COVID-19 practices

We thank families for supporting us in our health and safety practices as we returned to school. Since two weeks have now passed and the rate of infection in the community has remained very low, we would like to update some practices and remind you of others. We will keep updating the Q&A on our webpage.

1. Adults: We are still required to limit the number of adults within the school grounds. The children have adjusted very well to being dropped at the gates in the morning. We still require that if a parent needs to come into the building you must come to the office. Staff will then help you and your child to be where they need to be. Social distancing is expected of all adults in or near the school grounds.
2. Drive-throughs on Murphy St and Hodgson St: The introduction of a 2^nd drive-through on Murphy St has helped somewhat to alleviate the congestion we expected at pick-up. It has taken time for the younger children to learn this new routine and it will take a little longer for some as they need help managing car seats. It is okay for adults to get out of the car at Murphy St to help with car seats, but please wait for the teachers on duty to bring your child down to you. This will help the line to move along and avoid other families needing to go around parked cars and keep us all safer as many families are crossing Murphy St on foot. Instructions on the website Q&A HOW CAN I DROP OFF/PICK UP MY CHILD AT SHPS? https://shpspearce.schoolzineplus.com/remote-learning
3. Parking around the school: The area outside kinder courtyard is a bus bay. There are solid lines on the road surrounding the intersection of Murphy St and McNeil Pl. Drivers can be booked by police for parking in these two areas. This is the reason the drive-through bollards are down near the oval. The church carpark is also not to be used for after-school pickup.
4. Morning line-up: We have returned to lining up together on the blacktop in our class lines. When the bell goes, teachers take classes inside to be ready for morning announcements over the speaker.
5. Birthday cakes: No cakes at the moment. You may send a small individual treat to hand out to classmates eg: lollipop, choc frog, purchased individually wrapped cakes. As always classmates can say 'Happy birthday, but no thanks' to a treat.
6. K-2 Home Readers: Parents have been asking for this change! We will start sending home readers and reading diaries starting Tuesday 9^th June for nightly reading. Please ensure your child has their reader wallet at school to carry our precious books in. We would always expect good hand hygiene when handling any book. So please remind your child to wash hands before they read their books and then to place the book back into their reader wallet to stay safe and clean. Parents are welcome to wipe the cover of any book with disinfectant. Families can elect to keep using Wushka if this is your preference – just let your teacher know.
7. Cleaning: We have been advised that cleaning of outside equipment is no longer required. We will continue the extra cleaning of desks and surfaces inside the building.
8. Hand Hygiene: We are continuing to expect children to wash or sanitise hands when they enter or exit the building and before eating. A number of families are sending their child with sanitiser, thank you as this is bolstering our supplies. Soap and water is still the best method. Please have your child wash their hands when they leave home of a morning and arrive home of an afternoon.
9. Canteen: Ordering for lunch and recess remains online via Qkr! Thanks to the families who have begun supporting our canteen again.
10. Feedback Survey: Thank you to the families who completed the survey. It is still open until 9^th.https://forms.gle/PbHMkHewP5WfNB3U7   The comments have been very realistic and supportive of our response to the closing of schools – both to our communication and curriculum. We asked for ideas if we were to close again, and our community offered several wonderful and useful ones. A few comments are included here.

The learning grids were a good start to home learning with activities that allowed them to work independently. The packs were simple and had enough supplies and content to get started with.

Age of my child (7) meant he needed 1-1 support to complete the work, which of course we didn’t mind but due to having two siblings (one who had an intense amount of school work and homework during those weeks), plus our own work commitments meant our son completed some of the pack but not everything. His teacher was understanding and supportive of this.

The daily Teams meeting with the teacher was by far the highlight of the day.

Structure and the videos. Structure helped ensure all work was done and gave a sense of routine. Teacher videos kept my kids connected to school and ensured their engagement.

A bit too much information overload with the instructions, would have preferred a set of hard copy work sheets that the kids could work through at their own pace without the need for parents to have to continuously refer back to the instructions schedule or decipher different online links, logging into apps, work book pages etc.

The initial setup was the trickiest part of the whole process for us (downloading apps, logging in etc). But once we’d gotten the hang of how everything worked it was easily managed.

 Programs, like Wushka, reading eggs and mathletics. These worked well as they could navigate these independently with little supervision/support required from me.

YMCA After activities were a highlight. Our son was very exhausted after the first week so we were grateful. Also, our sons teacher touch based with us after one emotional day. We were grateful for the brief ‘touching base’ chat.

The story book was very good and reassuring for her. I think the daily team meeting helped her remain connected with her teacher so returning wasn’t so stressful as the relationship was solid.

Communication has been magnificent, keep it up! 

Making it seem as normal as possible for them

The excietment from all the welcome back signs was just beautiful. The communications you provided throughout and especially in the few days before school reopening were very helpful and we could talk through these to prepare for the return.

Wouldn't have mattered what you did, they belong at school and were happy to go back.

Remind the children about importance of hand hygiene regularly.

Contact the parents if you feel you have noticed anything out of character.

It was a really difficult time in many respects, for the kids, for parents and teachers and staff. But there were positives as well - we loved the slowdown in our pace of life, and the extra family time we had. We greatly appreciate the efforts the teachers went to make this home learning time as positive as it could be for the kids.

Ideas if there is a next time:

Embed the positives from the experience into the new norm. My child has loved the independence from continuing the remote learning pack style at school. – Staff have already talked about this, thanks.

Continuing to provide information about what the school is doing and why – That’s the goal.

MS teams. Would have loved the opportunity for the teachers to have been visible for longer on screens provided the opportunity to support children remotely with questions that arose. – We had plans to do this from Week 3, but by then we were planning return to school.

I appreciate how difficult it was for the teachers but it would of been good to have a one on one phone call with the teacher when students are shy of zoom conferences – Great idea.

Offer of parent/teacher sessions to provide parents with the basic outline of curriculum and planning. – Great idea.

My only comment is there was no feedback to the child about submitted work. – Great feedback.

Emailing the plans out to parents. It would be good to be able to see what was planned without having to access my child's Ipad. – Yes, great idea!

Interviews

Parent-teacher interviews in Week 10, 29 June – 2 July will be held either face-to-face in the classroom or remotely online. Start thinking about what will suit your family at this time.

The booking platform for interviews will be opened next Thursday.

Yours faithfully,

Kerry Wode 

Assistant Principal