relax completely. We are still bound by government to maintain social distancing between adults at the school. This means we will have to continue with drop-off and pick-up procedures for the foreseeable future. I want to thank parents and carers for working with us during this time to help make this process as smooth as possible. Ultimately, we are working to keep our children safe and your cooperation is much appreciated.

Students can be dropped off from 8:30am. A teacher will be on duty to assist students who require support to get out of the car. Students will then walk around to the courtyard where they will be supervised by a teacher on duty until school begins.

At the end of the day, students who are being picked up will be walked around to the pick-up area by their teachers at 3pm and divided according to their surname. Teachers will be there to support students getting into their cars if required. Parents and carers will not be able to get out of their cars unless they are collecting children from the ELC.  A video of the new arrangements is available here.

I urge everyone not to arrive for pick-up too early. Yesterday cars had already blocked Lhotsky St by 2:35pm. We will not be walking students from classrooms to the pick-up area until 3pm. We were able to have all cars cleared before 3:20pm yesterday and, with a little practice, hope to be able to have all cars cleared by 3:15pm by the end of the week.

Parents in the school
I am pleased that parents are now able to make an appointment to come into the school. If you need to meet with your child’s teacher please contact them via email to make a time to meet. If you need to purchase uniforms from the secondhand uniform store, then please call the Front Office to organise a time. Meetings with Carmen or myself can be organised by calling the Front Office to arrange an appointment.

New Behaviour Policy
We have taken this quieter time at school to rewrite our Student Behaviour Policy. There have been a number of changes and I encourage you to take some time to have a look at the new policy, attached below, and available on the school’s website under Communication/Policies. The school has been working with Ian Luscombe from Behaviourability to firm up some of the expectations of students at school. Ian will work this us again next week.

I wish you all a wonderful few weeks.