OLHC News Week 4 Term 1 2022
Principal Report
Dear Parents, Friends, and Carers,
What another amazing week we have all had with our learning, especially our water safety and water awareness program sessions. More information is below.
This week, Mrs. Maher has been working with families in getting them set up with the PAM (Parent Access Module) of SIMON and the SCHOOLZINE App (SZapp). This year, most of our correspondence, including permission forms will be entered on our SIMON platform. This will make it easier to complete permission forms and get correspondence from the school. There will be no hard copies of forms sent home—everything will eventually be digital once we know everyone is up and using the Apps. We understand that this is a change for you however together we will continue to learn and make our lives easier and more effective.
Continuity of Learning & Rapid Antigen Tests
Our Lady Help of Christians School community has been fortunate that we have not had staff numbers impacted by COVID such that we have continued to provide quality learning and teaching and student care. I remind families that this could change quickly and the school may be required to ask some classes or year levels to stay home if we do not have adequate staff numbers onsite. We hope that this is not the case, but if it does become a necessity, we will work hard to minimize any disruption.
In these last four weeks, we are fortunate that no staff or students have had COVID-19. With COVID in our Murtoa community, I remind you all to closely monitor for COVID symptoms. With the supply of RATs to all students, families are asked to test their child/ren twice a week. If your child returns a positive result, please notify the school immediately.
A reminder to anyone who may need to come onsite, to continue good hand hygiene practices, wear an approved mask and continue to physical distance.
If your child is unwell please do not send them to school. Thank you to the families who have taken precautionary measures to avoid a possible breakout of COVID-19. Everyone in our school community is appreciative of all you are doing to keep us as safe as possible.
School Advisory Council (SAC) Meeting
Our first School Advisory Council Meeting is scheduled for next Thursday 24th February at 6.30pm. This will be held over a google meet due to COVID guidelines. I will send out the google meet invitation to members email before next Thursday.
Our School Advisory Council members currently are Scott Finnigan (Chairperson), Rosalyn Donasco, Cathy Grace, Monsignor Glynn, Joan-Lane Storey (ex-offico). There are two vacancies to fill on the board due to Katie Frost and Cathie Weidemann's departure. I do have one expression of interest at this point in time. This is not a huge task and it would be great if we could fill both positions. If you are interested in being part of a great team, please give me a call or reach out to either Scott or Rosalyn.
Important Dates for your diary:
Grade 3/4 Camp - Sunny Stones Camp Term 3 – Wk3 on Wednesday 27th July, Thursday 28th July, Friday 29th July.
Grade 5/6 Camp - Melbourne Urban Camp Term 4 – Wk3 on Wednesday 19th October, Thursday 20th October, Friday 21st October.
School Athletic Sports - Friday 1st April at Murtoa Recreation Reserve. Our school is hosting the Sports this year so we will be asking our Parents and Friends to run the Canteen.
School Cross Country - Thursday 28th April beginning at Rabl Park.
More information about the above events will be in the newsletter once details have been finalized.
Until next week Kind regards
Mrs. Cathy Grace
Vision and Mission
Our School Vision
As a Catholic School Community, we acknowledge that Christ is the foundation of Catholic Education.
- We aim to support the children as they learn to respond to the Gospel in their daily lives.
- We aim to support the children as they come to value learning and assist them to explore their emerging role in society
- We are committed to a Child Safe School Environment to a community where students can learn, love and grow within a supportive and nurturing environment.
Our School Mission
- We will work together to provide quality education in keeping with Catholic/Christian tradition
- We will challenge each student to strive for excellence within a comprehensive, stimulating curriculum that develops the self-esteem of all.
- We will be involved in the life of the Parish and the wider community.
Our staff is committed to working collaboratively to build relationships that ensure a holistic approach to learning and growth for all students and each other.
Staff Mantra:
Hooked on Learning - Whatever It Takes - HOL(Y)WIT
Calendar Dates
On our old newsletters, we had a page that was devoted to upcoming events and important dates. It was called "Dates to remember at OLHC". With this new newsletter format, we don't need to allocate a dates page because there is a link called 'School Calendar'. All dates will now be here and you can access this from your device at any time. Depending on which device you use to read the newsletter, will depend on where the menu with the School Calendar link is situated. If you are on a desktop/laptop the menu will be on the left. If you are on your phone or a smaller device, there will be 3 horizontal lines up the top (this is called a hamburger icon) and if you click on this, there will be a drop-down menu. Then you will scroll down to the School Calendar link.
Mass Details
Mass: St Mary's Church Murtoa
Sunday 19th February
8:30 am
Updated Lunch Order List
This term lunch orders will be on Monday and Fridays. These will be provided by the Murtoa College Canteen. Below is the updated Canteen list. To order your child a lunch order, please write your child's name, class, and lunch order items. The correct money needs to be placed in the envelope. It would be appreciated if you could put some sticky tape around the envelope to keep the money secure. Children then need to place their lunch order envelope in the green lunch order basket in the hallway before 9 am.
Water Awareness and Safety Program
This week, we have had 3 awesome sessions in the water. All students have enjoyed their sessions and participated extremely well. Yesterday, we had a 'fun' session at the end where everyone was in the water enjoying themselves and having fun making positive memories with their mates in the pool.
Today was a bit too cold to go to the Pool. Looking at the weather forecast for next week, we have booked the pool for our final session to be on Thursday 24th February. The forecast is a hot day of 36degrees. All students will need to bring their bathers and towel on this day.
Emergency Management and Critical Incident Training
On Monday, the whole school had our first fire drill and staff participated in Emergency Management and Critical Incident Training. Chris Tasic, Manager of Specialists On Safety, Australia facilitated the training. Chris observed our school drill and provided feedback to everyone on what worked well and what we need to improve on so we are ready for any real emergency.
After school, the staff had a very interactive session learning how to use fire blankets and fire extinguishes.
Schoolzine App...SZapp
To make it easier for parents to access the newsletter and other communication you can download the Schoolzine App. It's called SZapp and it's available from the App store (Apple devices) or Google Play store (Android devices).
Please click on the link below for instructions on how to set it up on your device.
https://www.schoolzine.com/szapp-installation
The above link has step by step instructions on how to install the app on your chosen device and how to register yourself as a user so then you can find our school.
COVID-19 reminders...
Our school continues to monitor and abide by all COVID safe regulations and recommendations issued by the State Government and the Catholic Education Office.
Rapid Antigen Tests - RAT Tests have been handed out to families. Thank you to the families that have tested their children and let the school know the result. These tests are voluntary - It is suggested children are tested twice weekly (eg. mid-week and end of the week). Hopefully, more RAT tests will be delivered for Week 3/4 distribution. I will keep you all informed.
Face Masks - Students in Year 3 and above must wear a facemask indoors, unless a lawful exemption applies - Students are not required to wear a mask outside - School staff must wear a face mask in all indoor settings, except where removal of a mask is necessary for effective communication of teaching. All visitors to the school-aged 8 or above must wear a mask unless a lawful exemption applies. Students in Prep to Grade 2 a strongly encouraged to wear a mask indoors at school. A face mask must cover the nose and mouth. Face shields, scarves, or bandanas do not meet these requirements.
Please email principal@olhcmurtoa.catholic.edu.au if your child in Year 3-6 has a legal or medical exemption for not wearing a mask.
COVID Safe requirements for visitors and volunteers
Visitors and volunteers performing work on school sites (both inside and outdoors) are required to have received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by 25 February 2022 if they became fully vaccinated on or before 25 October 2021. For those that became fully vaccinated after 25 October 2021, the deadline is 15 March 2022, or have a valid medical exception.
This requirement applies to:
- a person contracted to work at an education facility and who will or may be in close proximity to children, students, or staff, whether or not engaged by the education operator including casual relief teachers, NDIS providers, and auditors (but does not include delivery personnel).
- the diocesan education office staff who attend an education facility (such as allied health personnel)
- the staff of any other entity who attends an education facility
- volunteers that attend an education facility and that work in close proximity to children, students, or staff (including parent helpers)
- students on placements at an education facility.
Reminders for Current Restrictions…….
- Students dropped off by car to enter the front door. All students must use hand sanitizer as they enter the building.
- Bus children enter the blue side doors. All students must use hand sanitizer as they enter the building.
- Face masks to be worn by staff/essential visitors and all students in Years 3 to Year 6 and highly recommended for students in Junior classroom.
- Students will NOT be drinking from bubble taps - every student to bring a filled water bottle.
- No sharing of food or drink bottles.
- All staff and students to use regular hand hygiene - sanitize hands-on school entry, before and after eating, blowing nose, coughing, sneezing, using the toilet, and before and after playtimes. There is hand sanitizer at the main doorways.
- Any child constantly sneezing or feeling unwell is to stay home or they will be sent home if they show any signs of being unwell.
- Parents need to inform Mrs.Grace of any confirmed cases within their family or people they have been in contact with (that are a confirmed case). All families need to adhere to Covid 19 procedures in place with the Department of Health and Human Services to manage suspected or confirmed cases of Covid 19 in schools