Dear Parents and Carers,

We are very close to returning to what will be called the ‘new normal school’ life at St Mary’s. Closely following the COVID Health and safety requirements of schools, we are confident that everything will go ok from next week. Our teachers and support staff continue to work hard to plan their current remote learning as well as prepare for their students returning to face to face learning. 

We are excited that some new families are joining us at St Marys this term. 

Welcome ….. Lucas & Joseph, Hugo & Francis and Charlotte and their families to our beautiful school. Having also spent months in lockdown, I am sure the children will love their time with us at St Mary's.  

Cohort Model for the safe return to Face to Face Teaching
Next Monday October 18, we welcome our wonderful Kinder and Year 1 students back to school. It's hard to know who has missed each other more; the children at home or their teachers and learning support assistants. 

All other students will return to school on Monday October 25.

Please remember to send your child to school with their own water bottle and school hat. We will be following strict hygiene measures, but please also remind your children about handwashing and not sharing food and drinks. Masks are highly recommended but are not compulsory in primary school. All staff will be wearing masks at all times. Classroom windows and doors will remain open and new fans have been installed where necessary. 

Students have been allocated to cohorts that are separated for the entire school day. School will look a bit different to how it was, so it may take a while for some students to adjust to the change. The students will still have their teachers, but will now belong to a cohort. As the same teachers stay with the same students all day including before school and break time, we needed to put classes into cohorts for supervision while staff take breaks. Students will not be mixing with students from other cohorts throughout the day.   

We welcome Mr James Campbell back this term to teach PDHPE to all students across the school. Mrs Croese will be teaching Performing Arts to K-2 and Mrs Lorraine Wilkie will continue teaching Japanese to Years 3-6.

Mrs Mathews, the Learning Support staff; Mrs Butler, Mr Ziino and Mrs Ryan and our Aboriginal Education Worker, Mr Kirby Hodgson will continue providing support to students in different cohorts. BOOST and MiniLIT intervention programs will commence from when students return.

• Students are to be with one cohort all day
• Students are unable to mix with students from other cohorts
• Staff are unable to mix across cohorts of students
• Singing is not allowed
• Parents and visitors are not able to be on site
• Physical distancing requirements need to be met 

Assuming 2022 is a very different year to the last two, our plan is to hold Peter Plan 2.0 in Term 3. We hope to have some special appearances of current Year 6 students who would like to be involved. We are so proud of the Year 6 students for their incredible talent and dedication. I am hopeful that their first year of high school will be much better for them than it has been for those students currently in Year 7. 

In the words of Jessie White.... 

"We will present Peter Pan 2.0 in a safe and inclusive way in 2022, whereby we will be able to fill the Performing Arts Centre with Lights, Music and lots of Action! The production team are considering possible ways to invite the current Year 6 students back to be involved in some way as their contribution is valued and appreciated." 

Year 6 Graduation
Great news: I have just been informed that it is highly likely we will be able to have a Year 6 Graduation Mass and function in the final two weeks of the school year. Of course, attendance is dependent on finding a suitable venue and the restrictions at the time, but at least it is more than I thought would be possible this year. We will let you know as soon as we know more.

Sick children
I fully understand how keen you must be to get your children back to school. Please, can you ensure that you do not send your children to school if they are sick at all. Parents/carers will be called to collect their child if they show any symptoms of COVID. It is essential that parents/carers come directly to collect their child when called. Please ensure your Emergency Contacts are up to date and let them know the expectation. Unfortunately, no adults can come onto the school grounds so please let your Emergency Contacts know to call the office when they arrive at the front gate. Front office staff will walk the children to meet you/them. Under updated directions, if your child is sent home sick, they are unable to return to school until they have been tested and have a negative test result emailed to the office. As you can imagine, it can be a very busy time in the office when several children are sick at the same time. Thank you again for your support, patience and understanding.  

Student Safety Procedures
Students will be supervised from 8:20am in their cohorts. From 8.20am when students arrive at school, they will walk directly to their classroom/cohort. Please do not drop your children to school earlier than 8.20am.

Early pickups in the afternoon are discouraged and if absolutely necessary, please arrange through your child's teacher. Only emergencies should come though the front office, as the staff find it difficult to cope with a number of calls just before the bell. We are no longer able to walk children out to the front gate in the afternoon. Please support us with this. 

Finally, in the last newsletter, I suggested that parents/carers may wish to pick their children up in the afternoon to avoid them going on the school bus with other children. This means that the afternoon pick up may be particularly busy this term. For the safety of our children, please be patient. Each cohort will be walked out separately with one of their teachers. With practise we will get quicker and better at it. After so long in lockdown, surely a few minutes won’t be the biggest problem we have.

• Please park in one of the surrounding streets and wait for your child outside the school fence on Page Street
• Children will be walked to the end of the oval (Page St end) by one of their cohort teachers
• If you park in the Church grounds, please wait for your child on the top of the hill and your child will be sent to you. Please be especially mindful of pedestrians when entering and exiting this parking area
• Students catching a bus in the afternoon will remain in their cohort/classroom with a cohort teacher until their bus is called.

I thank you sincerely for your support and the incredible work you did at home,  doing the job that we love to do at school. As good as you were at it though,  it's time to give the children back to us!