COVID-19 Update 28/06/2021

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

As we have all heard tonight, on the update from Mr McGowan, Mindarie has become a considered contact point for the current Delta COVID-19 situation.  Two major points have been identified.  Originally, The Indian Ocean Brewhouse, and now, Basils Mindarie.

As Mr McGowan announced, The Peel/Perth area will be entering into lock down as of 12:01am tomorrow.

Schools will be open; Mindarie Primary School is open.

We must be vigilant as a community. We must get through this, as a community.

As previously advised, all adults entering our school must enter the school through the main entrance. You must ensure that you sign in through the SafeWA codes at the front of the school.

This evening, we are coordinating staffing. We already know that will have staff away tomorrow. They, like many of you, will be being tested.  We will have substitute staff in their place.

Given the lockdown, swimming lessons will not resume.  The office staff will be in contact in relation to refunds.

Please contact the office if you require information.

Please remember to update the school if you are not sending your children to school. You can do this through the website at https://mindarieprimary.wa.edu.au/absentee-notification/

Please take care in the coming days.

Kind regards,

Barbara Bromley
Principal

Community Consultation – Secondary Education Options

Dear parent/carer

I am writing to inform you that the Minister for Education and Training, the Hon Sue Ellery MLC, has announced a community consultation to gather the views of local parents, students and community members on secondary education options in the Clarkson, Kinross and Mindarie area.

The Department’s preferred model for secondary students is to provide them with continuous schooling from Year 7 right through to Year 12 – all delivered in one school environment.

This minimises the transition points in a student’s schooling, creating a more seamless secondary education.

Reducing the number of changes that students experience, by having to move from one secondary school to another, is beneficial for their social, emotional and academic development.

At present:

·         Clarkson Community High School caters for students from Years 7 to 12.

·         Kinross College caters for students from Years 7 to 10.

·         Mindarie Senior College caters for students in Years 11 and 12.

You are invited to have your say, through an online survey, where you can select one of the following options:

Option 1

·         Kinross College and Mindarie Senior College each extend to become Years 7 to 12 schools with separate local intake area.

·         Clarkson Community High School is repurposed and becomes part of North Metropolitan TAFE, Clarkson campus to focus on training for young people.

Option 2

No change

The online survey and factsheet will be on the Department of Education website at education.wa.edu.au.  The survey opens at 9.00am Friday, 27 November 2020 and closes at 5.00pm Friday, 18 December 2020. If you do not have access to the internet, you are welcome to come in to the school and complete the survey.  Please contact us on 94071100 to arrange a suitable time.

Community information sessions will be held for each school community as follows:

  • Mindarie Senior College – Tuesday 1 December 2020 from 6.00pm to 7.00pm at Mindarie Senior College sports hall, 14 Elliston Parade, Mindarie. If you wish to attend, please register your interest at [email protected].
  • Kinross College – Wednesday 2 December 2020 from 6.00pm to 7.00pm at Kinross College performing arts theatre, Falkland Way, Kinross. If you wish to attend, please register your interest at https://www.trybooking.com/BNCNY.
  • Clarkson Community High School – Thursday 3 December 2020 from 6.00pm to 7.00pm at Clarkson Community High School gymnasium, 16 Walyunga Boulevard, Clarkson. If you wish to attend, please register your interest at [email protected].

Physical distancing measures will apply at all community information sessions.

Staff will also be consulted as part of this process.

I encourage you to take part in this important process to help inform any decisions about the future of public secondary schooling in the Clarkson, Kinross and Mindarie area.

Yours sincerely,

Ms Barbara Bromley
Principal
26 November 2020

COVID-19 Update #21 03/07/2020

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.

President – Mick Self
Vice President – Ariaan Daniels
Secretary – Karyn Anderson
Treasurer – Teegan Sinclair
Uniform Coordinator – Yvette Whitehorn
Vice Treasurer – Alan Woods
Lunch Coordinator – Mandy Twiddy

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

COVID-19 Update #20 05/06/2020

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

As you would be aware, last Friday the Premier announced the further relaxing of restrictions as we enter Phase 3 of the WA Roadmap to recovery effective as of Saturday, 6 June 2020. As part of the announcement parents/carers will be permitted to enter school grounds to drop off or pick up their children from Monday, 8 June.

We have now received the Department of Education’s communication regarding how these changes will impact schools.

Parents/Carers Onsite

  • Number of parents/carers limited to a maximum of 100 at any time with physical distancing of one person per 2 square metres and good hygiene practices applied. This will need to be strictly adhered to as we have over 540 families.
  • Current arrangements for pick-up and drop off via the school gates will remain in place with gates opening at 8.25 am and 2.45 pm.
  • As the number of parents/carers on school grounds is limited to a maximum of 100 at any time we, as an administration staff propose the following occurs- students entering the grounds independently do so through the following gates – ‘kiss and drive’, Abbeville Circle gate closest to the bike cage, oval gate (which will be through the basketball courts).
  • Pre-Primary students and Kindergarten students enter via the Kindy/Pre-Primary gate they have been using – they can enter independently or with parents – we will have Education Assistants at this gate and we will be doing a head count of adults as they enter and exit.
  • All other parents can enter or exit the school grounds via the front Administration gates, again a head count will be done as parents enter and exit the grounds.  Students wishing to enter independently can also enter via this gate.
  • At the end of the school day again we ask that parents wishing to enter the school grounds do so via the two entry gates; Pre-Primary and Kindergarten via the lower gate and the front gate.  Again, to ensure that we remain true to the requirements of only 100 parents on site these gates will be manned and a head count taken.  Pre-Primary and Kindergarten children will be brought to this gate as they are at this present time.
  • Children leaving the school grounds independently will exit via the gate that they entered through.
  • Siblings currently picking up their younger brothers and sisters can still do so.

Parent Contact with Teachers 

  • Parents/carers can come on to the school grounds to attend scheduled meetings with school staff, this is by appointment only.  Please email your child’s teacher if you wish to make an appointment.
  • The same applies to parents wishing to make a meeting with a member of the administration staff.
  • Teachers will be setting up family Seesaw to further enhance communication between the school and home.

School Activities

  • Interschool activities with a total not exceeding 100 people for indoor settings and not exceeding 300 people in outdoor settings can occur.
  • Contact sport and training is permitted.
  • Interschool sports can occur with a total not exceeding 100 people for indoor settings and not exceeding 300 people in outdoor settings.
  • Assemblies remain cancelled as there is a limit of 100 people indoors at any time, we will continue creating virtual assemblies which we look forward to sharing with parents, hopefully in term four.

Social Distancing

  • Parents on the school site are asked to abide by the social distancing requirements.  There are black markers set at the appropriate distances, parents waiting for children can use these markers to ensure that social distancing is in place.
  • Classroom doors entrances will be marked with a box that delineated the required 1.5-meter distancing.  Parents on the site are asked to stand clear of this.  This is to ensure the teacher is abiding by the 1.5-meter distancing.

Students who are Unwell

Students who are unwell must remain at home. Students who present as unwell at school will be sent home.  Please ensure that their pick up is prompt as we need to ensure that our office staff are not exposed to students who are presenting as unwell.

Collecting Students Throughout the School Day

If you need to collect your child/ren during the school day, can you please call to let the front office staff know beforehand. When you arrive at school, please wait at the Administration gate area and ring again. Your child/ren will then be sent to your car. The office staff will complete the sign out processes for you.

Cleaning and Hygiene

Cleaners will continue to work throughout the day to ensure all high-use areas, such as benchtops, desks, doorknobs, taps and hand rails, are regularly cleaned and surfaces disinfected.

Thank you all so much for the way you have all continued to support the school through the ongoing changes brought about by COVID-19.

Kind regards,

Barbara Bromley
Principal
05/06/2020