Newsletter March 17, 2020

Our school community is continuing to follow the national public health guidelines and current information from the Australian Chief Medical Officer and Victorian Chief Health Officer in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak. We are following the Health Officer advice about effective hygiene and the Australian Bishops’ advice about celebrations of mass.

At this stage schools are to remain open, however this may change at any time.  In preparation for the potential closure of schools, our staff have been busy working on home learning plans for the students.   We would envisage posting these to Seesaw, so that they are accessible for all. The Seesaw app has been extremely proactive in setting up a new area directly as a result of coronavirus which allows for home learning to be posted.

In addition, we are aware that a number of families have elected to keep their children at home at this time.  The teachers are keen for these children to also continue their learning, so they will be posting learning tasks and activities on Seesaw commencing tomorrow.  It is hoped that all families will make the most of the extra planning the teachers are providing.

Earlier today our leadership team made decisions regarding any upcoming events we had timetabled in our calendar.  Based on the advice received from the Catholic Education Commission and the Chief Health Officer, we provide a summary of what will be happening over the coming days if the school remains open.

Photo Day is fast approaching and at this stage will be going ahead. Personalised pre-pay school photo envelopes have been sent home with children. Each student will need to have their own individual envelope with them on the day (Thursday 26th March). If you would like a family photo, separate family envelopes are available from the school office.

A reminder also that all children are required to be in FULL summer school uniform for photos.

We will be conducting a number of Volunteer & Classroom Helper Program gatherings/meetings both before the end of this term and the beginning of next term.  All teachers love having ‘helpers’ in their classroom to assist with a range of daily activities. Given that we have had further developments and changes to the requirements around child safety, unfortunately even if you have previously undertaken the requirements necessary to participate in classroom programs and activities in previous years, you will need to attend one of the meetings this year in order to meet the additional requirements for 2020 and beyond. The date for our initial briefing is as follows:

Thursday 16th April: 9.15 am and 2.30 pm

Last week we began organising and planning for our student leadership groups allowing the senior students to become more actively involved in decision making and sharing their views of aspects across a range of issues. 

We plan on conducting the Annual General Meeting of the St. Brigid’s Advisory Council on Tuesday 21st April at 7.00pm. This is an open meeting and all are invited and welcome. We thank all members of our School Advisory Council who are constantly working in the background  providing advice and wisdom on a broad range of issues. In particular I acknowledge and thank Jodie Mullane who has concluded her time as a board member. With Jodie’s departure we now have a vacancy on our School Advisory Council, which is open to any parent or guardian of a child presently enrolled at St. Brigid’s. The process is one of self-nomination and the nomination forms can be found on PAM. If you would like further information regarding what these roles entail please feel free to come and have a chat with Gabe.

We will be conducting Parent Teacher Chats in the final week of term:  

Monday 23rd March: 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Tuesday 24th March: 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm

The key intention of these chats is to give particularly yourselves as parents and carers the opportunity for you to share relevant information about your child/ren.  Such a chat will allow both home and school to ensure that they are providing the greatest shared support for each child’s learning.  It is assumed and expected that all families will make some time to meet with the teachers. Bookings are now open via PAM.

A reminder that we are still collecting easter eggs for our raffle at the end of term - don’t forget to send in an easter egg to contribute to the slowly growing pile of treats.

Establish healthy attendance patterns early! 

Did you know… 

Attendance patterns are established early.

A child who regularly misses days in kindergarten or in the early years of school will often continue to miss classes in the later years.  

Students who miss school are highly likely to achieve lower results than their classmates.  

It is vital that students go to school every day to give them the best chance to succeed in life.