Community Update #3.5

First Reconciliation for Year 3 and Year 4 

Due to the Covid restrictions, First Reconciliation for Year 3 and Year 4 is now postponed to Term 4. We will let you know the new arrangements for this once we confirm the details with Fr Siby.

Daffodil Day

Thanks to everyone who is supporting Daffodil Day. Thanks to the children who have made their spoons and have put them in our garden of hope. The garden is growing and we look forward to seeing more spoons in the coming week.

The daffodils we ordered have all sold it. Thank you. We will let you know the arrangements for collection during the week.

In lieu of gold coin donations, we have a covid safe fundraising page this year. Thanks for all of the donations so far on our school fundraising page. You can access our page at this link.

Although, we will still be in lockdown, we encourage the children and parents to wear yellow on Friday 27 August to show our support for the Cancer Council and the Daffodil Day Appeal.

Weekly Assembly Awards

You can view the awards from last week on our virtual assembly video. The lockdown transformations have begun again. Let's see who will visit our garden of hope in the next assembly. 

Parents & Friends Update

Fathers Day / Special Friends Gifts - coming soon

The P&F have been sourcing a gift for each child to personalise at home to give to their Dad or a special friend on Sunday 5th September. We will soon open a payment option in the CDF Pay portal for $5 per child. The gift packs will be available to collect from the school portico over the last week of August (from Monday 30th Aug). More information soon!

Trivia Night - Save the date: Saturday 11th September

We planned to host an in-person trivia night earlier this term. Since then, we have been busy converting it into an online event to bring our school community together in a covid-safe manner. While we hope to have fewer restrictions by September, density requirements and the required planning time to obtain permits makes an in-person event difficult to coordinate currently. Please save the date for a low-cost, fun night at home with trivia, games and prizes. 

Proceeds from all P&F events this year are going toward the Michelle Barclay memorial track.

2021 Term Dates

Term 3

PSG's                                                            Aug 25 & Sep 2

Daffodil Day                                                 Aug 27 WEAR YELLOW

Dendy Athletics                                           Sep 7

Year 3 First Reconciliation                         Sep 8 at 6pm Postponed to Term 4 

Book Week Dress Up Day                           Sep 6 MONDAY

Year 4 First Reconciliation                         Sep 14 at 5:30pm Postponed to Term 4

Rugby Gala Day                                          Sep 15                                

End Term 3                                                   Sep 17

Term 4

Beginning Term 4                                          Oct 4

School Concert                                              Oct 5 postponed and new date tbc

Prep 2022 Parent Evening                            Oct 12 7pm-8pm

St Pat's Sports Day                                       Oct 14 

Year 3 First Reconciliation                           Oct 19 at 5:30pm

Year 4 Reconciliation                                    Oct 20 6pm

Year 4 First Communion                               Oct 23 9:15am (4R) 

Year 4 First Communion                               Nov 6 9:15am  (4M)

Closure Day Assessment                             Nov 1

Closure Day Planning 2022                          Nov 19

School Swimming                                         Nov 29 - Dec 10

End of term                                                    Dec 15 at 1pm

Community Update # 3.4

 Assumption of Mary Sunday 15 August 

God chose Mary to be the mother of his son, Jesus. Mary was always ready and willing to do whatever God wanted. Because she was so special she was taken up body and soul to be with Jesus in heaven – this is what ‘Assumption’ means.

When we need hope to overcome life's everyday challenges, we can pray to the blessed Mary.

"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen."

Flexible & Remote Learning Guidelines

This is a reminder about the guidelines and expectations for children, parents & staff as part of our Flexible & Remote learning. You can access all of this important information at this link. It includes a reminder about attendance to Zoom meetings and the protocols we all need to follow to ensure success during the lockdown period. 

Children requesting onsite attendance must email principal@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au by Friday prior to the start of the week. A new request needs to be made each week. The early notification is necessary to ensure covid safe staff ratios onsite.

Daffodil Day August 27 and Spoonville 2021

It's time to create your amazing spoons for our 2021 Garden of Hope. Lawrence our wonderful caretaker has tilled the soil and prepared the garden for your spoons. After you decorate the spoon come and pop it into the garden when you are out for a walk.

Ms Karin is busy working on the beautiful bird bath to eventually go into the garden (below is a sneak peak of the design).

Further below, is the flyer that Millie, Eliza and Tessa designed with their mum Gabby to help us get ready to celebrate Daffodil Day at school.

You can access the live document at this link.

The school closure day planned for Friday August 20 is cancelled

Coping with anxiety

Luca, our valued school counsellor recommended this reading for any parents or carers who are struggling during the current lockdown period.

You can access a link to the 3 page document here.

2021 Term Dates

Term 3

Closure Day  Staff PL Day 4                         Aug 20 Cancelled

PSG's                                                              Aug 17, 25 & Sep 2

Daffodil Day                                                    Aug 27

Dendy Athletics                                             Sep 7

Year 3 First Reconciliation                         Sep 8 at 6pm Postponed to 19 October

Book Week Dress Up Day                           Sep 6 MONDAY

Year 4 First Reconciliation                         Sep 14 at 5:30pm

Rugby Gala Day                                             Sep 15                                

End Term 3                                                     Sep 17

Term 4

Beginning Term 4                                          Oct 4

School Concert                                              Oct 5 postponed and new date tbc

Prep 2022 Parent Evening                            Oct 12 7pm-8pm

St Pat's Sports Day                                       Oct 14 

Year 3 First Reconciliation                           Oct 19 at 5:30pm

Year 4 Reconciliation                                    Oct 20 6pm

Year 4 First Communion                               Oct 23 9:15am (4R) 

Year 4 First Communion                               Nov 6 9:15am  (4M)

Closure Day Assessment                             Nov 1

Closure Day Planning 2022                          Nov 19

School Swimming                                         Nov 29 - Dec 10

End of term                                                    Dec 15 at 1pm

Team Kids Corner

Lockdown 6 Update #3 Flexible & Remote Learning Guidelines

Flexible & Remote Learning Guidelines August 2021 (Updated from March 2021 contingency plan)

Information for Staff and Families:

Snap lockdowns are the new norm. We will continue to provide continuity of education online for all children to the best of our ability. Teachers will prepare and share Zoom links and learning activities on the Flexible Learning page for year levels on the Learning Community Site (see access below).

Communication of plans will be advised through updates in the online Shamrock blog via the Flexischools App. Staff will communicate further updates in relation to class levels.

For further important details in relation to Flexible & Remote Learning and Expectations for Teachers, Children and Parents (updated August 9 2021) go to this link.

 

Snap Lockdown (called after 3:30pm)

When there is very little warning about a lockdown and there is limited preparation time, teachers will have a generic year level programme ready for Day 1. This will be uploaded onto the Learning Community Site.

Thereafter, detailed daily plans will be uploaded by 5:00pm for the following day.

Zoom roll calls

These are times during the day for teachers to check in and connect with children, talk with the children about their learning and support learners as well as record attendance. Children who do not attend roll call are marked as absent. A child's absence must be notified via the Flexischools app as normal.

•  9:00 Zoom Roll Call 1

• 11:30 First break - normal daily timetable will be followed

• 1:00 Zoom Roll Call 2 

• 1:40  Lunchtime

• 3:25 End of day

Zoom roll calls ( Year 2-6 ) will be followed by Zoom Class Open Forums for children seeking clarification with questions or needing support. Year levels will let you know the time of the forums. 

Specialist Classes on Thursday

Specialist teachers will prepare learning activities and share these on the Learning Community Site. Children can access the learning on the Flexible Learning Pages under the specialist tab. 

The specialist teachers will not call the roll during their class time. 

Class teachers will call one roll at 9am on the Specialist Day. 

Class teachers use the Specialist Day for planning time and providing feedback to students.

 

Onsite Students 

Parents email the principal to request an onsite space.

Teachers and Learning Support Officers are rostered on site as needed.

• Children enter the school from 8:45 and finish at 3:25

• Children wear their school uniform

• Children bring devices to school if they have one

• No lunch orders occur during lockdown

• Children will be sent home if unwell

How to access Flexible Learning

Zoom links for year levels are published on the Flexible Learning pages on the Learning Community Site under the Year Levels tab. Choose the Year level, click on the arrow and find the drop down box for Flexible Learning.

For further details in relation to teaching instructions Flexible & Remote Learning and Expectations for Teachers, Children and Parents (updated August 9 2021) go to this link.

Parents can email Jenny (principal@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au) or Liz Hills DP & Head of Curriculum (lizh @spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au) with feedback, for help or support at any time.

Information pertinent to the current lockdown that has already been sent via Flexischools is available for your reference below.

Lockdown 6 Update #2 Onsite Supervision

Our school will continue to provide on-site supervision for:

• vulnerable children (Programme Support Group category)
• children where both parents are considered essential workers , cannot work from home and where no other supervision arrangements can be made.

Attendance will be recorded daily for those on-site and those learning from home during the Zoom meetings.

Please email principal@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au as soon as practical and state the following:

Name of child/children

Year Level/s

Contact phone numbers and name of both parents

Occupation of both parents as indicated on the essential worker list.

Days or part of days requiring supervision

Children coming onsite will enter through the hall doors from 8:45am - 8:55am. Teachers will meet the children.

Children will exit from the front yard at 3:25pm. Parents are asked to remain at the front gates.

Team Kids Before and After School Care will be accessible for children that qualify for Onsite supervision (Team Kids guidelines apply around drop off and pick up via the kitchen door and by ringing the doorbell).

Any further questions, please contact me directly.

Thank you for your ongoing support and understanding.

Stay safe and well,

Jenny Hawkins

Principal

Lockdown 6 Update #1

Dear families and carers,

Thank you for placing your trust in our school systems during the quarantine period.

Now that we have officially been notified of the 7 day lockdown, the following arrangements have been put into place:

• A learning programme for Years 1 to 6 is already available on the Learning Community Site
• Preps have already taken home a hard copy pack of learning resources
• We fully understand if you choose to take a wellbeing day with your children tomorrow especially after our recent quarantine experiences.
• The school will be open for any families who left their devices at school to collect from the portico between 10:30 - 12:30 tomorrow
• There will be one roll call at 1pm tomorrow afternoon.
• We await for government recommendations on children of essential workers
• Flexible learning will continue as usual and be available on the Learning Community Site next week

Please email principal@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au with any further queries

Stay safe and well,

Jenny Hawkins

Principal

Community Update # 3.3 Local Heroes

Thanks again for the numerous uplifting messages of support we continue to receive from our school and wider community. These are the messages that spur all of us on. I am proud to be part of a caring and supportive community at St Pat's.

I would just like to share a few community messages and many of the emails that I received from our parents during the quarantine period and since we returned to school.

Going from 14 days of quarantine back to school and then into a last minute lockdown isn't easy for any of us.

However, staying positive and supporting each other, helps to hold us in good stead as we, parents and teachers, model resilience for our children.

The first community message is from Steve Dimopoulos and the second from a local resident, Jo McLean.

Steve Dimopoulos MP - Thanks St Pats Community

Today, one of our parents drew my attention to this statement that Steve Dimopolous recently made to parliament. 

Our parent proudly emailed me and said, "It’s nice to see this acknowledgement of our community’s efforts for the public good".

..........Over the last few months we’ve been hit with more covid outbreaks. Today, we've been challenged again. As always, our community has stepped up. Thank you.

Yesterday I made a statement to the Parliament:

I would like to offer my sincere thanks to everyone in my community for their efforts over the last few months in defeating the latest COVID outbreak from Sydney.

I would especially like to recognise students, staff, parents, family members and friends of St Patrick’s Primary School in Murrumbeena; staff, friends, patrons and the owners of Vanilla Lounge in Oakleigh; and residents of an apartment building in Oakleigh. These are people who have really done it hard in the last couple of months.

 
As we have seen through the latest outbreaks, tens of thousands of people have been required to isolate and, sadly, some people in my community have contracted the virus. We know this is incredibly contagious, but I think what is lost sometimes in the messaging about this and the coverage of this is that, like any other virus, you can get it while still doing the right thing.

 
Anyone can catch it, whether you are observant or not in terms of the COVID rules. We need to remember that these are people. They are not just a random statistic, not just a number on a spreadsheet, not just part of a cluster—they are people.

When one person catches the virus in the community we need to recognise the efforts of those who are close contacts and need to isolate, and there are often many thousands of them. The community, my community, understands this and has displayed such loyalty and such support in the most recent outbreak—friends, neighbours, strangers, Facebook pages, local businesses going out of their way to make sure that support was offered to those in isolation.

Again, thank you to my community. You have gone above and beyond again, and we see low case numbers every day because of you.

Local Heroes

As a local resident I just wish to thank the school community, staff, parents and children of St Patricks.

Thanks to you all for the sacrifices made to keep everyone safe. I am sure it was not easy. Your efforts are appreciated. And we are happy to hear so many have emerged from isolation and are now back at school and work, and children are once again out and about in our neighbourhood.

I heard high praise from parents for the support offered by the school (“They were wonderful”).

I also heard IGA provided free deliveries to families and friends of St Patrick’s did coffee runs. What a terrific community!

Best wishes for a speedy recovery for those who are still ill and again, gratitude for and thanks to our local heroes!

Regards,

Jo McLean

Here are a few wonderful messages of support from our St Pat's parent community:

Well done! 

I just wanted to drop you a quick note to stay thank you for all your recent efforts and well done on providing fantastic leadership to the school community during this period.

It’s great to see clear communications, and I’m continually impressed by how you and the team are managing to keep students and families calm, committed and connected given everything going on.

Keep up the great work, and please pass my thanks on to the wider team at St Pats!

Thank you very much!

A quick email to thank you and the teaching team at St Patrick’s for everyone’s efforts during these very trying times. We thought the speed of the response in closing the school down on Thursday 15 July and the subsequent lines of communication was a credit to you and your team at St Patrick’s.

While the circumstances were far from ideal, the teachers.... switched to online learning seamlessly in spite of challenges I am sure they would have endured in their personal lives.

Once again Jenny thank you for the leadership and please pass on our gratitude to the teachers.

 

Thank you

We wanted to pass on our thanks to you and the staff at St Patrick’s for your handling of the quarantine period and remote learning during this time. We know it was a difficult time for staff and St Patrick’s families and appreciate the caring, supportive manner in which the staff provided learning opportunities and a sense of connection for the children.

We also appreciate the care, concern and support all the staff provided... We were so grateful for the phone calls, messages, cards, well wishes, food and gifts from the St Patrick’s community. 

We are blessed to belong to such an amazing community and so grateful to all.

 

Checking in

Just checking in to see how you are doing? You are doing such a wonderful job managing all of this and we are so grateful. Your communication and care has been awesome. You've made it so much easier for us...

The way you have guided the school community through the last few weeks has been admirable.
We really appreciate all you do.

Thinking of St Patrick's Community

I just wanted to reach out to you to acknowledge what a wonderful job you are doing under very complex circumstances. Your calm oversight of this in your school community will be doing much to settle anxiety and instil confidence in your families. 

I hope you are also taking care of yourself during these days and know that you are and your school community are in my thoughts and prayers.

 

Dr Mary Oski

Director Learning & Regional Services

Thank You

...It’s such a difficult time for many including yourself and we appreciate the constant communication, support and updates.

It was so wonderful to see the teachers ready to do remote learning today with their students with a smile and ready to take on the next couple of weeks with enthusiasm.

The out pouring of support from the local community has been heart warming also. What a great community to be part of.

Take care and if there is anything we can do to help under these circumstances don’t hesitate to ask.

Thank you and take care.

Thank You

Just wanted to say I’m so grateful you are leading our beautiful school .
The community spirit at St Pats has brought tears to my eyes .

Beautiful families that are no longer at St Pats have teams of people helping all of us in
14 day isolation .

Parcels of food, care packs, calls, coffee delivery from Citizen and text messages to check in .

We will get through this and be even more united...

We will eat healthy by boosting our immune systems and we will come back even stronger.

God bless you  

The Learning Community Site is up and running. 

For those of us who are in lockdown and not in quarantine, let's appreciate the opportunity to exercise outdoors in a local park.

Please continue to keep all of those unwell and affected by coronavirus in your thoughts and prayers.

Stay safe and well everyone,

Jenny Hawkins

Principal

Community Notice

Child Safety

Taking a look at TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube - eSafety update.

Join the eSafety Commissioner’s expert education and training team for a FREE live webinar. It is designed for parents and carers of young people aged 8 - 13.

This webinar focuses on popular apps used by young people. It will include case studies, research, and targeted advice so you can support the young people in your life to have safe, enjoyable online experiences.

Go to the flyer for further details. Here is the link.

Covid Update #17 Mid Week Safety Update

Dear Parents and Carers,

It is wonderful to have almost everyone back at school.

We continue to keep those families in extended quarantine and those unwell in our thoughts and prayers.

I wish to thank all of you for supporting the safe transition back to school for our children.

I thought it timely, to let you know and understand the various COVID safe practices that we are implementing at school.

 CECV (Catholic Education Commission of Victoria) School Operation Guide

Since Covid 19 appeared in Victoria in 2020, the CECV have provided ongoing and regular updated School Operation Guides. So far during 2021, we have received 30 COVID safe updates based on the Victorian Chief Health Officer's advice. 

The principles for maintaining a COVIDSafe school apply to all Victorian Catholic schools.

At St Patrick's we continue to follow the COVIDSafe principles for on-site supervision. Overtime these have included constant reminders to the children about COVID Safety practices including hand sanitiser in all learning spaces and areas of the school. Last year we employed an extra day time cleaner to go around the school cleaning and sanitising high touch surfaces. We increased the hours for our evening cleaners too and maintained these safety practices this year.

From 28th July, the most recent School Operations Guide recommends the following combination of strategies to minimise transmission risk in response to the transmission of the Delta strain amongst children. Here are some of the many practices we are actioning:

Class Bubbles

Class bubbles are to be created by grouping students together and limiting mixing between different groups of students. This works to limit the number of students potentially identified as close contacts in the event of an exposure at a school.

Action at St Patrick's: Year levels are not mixing together. Year levels have been allocated to separate areas of the playground. These areas will be rotated every week.

Fresh Air Flow into Indoor Spaces

Schools are strongly encouraged to increase air flow into indoor spaces wherever possible.

Action at St Patrick's:

Doors and windows are kept open to keep air circulating and avoid the need to close and open doors.

Visitors to School

Non- essential visitors should be excluded from school sites for this period.

Action at St Patrick's:

Only health and wellbeing staff are permitted onsite in order to support our most vulnerable children.

All other visitors and support staff (for example, Public Speaking lessons) are supporting children online.

Non essential meetings, gatherings, events and assemblies

Large school gatherings (assemblies) are not permitted at this time.

Action at St Patrick's: 

Weekly assemblies are being held via Zoom

Outside School Hours Care programs (OSHC) Team Kids

OSHC programmes can recommence following operational guidance as appropriate.

Action at St Patrick's: 

Team Kids has returned to door bell entry procedures. 

Please ring the doorbell and the Team Kids educators will respond.

Parents are not to come onsite.

Team Kids has a Covid checklist which they adhere to each day.

Mental Health and Wellbeing of Students

The mental health and wellbeing of students remains an important consideration.

The Mental health toolkit has advice and resources to support student mental health and wellbeing. This includes advice on positive mental health promotion, curriculum support, how to identify and access support, as well as parent- and student-specific pages.

Action at St Patrick's: 

Our quarantine experience has affected every child, every family and every staff member in different ways. We need to recognise this and encourage families to seek our help as required.

Our staff are working together with parents to address the diverse and unique needs of all children.

Please contact Kerryn Oliver, Learning Diversity Leader koliver@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au

if you request support for your children.

The above mentioned actions are only a few of the actions we are implementing to ensure we keep our children safe during this challenging time.

The health and wellbeing of our whole community is at the forefront of our minds.

Again, I wish to share my appreciation for the positive feedback from our community in relation to the challenges we experienced together during the past weeks.

As one parent mentioned to me during our quarantine period, we will be stronger for the experience.

Please continue to keep in touch and email or telephone me principal@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au with any questions or queries. Your questions are important. The sooner we can allay any concerns or worries for you, we can allay similar concerns for others in our community.

Stay safe and well,

Jenny Hawkins

Principal.