“And this is eternal life, that they know that you are only the only true God.”

John 17: 3

(from the Gospel for sixth Sunday of Easter, Year A)

Dear parents and carers

We have had a successful first week of scheduled days at school. The children have been very happy to be back at school, seeing their friends and teachers. It has been lovely seeing them! We’ve all missed the children.

The arrangements for this single day at school have been made by our diocesan Catholic Education Office.  All Catholic Schools in NSW fall under the jurisdiction of the NSW government. Whilst the Prime Minister can set broad, national objectives for the road out of COVD-19, the decisional authority of how this operates in our school resides with Premier, Gladys Berejiklian and NSW Health. Our diocese is obliged, therefore, to comply with the directives of the NSW government. This is the basis of all our decision making at a diocesan level and locally. Should the present “one day per week at school” arrangements change, we will inform you as soon as we can.

I would like to draw your attention once again to the Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong website for parents and community regarding current advice for the management of COVID-19. The website is updated regularly with the latest advice from the government and our system of school. This website is our “source of truth”. 

The website aims to provide clear and accurate messaging for our school communities. A link to the COVID-19 Information Centre has been placed on our school website home page. It is also available on the CEDoW website. You can access the site from this link.

https://www.dow.catholic.edu.au/about-us/general-news/covid-19-information-centre

What is happening next week at St Paul’s - Week 4

We will continue to have children to attend school for one day per week on a scheduled day. We have been directed to continue remote learning as the single mode of delivery during the scheduled school days. We have ensured that families attend school on the same day and that siblings will be together at school. This arrangement will stay in place until further notice in writing from the Director of Schools and me.

On the scheduled school day, children will have the opportunity to check in with their class teacher, spend some time with classmates and review how their learning remotely has progressed. 

On the scheduled day at school children should:

• Bring their iPad
• Learning pack
• A drink bottle (bubblers are turned off)
• Warm clothing, hat and lunch.

ZOOM meetings: our Year 3 to Year 6 students will engage in a daily ZOOM meeting with their classes. The Zoom meetings have been very well received by the children. It has been lovely to see the children daily albeit virtually. The time of the daily Zoom is notified in the daily overview shared with you via COMPASS. The link to the Zoom is in your child’s Google classroom.

The school remains open for supervision for children of essential workers and those who need this service. If your child is attending school for the day, she or he will need the learning materials we have provided and ideally an iPad.

Student Attendance during Remote Learning Procedures

We are required to continue to keep an attendance roll. The Google classroom roll marking for all classes (“Are you learning with us today?” in the Classwork tab under Roll) has worked well this week. Your child simply needs to click “yes” to indicate attendance. We would like this to be done by 9:30 am daily. If we do not hear from your child before 11am your child will be marked as absent. 

If your child is late joining the class (after 9:30 am), we will treat this like a late pass at school. Could you send an email to info@spmvdow.catholic.edu.au to let us know your child is now learning. We will adjust the roll accordingly. Similarly, if your child is unwell and unable to participate in the learning experience, please email us on the ‘info’ email to let us know. Please be aware that we are required to report attendance daily to CEDoW who in turn report to the NSW government as part of the COVID-19 monitoring.

Safety at school is everyone’s responsibility

The children’s safety and wellbeing is always our highest priority. There have been additional safety measures put in place to ensure the children’s safety especially during the building project as well as in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As we begin to move towards a return to normal school life, I would like to draw your attention to several procedures of which we all need to be aware and to adhere to for every child’s safety.

COVID-19 safety: we are teaching and reminding children of good hygiene practices regularly. There is additional signage with the same reminders around the school. We have placed tissue only bins in every classroom and a bottle of hand sanitiser for use by children. A regular regime of hand washing of course has continued and has stood us in good stead in responding to the pandemic. Our cleaners are conducting an additional clean daily between first and second break. They are cleaning bathrooms, high touch surfaces (including door handles, railing, water bottle filling stations) as well as emptying double bagged bins. This cleaning is in addition to our scheduled daily cleaning. If your child is showing even mild symptoms of respiratory illness, please keep them home. If your child is presenting with respiratory illness symptoms at school, we will ring you to pick up your child from school.

Building safety: inside the building, a temporary wall has been erected outside the Kinder classroom to isolate the learning spaces from the building works as well as mitigate construction noise and dust. The building site has been isolated from the rest of the school by construction fencing. There are temporary fences around the Infants eating area to prevent access into the building by the children. We work closely with the builders to ensure safety and good communication. We hold regular site meetings to review the project including safety.

Access to the school: access to the school from Garrett Street for everyone will be via the church steps and the side gate near the Infants Eating Area.  

We ask that you do not use the driveway between the church and presbytery as a pedestrian access or vehicular access. The driveway is in use all day. The builders have put temporary fencing beside the church pathway for children’s safety and as a guide to use the church path.

Traffic safety in the morning: please continue to adhere to our school routines in relation to the morning drop off of children. If you need to park, please do so in the vacant block opposite school and escort your child across Garrett Street. Alternatively, park further down on Garrett Street (near the presbytery) and walk up to school. In both cases access is through the church gates, not the driveway. Do not park in the bus zones or do a U-turn across Garrett Street. It is dangerous.

Traffic safety in the afternoon: afternoon pick up is from Innes Road. All children being picked up by parents or carers to be driven home should be collected from Innes Road only. We will walk the children to you. Parents enter via the “In gate”, and wait to collect your child and then exit via the ”Out gate”. Once you have picked up your child, we ask that you move off site promptly. Again, this is entirely about safety. Parents and carers should not park on Garrett Street in the afternoons to pick up children. This is a designated bus zone. We do not want to mix pedestrians and buses. 

Building Project Progress:

We have had another very productive week with the building project. The builders are making great progress. There are some pictures below to give you a sense of how well we are progressing. For Term 2, the school office will be in the Parish Hall. Access to the school from Garrett Street for everyone will be via the church steps. The side gate near the Infants Eating Area is the access to the school. Please check in at the school office in the hall if you need to come to the school during the day. 

Building Timeline: we hope that by the time the children return to school full time in Term 3 that the project will be close to completion. It is great that our school is having this much needed upgrade to our Year 5 and Year 6 classrooms, access and the administration area.

Awards- virtual assembly video and award presentations on scheduled days

We have award recipients named in our newsletter this week. We have allocated the Principal’s Code 5 Award as well as the learning based Merit Awards. This week we have also included the Mission Star Award which acknowledges children who have demonstrated “Christ like” behaviour and actions. Congratulations to all our children receiving recognition. There will be a video shared later today where we will publicly celebrate all our award recipients. We will give the children their awards at morning assembly next week on the child’s scheduled day at school. 

LOLS: Lessons and Liturgy and Scripture

Keep your eye out for the weekly edition of LOLS - Lessons and Liturgy and Scripture. Each week, I will be working with Fr Richard to create a short spiritual reflection video as a way of connecting with the school community. Each video includes a scripture focus, a short ‘homily’ and a song. The video will be posted on Facebook each week.

St Paul’s Parish YouTube Channel

Here is the link to the St Paul’s Parish YouTube Channel where you can watch live and recorded Masses and prayers:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL9F08CA4ayKjhG-3ke-2rQ

Catherine du Bois

Religious Education Coordinator

It has been wonderful to see the smiling faces of the children as they have returned to school for their scheduled day. During the day teachers will be checking in with the children to see how they are going, finding out any difficulties they may be having and allowing them to share positive experiences they have had during remote learning. This very important process is assisting the children in processing the circumstances surrounding them and assisting them in moving forward. If you would like further access to websites that provide information on well being, managing stressful situations and finding ways to support your children and family during this experience then head to our Remote Learning - Parent Portal where you will find a range of websites that you can view and gain access to resources that suit your circumstances or needs.

We update the portal regularly so take the time to check in especially on the Frequently Ask Questions page.