Newsletter 8 - 21 May
Dear Parents & Carers
WELCOME BACK!
We hope that you would agree that WA communities have much to celebrate in regards to our collective efforts to stop the spread of Coronavirus. Therefore, as of Monday, 18 May , the beginning of term 2, the Chief Medical Officer and the Government deemed it safe for all students to return to school. This means that school attendance is once again compulsory for all students, unless they have a medical referral to learn from home, which parents need to discuss with their principal. Otherwise, students will be recorded as absent if they do not attend . Unexplained absences will be followed up.
*Friday 29 May will be a School Development Day for both schools and students will not attend. School resumes Tuesday 2 June. Enjoy the extra long weekend.
We are delighted to have increased to a great attendance rate of about 90% this week, with lots of enthusiasm evident. This has already created a wonderful vibe around the campus. However, we realise that the cold and flu season is also upon us so please keep unwell children at home and notify their school. This will help to keep everyone healthier throughout winter months and less vunerable to coronavirus. We also need our staff to remain well so that your child can access the best learning program.
Our campus operations will continue to reflect the State Government decisions based on the best health advice. Thank you for your extra efforts & flexibility (our Word of the Week) whilst transitioning your child/ren back to school and maintaining some important new routines:
* frequent effective hand washing,
*hand sanitiser when entering rooms
*different play areas,
* gate drop off & pick-up.
These important safety measures are also still in place:
*The extra cleaning and hygiene practices implemented at the start of Term 2 will continue.
*Adult social distancing measures need to remain in place, so we continue to ask parents/carers to drop children at the allocated school gates at current designated times and not enter the school grounds. ( As a positive, parents & staff have observed that this has actually promoted student confidence & independence.)
*Staggered start and home times are also still in place to maintain adult physical distancing at allocated gates.
*Drivers are asked to show extra care, and patience, especially in the Wyperfeld carpark, as there is also a bus bay in use near the front office gate. Please follow staff directions to keep traffic flowing and students safe. Do not stop in the driveway. Students must only enter/exit a car from the footpath.
*We are also still postponing therapy being conducted on the school site. We encourage you to make/continue offsite arrangements for therapy , at home or at clinics. We realise that late drop-off or early pick- up may be the most convenient option for families.
The attached permission form will need to be completed for each therapy session conducted during school hours.
If you have any questions please to contact SBESC on 9207 0150 or the Primary school on 9207 0100.
Thank you for your continued support as we move forward.
Virtual Awards Presentations and Student events
Although events on the term 2 planner are still looking a bit sparse, it is fantastic to be able to start celebrate students successes in a modified way.
A big thank you to everyone on campus for tuning in at noon last Friday for our first Virtual Webex “YOU CAN DO IT FACTION REWARD DRAW”
We had a few “technological issues”( and learnt a new signing phrase)
Technological, technical, technique.
Hold one hand flat, horizontal and pointing forward in front of side. Tap the blade of this hand with the middle finger of your other hand twice.
Issues (Problem)
Tap back of hand with bend fingers of other hand twice
Other positive incentives to be reinstated shortly to encourage engagement and acknowledge achievement, as well as support the well-being of all our students are: Pizza with the Principal, next Tuesday; Aussie of the Month and Merit certificates on Friday 5 June. Parents & Carers will be notified, even though we are sorry that you can`t attend .
We hope to include parents more with video of events & presentations, until we can resume our assemblies, via this digital newsletter and our new campus website when it goes live. Stay tuned!
Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update
Dear principals, teachers, educators and support staff
Updated Advice from the Chief Health Officer
Schools have now been open for students since the commencement of Term 2 and I am very encouraged by the way the school community, parents and students are caring for their health and attending school in a responsible way. This is building community confidence in the safety of our schools with the overall attendance rate reaching over 82%. There continues to be no reported cases of student-to-student transmission in Western Australia (WA) and no cases of student-to-teacher transmission.
WA recently recorded 14 days with only 2 reported cases, both of whom were rapidly identified and are in isolation. With over 56,000 negative tests and only 6 active cases, there is currently no evidence of community transmission.
Based on public health advice through the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, the National Cabinet have just announced a 3 stepped framework for a COVID Safe Australia with the opening of schools included from the first step. The State Government has announced how this will be implemented in WA, with further easing of restrictions planned across the next few weeks.
Public health measures in place to protect the community will remain a focus during this time, including broad testing, comprehensive contract tracing when a case is identified, isolation and quarantine measures where required, and education about social distancing and hand hygiene. Plans are in place to respond to any cases identified in the school setting to stop any transmission in the wider school community.
As you will be aware, the health, social and psychological benefits of children attending school, particularly those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, are far reaching and should be weighed up carefully as part of a balanced approach to the health risks of COVID-19.
I continue to recommend that schools remain open to all students, and families should be encouraged to return their children to the classroom. The recommencement of some school activities, such as managed library and pool use can also occur.
We need to remain diligent during this time and I encourage you to please make sure you stay home if you are unwell and, if you have fever or respiratory symptoms, get tested for COVID-19 before returning to work. Following the social distancing guidelines when interacting with other school staff and parents, and keeping a physical distance from each other in the staff-room, is also important.
Thank you again for your leadership and support during this challenging time.
Yours sincerely
DR ANDY ROBERTSON
Chief Health Officer
May 2020
COVID Positives
“Out of every adversity comes an equal or greater opportunity”
- Maintaining a sense of humour and patience.
- Upskilling of our community in webinar lesson delivery meetings and teletherapy.
- Generous sharing of Education Support resources, time and energy for digital resources distance learning packs within school network and SSEND.
- Companies offering FREE resources for all.
- Reviewed emphasis on online supervision and Cyber Safety at home and school (ongoing).
- Multi-modal home-school communication/connectedness.
- Drop off and pick up at gates resulting in greater student independence and confidence.
- Opportunity to review Therapy delivery.
- Quick enthusiastic, return of students (87% to start week 4) compulsory school attendance.
- Keener focus on everyone’s health & wellbeing and talking about this (including ALD boards).
- Increased focus on personal hygiene practices and cleaning routines (ongoing).
- Education Support community & SSEND collaboration to create DoE Standard Operating Procedures for using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
HELPFUL WAYS TO SAY IT!
During stressful times of uncertainty and change, it is challenging to respond, rather than react, to escalating situations. Below are some suggested, more helpful ways to say it, (reframes). These may just work more often than not.
TA16 COOKING
Each week this term TA 16 have been doing cooking. Not being able to go on Community Access excursions has allowed us more time to develop our cooking skills. Previously, we cooked pikelets, cheese on toast and mini pizzas. We have been following recipes and answering questions about our cooking. This week we made ham and cheese toasted sandwiches. After cooking we used our Thinking Hats to complete a Plus, Minus and Interesting chart about the acitivity. Some of the student's responses included:
CPIers FIRST AID COREBOARD
Thank you to our dedicated Communication Partners team who are developing various ALD boards to support students and families for more effective communication conversations. They hope that you will try this at home, too ....
A human rights based approach:
We are committed to the rights of people with disability. Australia has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.1 This means Australia has agreed to respect, protect and fulfil the rights described in that Convention.
Article 8 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities requires the government to:
Raise awareness … foster respect for the rights and dignity of persons with
disabilities… combat stereotypes, prejudices and harmful practices … [and]
promote awareness of the capabilities and contributions of persons with
disabilities.2
We are considering the multi-layered experiences of people with disability of different age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation and race. This includes the particular situation of Australian First Nations people with disability and culturally and linguistically diverse people with disability.
Questions:
Please answer as many of these questions as you wish. You do not need to answer them all and your response does not have to address any of the questions. Please consider different settings in your response, for example, education, healthcare, workplaces, the justice system, home, online communities, and within relationships. Please also consider different life stages (e.g. childhood, adulthood) and transition points (e.g. school to work).
Question 1: Where and when in life do people learn about the rights of people with disability? How could this be reinforced and/or improved?
Question 2: What stops the rights of people with disability being respected, promoted or realised? How is this linked to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation?
Question 3: Thinking about rights of people with disability, what are the particular experiences of children, Australian First Nations people, culturally and linguistically diverse people, women and LGBTIQ+ people in having these rights realised?Question 4: What advocacy or advocacy assistance is currently available to people with disability? What are your suggestions for reform or improvement to advocacy, to help prevent and improve responses to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability?
Question 5: How do attitudes contribute to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation against people with disability?
Question 6: How do attitudes affect responses to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability?
Question 7: How do poor rights awareness and negative attitudes contribute to laws, policies and practices that discriminate against people with disability, ignore the experiences of people with disability, or lead to unintended consequences for people with disability? Please provide specific examples in your response.
Question 8: What can be done to improve attitudes towards people with disability? Please consider policy, laws and other approaches. What good practice examples should we know about?
Question 9: What should the role of media and social media be in helping to improve rights awareness and attitudes towards people with disability? How can they support or drive changes in policy and laws? What good practice examples should we know about?
Question 10: How can improvements in rights awareness and attitudes towards people with disability support a more inclusive society?
Is there anything else we should know?
Responding to this issues paper:
Responses to this issues paper can be provided by:
• email to DRCEnquiries@royalcommission.gov.au
• letter to GPO Box 1422, BRISBANE QLD 4001
• phone on 1800 517 199 or +61 7 3734 1900 (between 9:00am to 5:00pm AEST Monday to Friday). We can make a time with you to take your response over the phone.
Responses can be in writing, an audio recording or a video recording. Responses can be in any language. The Royal Commission will translate the response to English.
We encourage responses by July 31 2020. Responses will also be accepted after this date.
If you require any more information on this Issues Paper please follow the link below for the full document.
MEET THE BOARD
Hi my name is Sam Tsakalos and I have worked for 13 years at SBESC. I initially worked for 8 years as an EA while studying to be a teacher and have been teaching for 5 years. My current class is year 2/3.
In my free time I enjoy playing the ukulele, making cheeseboards, walking and dancing.
I am a mad Harry Potter, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings fan.
My favourite foods are pizza and cheese.
Campus Collection Competition
In order for our schools to promote active citizenship, by giving back to the community, we are collecting plastic bread tags and plastic bottle caps. In this way we can help provide wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs to those in need. For more information please visit: https://theovershoot.com/environmental-initiatives/aussies-recycle-bread-tags-to-fund-wheelchairs-for-people-in-need/ and https://7news.com.au/the-daily-edition/envision-hands-turns-bottle-caps-into-prosthetic-limbs-for-kids-in-need-c-200981
Stefan and Troy will assist Mr Avram with this worthwhile project. The class with the biggest amount of bread tags and bottle caps per student will be rewarded at the end of each term. Happy recycling and Good Luck!
It is great to see almost every student back in school and working well in class.
Year 3 students are revisiting their numbers from 1 – 10 as these numbers are important since they will be repeated in bigger numbers. They will then be learning the names of various colours through reading of a big book, games and interactive activities.
Year 4s will be completing Term 1’s program learning the days of the week and months of the year and be able to reply to questions like ‘what day is tomorrow?’ ‘what day was yesterday?’ etc.
Year 5s will be working on challenges from Learning Language Space where they will learn about Food, Bargaining, Advertising, etc. We will be following the Year 5 ‘Ketawa’ program for Term 2.
Year 6s will continue the topic of ‘Sport’ and will be extending their sport vocabulary as well as learning to say what sport they like and dislike. An oral/written dialogue will also be included inviting a friend to play a game of tennis.
Stay safe!
Salam
Ibu Francis.
The canteen is now open again for lunch orders and recess snacks. All their usual specials back on the menu. You can order online at Quickcliq by following the instructions below:
Go to www.QuickCliq.com.au Sign up, Add your child and Add credit.
To place an order:
- Select a student
- Select date
- Select meal items you would like to order and add to cart
- Confirm order and click "Pay & Place Order
Once you have confirmed and paid for the order you will receive a confirmation email from QuickCliq. You can also double check your order by clicking either the 'Active/Cancel Orders" tab or the "Transaction History" button. If you have any concerns, or need help please either QuickCliq at support@quickcliq.com.au or call 1300 11 66 37. If you have any meal related issues, please contact the canteen.
Please make sure you have your order in by 8am.
Students only can also order at the canteen in the morning before school starts. This can be a great life skill and independence opportunity as staff are willing to assist.
COVID-19 Education Assistance package from NBN
We have been advised that NBN is providing funding to assist phone and internet providers to support low-income family households with school-aged children, who do not currently have an active NBN connection at home. This funding will help phone and internet providers create more affordable offers to connect eligible families during Term 2.
If parents and carers want to take advantage of these offers, they can contact internet providers and ask for special COVID-19 deals. The participating provider will help determine if parents and carers are eligible for assistance. It is important they read the terms and conditions of the offers carefully.