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From the Principal

A few updates.....

I feel so very privileged to live in our wonderful state of Tasmania where we have managed so well to keep the spread of COVID-19 at bay. This has taken a lot of diligence, and for many has greatly tested our resilience.

Although we are in a position where Public Health have been able to ease some restrictions in regards to groups of adults entering schools etc., it is still important that we adhere to the guidelines to keep everyone healthy and safe. The school continues to follow all Public Safety guidelines in regards to thorough cleaning procedures and handwashing.

A few other areas to be aware of are.....

Assemblies: at present we are continuing with student | teacher assemblies split into various grade levels.....given the size of our space there are no whole school assemblies at present. We are hoping to review the situation for term 4 to possibly invite families to join us for the last term of the year...this will be dependent on Public Health regulations & guidelines.
Events (eg.Cross Country): given the size of our school, management on extra adults entering the school site is not feasible at this point. Where possible the events will be held with students and school staff until further notice. We may call for a small number of volunteers if absolutely necessary to hold the event safely.
Excursions: we have started to work on re-instating excursions as part of our learning programs, however, there are specific guidelines for each venue we attend that we are required to adhere to. Part of this is generally in relation to the amount of adults that can attend. We may at times call for one or two volunteers, however, for the foreseeable future we will not be able to open up excursion attendance to all parents / carers interested in attending.
Sickness: please continue to be vigilant in relation to your childs sickness. There are times in winter when many children have mild coughs and clear runny noses for extended times and are still okay to attend school, however, in present times we need to be vigilant and ask that children are kept home at least for a long enough period to ensure that their illness may not be potentially COVID-19 related. If your child is presenting with ongoing colds extra, please make an appointment to discuss this with your family doctor, and request a medical certificate explaining that there are ongoing absences from school due to some continual medical problems as this will then be noted in our system and stop Department of Education low attendance alerts. Letters are now required to be sent out for students who have regular low attendance without sufficient documentation to explain.
Toys: Please be aware that we do not encourage children to bring toys from home on a regular basis (with exception of those toys that form part of the adjustments within an individual learning plan). At present, we need to discourage the sharing of items from outside of the school. Also, we cannot take responsibility for the loss of, or breakage of toys brought in from home, therefore they are generally best left for home use.

Sharing of food:

We are no longer accepting food items of any kind for birthdays. This has become increasingly difficult to monitor in relation to food intolerances and allergies. It may simply appear to be a small treat, however, in each classroom this can potentially occur approximately 25 times across the year. Teachers always highlight students’ birthdays and their peers are exceptionally good at contributing towards individual's birthdays being a special day! We hope that each child having a birthday on a school day finishes the day feeling that there has been a sense of having some special attention towards them.

Bush reserve

The Launceston City Council have been working hard over the past couple of weeks to clean up the Council Bush Reserve area attached to our play areas. This has been in response to some concerns raised from residents in relation to the area becoming unsafe. Many old tree limbs etc. and a large amount of 'people developed' bike jumps etc. have been levelled off to make for a safer walking area.

CBCA BOOK WEEK 2020

As with many events, there have been some changes to Book Week this year...namely the date! This year Book Week will be celebrated in October. We have organised for Tuesday 20th October for Dress Up Day. We will need to make some adjustments from previous years in regards to the organisation of this so please watch out for further information to come. This year the theme is CURIOUS CREATURES, WILD MINES.

Karen