Newsletter: Term 2, Week 4
Principal's News
COVID Update
The Victorian Government has announced some significant changes to COVIDSafe measures for schools that will apply from the start of Term 2.
Face masks
From 11:59 pm Friday, April 22nd, face masks, while recommended, are not required in any school setting. This means students in grades 3 to 6, staff and visitors in primary schools are no longer required to wear face masks. Any student or staff member who wishes to wear a mask may do so, including those medically at risk.
Screening requirements
Students who have tested positive for COVID-19, and have completed their 7-day isolation period, now do not need to undertake rapid antigen test (RAT) screening for 12 weeks after their release from isolation. This was previously eight weeks.
Household contacts
Students who are household contacts of a COVID-19 case are not required to quarantine. They are required to notify the school that they are a household contact. They may return to school as long as they undertake rapid antigen tests (RAT) 5 times during their 7-day period.
Students aged eight years and above who are household contacts must wear face masks when indoors at school unless they have a valid exemption.
If a student household contact returns a positive RAT result, they must isolate for seven days.
Vaccination requirements for visitors to schools
Parents, carers and other adult visitors (not performing work) are no longer required to show evidence of two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
RAT screening program reminder
RATs were sent home on Monday. Should you have not received yours, please get in touch with our office. RATS will be supplied until the end of the term.
However, from Monday, May 23rd 2022, it is recommended RATs are used by students and staff only when symptomatic. RATs are also required to be used for five days if a student or staff member is in close contact with a confirmed case and is attending or working at a school.
From Monday, May 23rd 2022, it is not recommended that non-symptomatic students or staff continue to conduct RATs twice a week in mainstream schools and five days a week in specialist schools.
The ongoing supply of RATs to families in our school will ensure that parents and carers will have them should they need them if their child is a household contact or has symptoms.
Notification of Positive Cases at School
Parents and carers will continue to be notified of positive cases in their child/children's classroom via the Seesaw app.
New Child Safe Standards
The original Child Safe Standards were implemented in Victoria in 2016. They were developed in response to The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse (2013 - 2017). In 2019 Victoria agreed to adopt the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations. Schools are one example of a Child Safe Organisation. The New Child Safe Standards come into effect on July 1st 2022.
The Child Safe Standards aim to:
- promote the safety of children
- prevent child abuse
- ensure adequate processes are in place to respond to and report all allegations of child abuse
The Child Safe Standards work by:
- driving changes in culture - embedding child safety in everyday thinking and practice
- providing a minimum standard of child safety
- highlighting we all have a role in keeping children safe from abuse.
Eleven new Child Safe Standards will replace Victoria's seven current Child Safe Standards and principles. Ministerial Order No. 1359 defines the actions schools and school boarding premises must take to meet the new Child Safe Standards requirements from July 1st 2022. Last week, a briefing was held outlining the changes in policy and procedure schools will need to effect to meet those requirements. Extensive professional development will occur for school staff leading up to the change.
Illness at School
We always encourage all children to attend school as much as possible. However, we are heading to that time of year when colds and other illnesses are becoming more prevalent.
If your child is unwell and not fit for school, I ask that you keep them home while they recover to limit the spread of illness.
If your child does require medication on their return to school, we ask that medication is supplied in the original container displaying the name of the child and
the instructions as provided by the pharmacist. Parental permission must also be provided in writing along with the written instructions.
Children are not permitted to administer their medication (except for asthma
reliever inhalers
NAPLAN
A wonderful display of calm and concentration was evident this morning as our Year 3, and 5 students completed their national assessment program across the week. This snapshot of achievement in literacy and numeracy provides our school with some helpful data on learning improvements for all students.
The NAPLAN tests are Australia wide and seek to gather some information about students' performance in Literacy and Numeracy. While helpful and informative, the tests form only one aspect of reporting a student's development.
Teachers engage in assessments based on Achievement Standards from the Australian Curriculum. Parents receive a report twice a year which is a summation of all their child's assessments and contains a great deal of valuable information about their progress. We encourage you to view NAPLAN in the wider context of educational assessment and reporting. More information is available at www.naplan.edu.au
Reporting and Assessment Process
Just a reminder to parents that the Assessment and Reporting process is well underway. Reports will be issued to families in the last week of term and interviews will take place over two weeks early in term 3. Teachers will be in the process of preparing information for the reporting and interview process.
Enrolments for 2023
Enrolments for next year have officially opened. If you have a child commencing school next year, or have a friend who intends to enrol their child, please ensure enrolment forms are lodged ASAP. We need this information to ascertain student numbers for 2023. Enrolment figures are used to determine class numbers and structures. Our enrolment figures impact directly on the funding St Augustine's receives.
Cross Country
Congratulations to all our students in Years 3-6 who participated in the cross country held at the Clunes Golf Course. After all the numbers have been crunched, seven from St Augustine's have qualified to advance to the next level. The lucky seven advances to the Zone Cross Country and will represent our school at Zones on Friday, May 20th.
Well Done:
Danni Crilly
Maple Budin
Nicholas Quirk
Max Clohesy
Jack Clohesy
Thomas Pearce
How to Keep Kids Safe on TikTok
TikTok seems to be the talk of the town lately, but navigating the social network can be challenging, particularly for parents looking to understand more about the place their child is spending their time scrolling.
Luckily, we have provided the ultimate breakdown of the application, answering questions such as: what is TikTok? Who owns the app? What is it used for? What parental controls are available to concerned parents?
So, what is TikTok, and who is behind the app? The TikTok app has risen in popularity following the beginning of COVID-19 lockdowns in Australia. Created in 2016 by Chinese research company Byte Dance, the social network application allows for short 15 to 60 second videos posted by creators for other users to watch. Before this, TikTok was known as Music.ly, which launched in 2014. However, this was bought by Byte Dance in 2017. The decision was then made to combine both applications to form TikTok as it stands today. Anyone with the app can become a creator and post their amateur videos for others to enjoy. Content posted typically plays along to a song or sound byte from trending music or popular movies. Videos uploaded vary in genre from comedy to beauty and fashion, music, dance, and much more!
Today, over 2.5 million Australians are active on the app, with its primary audience being young people and teenagers who spend around 71 minutes watching content each day.
What are the TikTok "challenges"?
Challenges on TikTok involve users re-creating a trending or viral video that encourages users to re-produce the video in their way. A popular challenge example is #matildachallenge, where users pretend to make objects move using telekinesis like the hit 90's movie Matilda. This is a fun way for users to easily create content and engage with other members of the fan communities.
How safe is TikTok for children?
Users under the age of 13 cannot publicly post or comment on videos. The content is also curated on their feed for a younger audience. To access these filters, ensure you set up your child's account with them and input their birthdate to indicate they are under 13.
What parental controls are available on TikTok?
There are many ways to monitor your child's use of TikTok, including Screen Time Limits: You could choose to set screen time limits or content filters on the app, which is password protected. Go onto your child's account, click the three dots in the top right of the page, then click 'digital wellbeing' and 'screen time management. Settings can enable a maximum time of 2 hours per day to a minimum of 40 minutes daily. You will need to enter a password to disable this setting.
Restricted Mode: This aims to block mature content from the account. You can enable and disable this feature only with a password. To set this up, head to the 'digital wellbeing' tab again and enable this feature on your child's account.
Family Pairing: This feature enables parents to monitor watch time, content, privacy, and safety settings and whether their child's account is public or private. Click on the three dots on your account and your child's account to allow this feature. Then, click on 'family pairing'.
How do I monitor my child's activity on TikTok?
Apart from the above features, which can limit activity, simply keeping an eye on what your child is watching or asking about their favourite creators and videos is always beneficial.
Account Set-Up: Privacy, Deleting Videos & More How do you delete a TikTok account?
- - Go to the 'me' tab or your account page.
- - Click the top right corner of your screen with the three dots (…)
- - Click manage account
- - Click delete account.
How do you delete a TikTok Video?
- - Select the video you want to delete
- - Click the … icon in the bottom right corner
- - Click delete or hit the trash icon
- - You will be asked once more if you want to delete the video. Click delete
- - The video will be deleted from your account
How do you make your TikTok account private?
- - Go to the 'me' tab or your profile page
- - Click the three dots in the top right-hand corner (…)
- - Go to privacy
- - Turn your account to private with the toggle button
- - Your account will now be set to private
The Wrap-Up
So that's our parent's breakdown and guide to TikTok! You should know more about the app and feel confident navigating it, whether for yourself or yo
Wellbeing
P.E. NEWS
This term we have lots of exciting things happening in PE. This coming Friday we have 7 students representing us at Cross Country at Ballarat High School. We wish you all the very best of luck.
Next Monday the 23rd of May we have 40 students across grades 3 -6 competing at the goldfields athletics carnival at Llanberris. Wishing you all the very best of luck.
We have been very fortunate to be successful in a sporting s schools grant and I have purchased some wonderful marquees for us to use around the school and when we are out representing the school.
Also during the last school holidays Chase played at half time footy at the MCG on the weekend (Hawks v Demons) Congratulations and Well done Chase.
Western Bulldogs Football Clinic
We have been fortunate enough to be selected to have a football clinic run with all of our students from Foundation to grade 6. This will be held on Monday the 6th of June. To celebrate this we have decided to allow our students to have a casual dress day with a footy colours theme.
We look forward to seeing all the amazing supporters in their colours.