No 1. Term 1 Week 1, 27th January 2021

Principal's News

A very warm and sincere welcome to all our families as we count down the final moments toward starting the 2021 school year. I trust that the time spent with loved ones, reconnecting and bonding with extended family and friends, has renewed your optimism and hope for a great year ahead. As always, school life is busy and complex, but bolstered by the structure of routine and predictability, we can ensure our children can thrive as they struggle to learn and grow.

What follows is some basic reminders and information that you will need to know as we look forward to being reunited in the coming days.

Jason Micallef,
Principal

Year 1 - 6 Testing Days

There are still students not yet booked in for their testing time. Which are occurring tomorrow (Thursday) and Friday. This opportunity is incredibly important for ensuring children spend some valuable one on one time with their teacher getting to know each other, for better understanding where your child’s learning needs are and to reassure your child should they have any anxieties about starting the year. If you are yet to do this, please book in a time for your child using the school interviews website.  

Go to www.schoolinterviews.com.au 

Enter the parent event code: t534x

See the attachment provided in the previous SZApp notice for more detailed step by step instructions on how to gain access to this site.  

Covidsafety

We are so very fortunate to be able to commence our school year with fewer restrictions in place than what we all experienced for much of 2020. However, the coronavirus has the ability to surprise us, so we must remain vigilant in order to ensure we maintain our trajectory toward a return to more normal times.

Below is a summary of what being Covidsafe currently looks like at St. Kevin’s.

• Continued requirement of all staff and students to maintain strict personal hygiene practices such as washing / sanitising hands frequently. 
• Vistors to the school are required to wear a mask on school grounds when physical distancing cannot be maintained. 
• We will ensure adequate ventilation is provided for all indoor areas (open windows and doors)
• All high touch areas / objects (light switches, tables, laptops etc) are cleaned and disinfected daily
• We aim to minimise the use of shared objects / resources.
• All adults who enter the school and remain on site for more than 15 minutes are required to sign in and out of school at the front office so that we can effectively trace any outbreak.
• We continue to request that all students and staff stay at home if they are unwell or display any flu-like symptoms.

As we know all too well, the pandemic is an evolving situation with circumstances changing all the time. We will endeavour to keep you up to date and informed of how the situation will impact our community as we are advised by Catholic Education Victoria and the State Government.

Drop off and Pick Up Procedures

As per the latest guidelines for schools, St Kevin’s will be resuming pre-Covid drop off and pick up times and procedures. 

Morning Drop Off

Time: 8:30am onwards for all students.

Parking: Parents may park in the main carpark and walk their children into the school gates.

Kiss and go: Parents may drive into the round-about drive through and drop children off in front of the church.

After School Pick Up

Time: School ends for all students at 3:30pm

Parking: Parents may park in the main carpark and walk into the school to collect your child.

Drive by: At present, no drive by is available to pick children up.

Hot Tip!

In an attempt to be safe and reduce congestion in the car park after school:

• Front Carpark: Parents are to park their car in the allocated parking spots and escort their child/ren to their cars, using the crossing in front of the office. 
• Parish house: It is not a drop off or collection area EXCEPT for Community buses.  Drop off and collection behind the parish house is not permitted. 
• Exiting on Edey’s Run: One of the biggest causes of traffic congestion in the carpark is when cars bank up on Edey’s Run as people wait for a chance to turn onto Hallam Road. To avoid this, we ask that all families turn right onto Edey’s Run. This will ensure traffic continues to flow and eliminate congestion.

To get back to Hallam Road after exiting the carpark – Turn right onto Edey’s Run. Continue to the round-about at the end of the road and turn left onto Coral Drive. Continue on Coral Drive until you reach the traffic light intersection at Hallam Road.

You can collect your children from the following locations:

• Outside the hall - Prep, One and Two children WITHOUT brothers and sisters at the school 
• Undercover outside the library - Three, Four, Five and Six children WITHOUT brothers and sisters
• Outside the 3/4 area - Children with siblings (all grades)

School Uniform

All children should be attending school in their full summer uniform, including a school hat which is to be worn whenever outside. Hats are available for purchase from the front office for $15.

We are aware that at present Beleza, our school bag supplier, is currently out of stock of school bags. Until such time as they become available, students may use a suitable back pack.

Parent Partnership

There are a number of ways that parents / carers can play an important part in supporting the educational programs of our school. We encourage interested family members to consider these options as we value your input and perspectives.

Our experiences of 2020 and Remote Learning opened the eyes of many parents and staff to the great benefits to children’s learning when we are connected and build meaningful collaborative partnerships. Of course, now that we are back in the classroom, maintaining these kinds of connections is not as easy. That’s why we are putting together a Parent Engagement Action Team (PEAT). The PEAT will be made up of teachers, members of school leadership and parents. The role of the PEAT will be to work with an expert consultant to learn about and plan to develop the conditions in our school community that foster strong partnership between home and school. 

Involvement in the PEAT would involve participation in 10 meetings at the school. Each meeting would last 2 - 3 hours and be spread out over term 1 and 2. Each meeting will be led by our expert consultant. The exact dates are to be confirmed, but if you are interested in knowing more or would like to participate we would love to hear from you. The success of the PEAT will greatly depend on parent / carer involvement so we encourage you to please give this some serious thought.

If you would like to know more, please contact the office.

SZ App is our primary means of communicating with families for those day to day reminders and other pieces of information that need to communicated quickly and efficiently. In an emergency situation, SZ App will be our most effective means of keeping in touch with families. 

The app also includes links to call the school; report an absence; visit the website; look at Facebook and most importantly the calendar feature will be ‘live’ with events updated daily. We encourage all parents and staff to download the app and familiarise themselves with how it works.  

Be on the lookout for information coming home that will explain how to download and install the app on your mobile device.

Camp Australia – OSHC

OSHC stands for Outside School Hours Care. Camp Australia provides care for St. Kevin’s Children before school and after school in our hall.

If your family requires this kind of care for your children, Camp Australia have a very simple booking structure that ensures the best family experience, whilst also providing flexibility to suit most schedules.

You have access to two different booking options, each at the same enrolment fee that is currently in place:  

• Recurring – families with a regular schedule.
• Casual – for families who have changing schedules, or only need care every so often.

Details of all fees, terms and conditions are available at www.campaustralia.com.au