Mini-Newsletter Week 2

WELCOME BACK….AGAIN:

It is great to be back again with students and staff all returning to school yesterday. Schools are ‘unusual’ places without kids in them! Our teachers did note that some of our students took some time to get back in to the ‘school routine’ yesterday- as we expected. There were also more ‘nerves’ than usual, but again our high level of support and care has ensured that we have managed these challenges well.

I have felt particularly for our 18 brand new Receptions who were with us for 2 days before having to put a hold on their school life! It has been a great delight to have these new students back with us this week.

SOME COVID REMINDERS:

On Tuesday afternoon I wrote to you via email to provide some important information regarding the ongoing restrictions or changes in place here at Stella Maris for at least the next week. In short:

• First and foremost, we would ask that if attending school your child is not sick and particularly not showing signs or symptoms of a COVID nature. If students are sent to school unwell, it is most likely you will need to collect them from school and get a COVID test prior to returning.  
• We are asking parents to avoid entering the school where possible and where this is not possible, please ensure you are wearing a mask. No parents are permitted in classrooms unless this is an emergency situation, and I would ask that you clear this with a member of the leadership team (Paula, Ella or I) prior to doing so. We have teachers and ESOs willing to meet students outside and bring in any students who need extra support to do so.
• Our Pupil Free Day planned for next Friday 6^th August has been postponed. Please note this will be a ‘normal school day’ for all students.
• All school sport (including training) will be cancelled until next week, parents would have received a letter from Kym Hill yesterday with these details.
• As a school, we will continue to keep up with high quality health and hygiene practices including the regular use of hand soap, sanitiser and disinfectant of high touch and high use areas.

We again thank you for your continued support of our efforts here at Stella.

REMOTE LEARNING FEEDBACK:

In order to ensure we are able to accurately reflect, refine and improve on our Remote Learning program, we are seeking your feedback about both our whole school and class response during the recent Lock down period. The short survey will provide us with very important information to ensure we are able to provide the best possible support for you should something like this happen again. You can fill in the survey by clicking this link:

https://forms.office.com/r/QqmdC0JsFt

If you have more than 1 child here at Stella we would ask you to think about how 'similar' your experiences were. If you found the experience 'similar' then you can fill in one form which summarises your overall thoughts. If you had very different experiences, then we would ask you fill in two separate forms.

PARENT-TEACHER INTERVIEWS:

As you know we were ready to hold Parent-Teacher conversations this week. Unfortunately, the ongoing restrictions have put these on hold. However, we do value how important these conversations are and as such have re-scheduled these to Week 5 of this Term. We are hopeful of restrictions lifting by then and having face to face interviews, but if this is not able to occur, we will conduct these conversations over the phone. Due to this change in date, we will be asking all families to re-book their conversation time and further information about this will be sent home on Monday next week.

Should you wish to have a conversation with your child’s teacher prior to this time, you are of course welcome to arrange this with them personally if you wish. But please note, at this point, the conversation would need to occur over the phone.  

IMPORTANT REMINDERS:

I am very aware that with a number of new parents and families at Stella Maris this term, we need to provide some reminders about some important procedures and requirements here at Stella. I’d ask that the following information is read and understood by you and importantly passed on to any family members or friends who do the pickups or drop offs of your children:

PARKING:

Parking is difficult at Stella Maris. We are very aware of this fact and unfortunately cannot do a whole lot about it! If you are parking and walking your child in or picking them up from the school yard, we would ask that you park in a way that respects our local residents and the council parking rules. Council inspectors do patrol our school site at drop off and pick up times frequently and a $104 fine is the last thing you will want.

MORNING DROP OFF:

Our school gates and official duty of care begins at 8:15am. We are seeing a large group gather prior to 8:15am which can be an issue if they are left unsupervised. We do have OSHC available before school should you need to drop your child off prior to 8:15am. A teacher will be on duty from 8:15am and students can enter the yard and play during this time. Classrooms are open from 8:40am and it is an expectation that students are in class ready to learn by 8:45am each day.

The gates are then locked at around 8:50am. If you arrive at school after this time your child will need to go through the front office and Cathy will record this as a late arrival.

As always, thank you for your continued support of our great school.

James

As you would be aware, last Friday (and over the weekend) we had some severe weather hit our suburbs, resulting in various damage and causing black outs. On Friday afternoon, a particularly strong front hit the Ramsey Avenue Reserve causing one of the trees to fall. Our information is that winds of a ‘mini-cyclonic’ nature swept across Seacombe Gardens at one point.

We have been in contact with the Council regarding this and the safety of all trees in the Reserve. They have again assured us of the regular maintenance and checks they undertake and the safety of the park. We will continue to keep a close eye on this and particularly during times where the wind gusts are predicted to be severe.   

As you can see it was a big job removing the tree! I would also like to commend and thank the Marion Council for the speed at which they have removed the tree and allowed us to continue using the Reserve with very little impact upon our use of it.