Newsletter: Term 3, Week 8

Dates to Remember:

From the Principal:

Dear  Parents and Carers:

Welcome to week eight, the highlight of the past fortnight was the Book Week parade. Once again students responded splendidly and all turned up on the day looking magnificent in their chosen outfits. Thanks for your support in making this day such a huge success.

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This week we celebrate National Teacher Aide Appreciation Week. We would like to acknowledge the important role of our Teacher Aides, whose hard work and dedication make a difference to our students, staff and the school community. So to Ginny, Sen and Nicolle and from all at St Augustine’s, thank you for all that you do for us each and every day.

Vaccinations for school staff Mainstream schools 

All school staff (including principals, teachers, administration and education support staff, including casual relief teachers (CRT’s), pre-service teachers, and Outside School Hours Care staff), volunteers, contractors and visitors are no longer required to meet COVID-19 vaccination requirements to attend work.

Rapid antigen testing: 

The Victorian Government is providing up to three further deliveries of rapid antigen tests in Term 3 and again in Term 4 to schools. 

It is recommended that rapid antigen tests are used by students and staff when symptomatic. Household contacts are required to test negative using a rapid antigen test on at least 3 out of 5 if they are attending or working at a school onsite.

If staff or students receive a positive test result at any time, they must report this through the Department of Health system (Rapid antigen tests | Coronavirus Victoria) or via the coronavirus hotline at 1800 675 398. 

Students (or their parents) must also report a positive result to their school by phone or written notification; this is so the school can support them, record that they will be absent while in 5-day isolation, and let the rest of the school community know there has been a positive case onsite and that they should monitor for symptoms. 

Students and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19, have completed their 5-day isolation period and are subsequently asymptomatic do not need to undertake surveillance testing for twelve weeks.

Face masks:

The advice also strongly recommends the wearing of face masks in indoor settings (noting that exceptions to the recommendation apply to teaching circumstances when clear enunciation or visibility of the mouth is essential). 

Household contacts attending school who are over 8 years of age are required to wear face masks indoors unless they have a valid exception. 

Everyone including students aged 8 years and above must wear a face mask when travelling on public transport, taxis or ride share vehicles.

Managing a confirmed case of COVID-19 in schools:

Where a student or staff member is identified as a positive case, the following steps will be taken: 

1. Parents/carers should inform the school by phone or written notification.
2. Students who report a positive result must isolate for five days and not attend school during that period. 
3. Where a student is a household contact of a positive case(that is, they have spent more than four hours with someone who has COVID-19 inside a house, accommodation, or care facility) they must inform the school. Household and household-like contacts are no longer required to quarantine as long as they take additional safety measures in the 5 days that would have been their quarantine period. 

Additional Safety Measures - Household and household-like contacts  are required to:

• notify the school if returning during their 5 day period
• undertake daily rapid antigen testing five times within the 5 days
• wear a face covering when indoors (if aged 8 years and above or unless they have a valid exemption)
• are not permitted to visit hospitals or care facilities unless an exemption applies. 

1. Parents/carers are able to leave isolation if other arrangements cannot be made to transport their non-infectious child via private vehicle to and/or from school. The person leaving self-isolation must travel directly to and from the location, making no stops, unless there is an emergency or as required by law. They must remain in the vehicle at all times, unless it is reasonably necessary to leave the vehicle to deliver the person to and from school, and must wear a face covering whilst outside the place of self-isolation.
2. Ensure that staff or students refrain from returning to school if they remain symptomatic, unless it is known that their symptoms are ongoing, or caused by an underlying health condition or medication.

Student & Staff Scenarios:

A student or staff member tests positive to COVID19, either through RAT test or PCR test:

Isolate at home or in private accommodation for 5 days (inclusive of weekends) and do not attend school during this period. Inform the school that they have tested positive to COVID-19. A negative test is not required to return to school following completion of 5 days of isolation.

A student or staff member is a household contact or household-like contact*. (* You have spent more than four hours with someone who has COVID-19 inside a house, accommodation, or care facility.)

Notify the school that they are a household or household like contact.

Household contacts are no longer required to quarantine as long as they take additional safety measures, but are required to:

• notify the school if returning during their 5 day period; 
• undertake daily rapid antigen testing five times within the 5 days;
• wear a face covering when indoors (if aged 8 years and above or unless they have a valid exemption);
• are not permitted to visit hospitals or care facilities unless an exemption applies. 

A student or staff member has been in contact with a case of COVID-19, including at school or at work. 

If asymptomatic, students and staff should continue to attend school and monitor for symptoms.

If symptomatic, all students/staff must stay/return home, take a rapid antigen test, or get a PCR test.  

Staff/student has contracted COVID-19, completed their 5-day isolation period and is asymptomatic. 

Staff/ students can safely return to school. They do not need to be tested if they have been re-exposed within 12 weeks of ending their self-isolation.

Staff/student has completed their quarantine period as a household contact and has returned a negative test result. 

The quarantine duration for student/staff household contacts who are required to quarantine i.e. those who are not able to comply with the additional safety measures, is 5 days from the date of the first positive test of the household index case

However, during the quarantine period an additional member of the household has returned a positive result. 

Household contacts are not subject to rolling quarantine periods. If the index case remains in the household, or if subsequent cases are identified within the household, the quarantine end date for the close contact is unchanged. Staff/ students can safely return to school and do not require negative test documentation.

Naplan

This week, our Year 3 and 5 children’s Naplan Student Reports arrived at school. As a school, we were impressed with the results of all of our students, and very proud of the efforts they made on the three days of testing.

Over the next few weeks, staff will spend further time analysing these results, reflecting on this data, in conjunction with the extensive additional data we have regarding student learning.

It is important to understand that as a school, data is collected daily on student learning and assessment, with classroom teachers having a very holistic understanding of a student’s learning strengths and needs. Naplan data is to be viewed as a diagnostic tool, giving information from a specific point in time in a student’s learning. As a school, Naplan data allows us to analyse trends within a year level, specifically areas in whole year level learning that need further growth and development, as well as evident year level strengths that can be fostered and extended.

Your child’s results should be viewed in conjunction with their Semester One reports, and previous information shared by classroom teachers. Atypical results at times occur in Naplan Student Reports, and this can generally be attributed to how a student was feeling on the day of the tests, or events in the child’s life at the time of the tests.

We look forward to sharing further information regarding our students’ learning over the remainder of the year. Congratulations Year 3 and 5, you have made us all proud!

Father’s Day

In one of the final scenes of the movie Thor, there is a conversation between Thor and Odin his father that goes as follows;

ODIN: You’ll be a wise King.
THOR: There will never be a wiser king than you. Nor a better father.

Thor: I have much to learn. I know that now. Someday, perhaps, I shall make you proud.
ODIN: You’ve already made me proud.

This conversation highlights the realities of most father son relationships. Fathers have corrected us when we need to be corrected, they have cheered for us when we needed to be cheered for. They have taught us when we needed to be taught, so it was no surprise to Odin that Thor would one day be great.

I see proud fathers every day as they deliver their siblings to school, you might not see this and they might not say they are proud of you, but the way they interact, the care they show and the conversations I have with the dads each day shows just how proud they are of all of you.

I trust all our Fathers and Grandfathers and special stand in Fathers have a fabulous Father’s Day on Sunday and enjoy precious family time on what I hope is a perfect warm spring day. I  hope that all that are able to attend the Father’s Day celebration enjoy the day.

Experiencing different cultures

The Year One and Two classes have been very busy over the last two weeks immersing themselves in the stories of other cultures. They have had visitors who were originally from England and New Zealand come and share their stories. They have experienced what it might be like as an Italian student by making pizza and learning how to play Bocce.

School Surveys

Insight SRC is conducting a survey on behalf of the school and the Catholic Education Office Ballarat. It is designed to assist us in gaining an understanding of parents' perceptions of their children’s experience of school.  The results will benefit everyone within the school by providing valuable information about the ways in which the school can use staff, student and parent input to plan programs and activities to improve your child's experience at school. Next week, random families will be sent a letter with information regarding the – School Improvement Surveys. These surveys will be shared with parents, staff and relevant students to complete in the coming weeks. We encourage families to please take the time to complete them as the more reliable the data will be. This year’s will be open from Monday 29 August to Friday 9 September 2022. We sincerely thank you for your support with this school improvement survey. 

Family Surveys - Families can complete the survey anytime over the two-week window, (Monday 29 August to Friday 9 September 2022).    Families will be notified via a letter of the online survey link to access the survey along with a unique password allocated to each family.   

Staff Surveys - All staff will complete the survey with the same time frame as our parents. 

Student Surveys - We will advise families and students of the delivery and implementation of student surveys via the Seesaw app. ( Students in year 3,4,5 and 6 will be completing the survey)

Our community’s opinions are critical to understanding how our school is performing – these surveys are a key data source for guiding the ongoing work to improve our school.

Participation is 100 percent voluntary. The surveys are not a test; they are an inclusive way to support the work we are already doing to improve our school.

Wellbeing:

Community News: