Jesus said to them again,

“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.”

John 20: 21

(from the Gospel for the solemnity for Pentecost, Year A)

Dear parents and carers

It has been wonderful to have the children back at school this week. They certainly appeared to be happy with being together again, with their friends and teachers. The energy and vibrancy of the children has been sorely missed by the staff of the school. It’s great to be back!

We have now commenced what our diocese has called Phase 3# of the COVID-19 learning continuity plan. Whilst the children will attend school for five days per week, in many regards we still have not returned to “business as usual”. We are required to maintain many of the COVID-19 precautions during Phase #3. These precautions have been implemented by our diocesan system of schools in response to NSW Health directives. The children’s wellbeing and safety are always paramount.

Ongoing COVID-19 Phase #3 precautions in place at St Paul’s

• Twice daily cleaning of all high touch surfaces in the school
• No whole school assemblies on Friday afternoon (virtual award assemblies will continue)
• No sporting carnivals or inter-school sporting events
• No excursions
• Regular teaching and reminders of COVID safe hygiene practices with all children
• Continued adherence of social distancing protocols, especially for adults (parents are welcome to escort children into the school grounds and stay briefly for morning prayer without congregating)
• Any child or staff member presenting with symptoms of a respiratory condition will be sent home
• COVID-19 response plan remains in place and active
• Staggered afternoon pick up from Innes Road (see below)

Staggered pick up from Innes Road

Afternoon pick up for children travelling home with parents and carers remains via Innes Road. Children travelling home with parents or carers, will be assembled in colour house groups. We will walk the children down to Innes Road to you one house colour at a time. The intention is to stagger arrival and departure times for families picking up children. We ask that families arrive close to pick up time, and move off promptly after collecting your child. We must remain mindful of social distancing during this process.

• Blue House will leave the top playground at 2:55pm
• Red House will leave the top playground at 3pm
• Gold House will leave the top playground at 3:05pm

The new system has worked well this week. Thank you everyone for your cooperation with this safety measure. We have school staff deployed at the gates to avoid parents needing to touch the gates. Parents enter via the “In gate”, wait to collect your child at the yellow line 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.

What your child needs to bring to school

• A drink bottle (bubblers are turned off)
• Learning packs especially non-completed work (we still have few packs outstanding)
• Return all loan iPads- most of these have now been returned. Thank you! These iPads will be re-deployed into Kinder to Year 2 classrooms for at-school only use.
• Winter uniform, hat and lunch (sport uniform on normal scheduled days- see below)

Sport Uniform Days by Class

Your child will need to wear the sport uniform on the following days each week.

Kindergarten- Friday

Year 1- Friday

Year 2- Friday

Year 3- Wednesday & Friday

Year 4- Wednesday & Friday

Year 5- Wednesday & Friday

Year 6-Wednesday & Friday

Student Attendance

As of last Monday (25 May), all children are expected to attend school five days per week. The single and only mode of learning and teaching now being offered is face to face learning at school.

We have activated an SMS notification if your child is absent. You will now be able to reply to this message to provide an explanation for your child’s absence. Please keep your message of explanation short and precise. “Sick” or “attending an appointment” is satisfactory as opposed to “away” or “not at school”.

COVID-19 medical clearances

We have had some questions regarding COVID-19 testing and clearances.

1. If your child has had a COVID-19 test, please let us know, provide the result to us as well as a COVID-19 clearance.
2. If we send your child home from school because we suspect COVID-19 (temperature, cough, sore throat or shortness of breath), we will ask you to take your child to the doctor to be tested. In this case, we will require a clearance before your child returns to school.
3. If we send your child home from school due to illness (for example, headache, runny nose, sneezing, fatigue or aches and pains), we ask that you get a medical clearance from your medical practitioner. This does not need to be a COVID-19 clearance. A standard doctor’s certificate (or equivalent) is satisfactory.
4. If your child is unwell with non-COVID-19 symptoms, has not had a COVID-19 test and you have kept your child at home, you do not need to have a medical clearance to return to school. We ask that you keep your child at home until the symptoms resolve.

Students who remain in isolation due to COVID-19

If your child has a medical reason to not attend school, please contact us and let us know. If your child is in this position please complete the form at this link:

This link is to CEDoW and forms part of our diocesan system’s reporting accountability to NSW Health.

CEDoW COVID-19 website remains 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

Please keep children presenting with respiratory illness symptoms at home

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. We are applying the same standard to all school staff.

Access to the school via church steps

Thank you everyone for your adherence to the modified school access arrangements during the building project. Access to the school from Garrett Street for everyone is 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

It is important that the road rules be followed for the safety of all our children. People have been observed parking in the bus zones, dropping children on the far side of Garrett Street and having the children cross the road unescorted and doing U-turns across Garrett Street. 

Aside from being illegal, it is dangerous.

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 (past the presbytery) and walk up to school.

In all cases access to the school is through the church gates, not the driveway.

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.

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 remain on track to have the building completed in readiness for Term 3. It is great that our school is having this much needed upgrade to our Year 5 and Year 6 classrooms, access and disability access and the administration area.

Awards- virtual assembly video and award presentations on scheduled days

We will continue with the virtual assembly for the time being. We are not yet permitted to hold whole school assemblies. There will be a virtual assembly posted today. We will continue to name the award recipients in the newsletter and distribute the awards at morning assembly on Friday. When the COVID-19 restrictions are finally lifted we will resume our normal assembly routines. We will inform you of this when it eventuates.

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

Keep a look out for changes to the Parent Portal. It has had a name change to St Paul’s Moss Vale - Parent Portal. While face to face full time teaching has returned we are still living with the pandemic. While we are hopeful we will not return to remote teaching and learning we must continue to be prepared for the possibility that it could happen again. Therefore we will keep the information on the portal available for now. There are updated ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ and an updated message from Don O’Brien - Principal. You will also find a link to a great social story about having the COVID-19 test. If you or your child have to take the COVID-19 test then this story will help your child to understand what is going to happen and why.

This week we implemented a change to afternoon pick up at Innes road. This change was to support social distancing for parents and students and increase safety for all. When we implement any new change to a procedure at school we teach and practise this with the children. This change has also added two extra staff members to manage the gates and reduce the need for parents to touch the gates. Thank you for your support with these changes. 

Our canteen will re open next Wednesday 3rd June for 1 day per week only.  The menu will be a limited pre packed service: