Upcoming Events

COVID-19 Update - School Requirements

As the prevalence of COVID-19 decreases, the Australian, ACT and NSW Governments have begun to reduce restrictions across the community. It is timely to remind our School Community of work and safety expectations that still exist and what has changed in relation to assemblies, sport, excursions, unwell students and staff, and facilities hire.

Initial Advice

Since the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in Australia, CECG has regularly received advice from Governments and health professionals in relation to the operations of our schools. During March, all CECG schools were asked to comply with the following associated actions:
• Postpone or cancel all school excursions, retreats or camps as soon as practicable from Monday, 16 March until further notice.
• Postpone or cancel all school events that involve large gatherings such as assemblies, fetes, parent/teacher nights, open days/nights, sports carnivals, community assemblies and liturgies.
• Children who present as being unwell at school should be sent home with their parent or carer.
• Promote and teach students good hand and respiratory hygiene to prevent the spread of germs.
• Encourage all staff to take reasonable steps of social distancing, staying at home when unwell, regularly cleaning hands, avoiding touching of the face and covering coughs and sneezes.
• Promote and develop extra cleaning routines of areas that may be sites for transmission.

Current Advice

The advice provided previously will remain in place until at least the end of Term 2 or until further notice.

Assemblies

Students are now able to line up on the playground prior to classes beginning in the morning, or times where the school may gather for morning prayer and simple announcements. These morning meetings of students are brief and do not include parents. As adults, teachers should comply with social distancing advice during these times.

Sport

CECG has developed a Return to Sports Guide to assist all our schools with providing access to sporting opportunities for students. The guideline is based on advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) ‘statement on the resumption of sport and recreation activities’ and AHPPC advice for school leaders engaging with children, parents, teachers and support staff to reduce even further the relatively low risk of COVID-19 transmission in schools. It is also
based on the National Principles for the Resumption of Sport and Recreation Activities, the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Framework for Rebooting Sport in a COVID-19 Environment and the ACT Government, Return to Sport in a COVID—Safe Environment and relevant NSW Government resources.

The NSW Government has recently announced that children’s community sport will be permitted to resume from Wednesday, 1 July 2020. Organisations and councils have been given four weeks to prepare safety plans for the resumption of competitions and leagues. 

All CECG and MacKillop representative sporting activities have been cancelled for 2020. A letter was sent out to families from the Archdiocesan Sports Coordinator, Sherree Bush, explaining this decision. 

Excursions

In line with the easing of restrictions, one day only excursions can now go ahead. Schools must take into consideration the following:
• Excursion groups must not exceed 20 people (this number includes teaching and support staff and parent volunteers)
• Excursions must be limited to day-trips only – no overnight excursions can go ahead at this time
• Schools should work with excursion providers (including transport providers) to ensure they have appropriate health and hygiene measures in place in line with Australian Health and Protection Principal Committee (AHPP) recommendations
• Physical distancing and hygiene requirements for adults must be adhered to at all times.
Schools should give careful consideration to the need for the excursion as a key learning activity and if the same learning opportunity could be delivered at the school.

Unwell Students and Staff

If any student or staff member has any kind of illness, even if it is simply light flu or cold like symptoms, they must not attend school. If a student is showing any signs of illness, their parents and carers must be asked to collect them as soon as practical. If students are not unwell, but have symptoms due to allergies, families should be asked to provide written advice from their GP so that we can ensure they are not unwell and are able to continue attending.

Students, or staff members, who have COVID-19 symptoms are to seek medical advice as soon as practical.

Facilities Hire

CECG schools hire their facilities for a range of purposes with varying levels of physical contact and associated risks related to COVID-19. The hiring of our school facilities, therefore, needs to take into consideration the nature of the activities being undertaken. With the easing of isolation and distancing restrictions community groups/activities will begin to resume. Community groups and organisations with existing hire/licence agreements should be allowed to resume the use of school
facilities (in line with guidelines below). Requests from new community groups should be considered in line with the current policy and capacity of the school’s cleaning arrangements to undertake additional cleaning.
Activities are now able to resume for small groups, in line with the guidelines below:
• Schools ensure hirers are aware of the responsibility regarding physical distancing and hygiene requirements for adults within school facilities.

Thank you for taking care with your access to the school grounds. Given the current situation with COVID-19 and the building project, your responsiveness to our request is much appreciated. 

Please remember that whilst we are faced with COVID-19, we request that all adult access is limited in the school grounds. This means that unless you have a need to visit the office or have a pre-arranged appointment, we kindly ask that you do not come into the school grounds. This is for the health and safety of our students and staff. Thank you for respecting this request.

Farewell

Today we said goodbye to Nicole, an occupational therapist from Optimum Health Solutions, who has been working with some St Mary's students for two years. Nicole said before she left that she has enjoyed the welcome and support she received from St Mary's staff, students and parents and commented on the great learning environment our students have. Nicole works in many schools in our district.

Nicole will be replaced by another occupational therapist soon.

Counsellor Visits

We have been informed that the School Counsellor will now start on Monday 29 June.

These sessions are a wonderful chance for you or your child/ren to be able to discuss any concerns or worries they have. They can provide strategies to assist with behaviour management, stress, resilience and anxiety.

If you would like to be involved, please contact Belinda via telephone or email Office.Stmarysc@cg.catholic.edu.au to be included on the list.

Please spread the word about our School Tours. If you know someone who is interested in learning more about St Mary's or who has a child ready to start Kindergarten in 2021, we welcome their visit. Social distancing regulations will be put in place for our tours.

Enrolments can now be placed online. Go to https://enrolments.stmarysc.nsw.edu.au/enrol/ to enrol now.

Enrolments packs are available from our School Office or can be downloaded from our website http://www.stmarysc.nsw.edu.au/enrolment.html

The School Explorers Program

Next term our preschool friends will be visiting each Friday afternoon to participate in The School Explorers, our school readiness program.

Attached below is the amended program dates, please share this around!