COVID-19 Update #21 03/07/2020

by mindarieps | Jul 3, 2020 | | COVID

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

What an incredibly busy last week it has been with reports going home, reward days, the P&C AGM and meeting and the Board meeting.

Much was discussed at both the Board and the P&C meeting and we will be moving forward on several matters raised at these meetings.

Thank you to all parents who completed the surveys on the possible reintroduction of Faction Shirts and also on the new report format.

The Board approved, in principle, the reintroduction of faction shirts however there still needs to be an official review of the uniform policy to enable this to occur.  The uniform policy will be reviewed early in Term Three, as per requirements.  Once this is done the policy will be taken to the board for discussion and then circulated to the school community for consultation.  We do need to ensure that we address factors such as sun safety in relation to the proposed shirts.

The board also ratified the Reporting Policy.

The next Board meeting will be on Thursday 27 July, commencing at 5.15pm in the staffroom.

At the P&C meeting a new Executive Committee was elected.

The P&C will be progressing the Father’s Day stall and Friday lunches.  Discussion is underway as to how we can proceed with icy poles as they want to maintain the school as a cashless area.  Further communication around this will occur next term.  With this in mind, and considering there is very low level use of  school banking, this will no longer be occurring.

The school has donated our school sign to the local soccer club as we are moving to purchase an electronic sign, this will enable us to communicate with our community in a far timelier manner.  One of the big lessons we learnt from COVID 19 was the importance of timely, accurate communication.

The uniform shop will continue to operate as an online shop.  Yvette reported that there has been a marked increase in sales during the time it has been online.  Currently Yvette is considering opening the shop once a fortnight to coincide with assemblies.

The Fathering Project will be holding its first event for 2020 on Friday 21st of August.  It will be a pizza and movie night, held in the undercover area.  A focus of the event will be Paint the Town Read ‘PTTR’, which aims to encourage dads to read to their children.

In moving forward into Term Three the following will be in place;

• Daytime cleaning will continue, including the cleaning of the playgrounds.
• Split lunches will continue to be in place.
• Staff will communicate with parents and families via Seesaw, this will be the showcase of what is happening in classrooms, so you stay connected to your children’s learning.
• Bikes and scooters can come onto the grounds, students using these must enter via the Abbeville Circle gate closest to the bike cage.
• Staff will continue to be at the gates.
• The ‘kiss and drive’ gate is for student use only – this is to discourage parking up there as ‘kiss and drive’ operates more effectively when vehicles do not park in this area.  (The Board endorsed this decision).
• Parents can enter via any other gate for pick up and drop off.
• The gates will open at 8.25am and close at 8.45am.
• Students arriving late must enter via the front gates and collect a late pass from the front office.  Students arriving late must walk themselves to class.
• The gates will open in the afternoon at 2.45pm and close at 3.00pm.
• Pre-Primary and Kindergarten children will be taken to their gates by their teachers in the afternoon.  Please advise your child’s teacher if you will be having older siblings collect these children.
• Parent help in junior classes will be reintroduced.  Teachers will establish a roster.  Please email your child’s teacher if you would like to be on this roster.
• All visitors to the school site must sign in via the office, this includes parents visiting to help in classrooms, attend parent meetings, do things for the P&C and so on and so forth.  It is best practice that we monitor who is on the school site at any given time.
• Parents are encouraged to continue to contact teachers and the school via email.

Children will continue to wash their hands, use hand sanitizer, where possible only use their own equipment and also only use drink bottles.  We will continue to implement a wide range of best practice hygiene actions.

Any children with coughs, sneezes, temperatures and so forth will need to remain off school until they are well.  The same will apply to school staff.

This week we had our front doors automated, this is in response to several identified needs, the first being to ensure that we reduce touch points for our children, staff and visitors to the school site.  The second is to facilitate easier access to the office for people with prams, or in wheelchairs or with any other specific requirements.  As we now have the doors automated we anticipate that from Term Three onwards we will be able to have our dogs back on site.

Kindergarten enrolments are now being taken, if you know of people residing in Mindarie who may have kindergarten aged children, please encourage them to phone the school to inquire.  Our places do fill up quickly and we do want to ensure that we can cater for Mindarie children.

On Thursday we fare welled our gardener Dennis Taylor.  The staff put on a lovely spread for him.  We have a relief gardener for the first few weeks of next term.

Our first Assembly is scheduled for Thursday 30th July.  TP3 and TP5 will be running this assembly.  We look forward to once again coming together as a whole school.

To all our families, have a safe and restful holiday break.  School resumes on Monday 20th July.

Kind regards
Barbara Bromley