Return to School Information

12-MAY-2020

Dear Parents & Carers

Thank you for all your encouragement during these past few weeks of remote and flexible learning. We understand that this has been a challenging time for our students and families. As a community, we can be proud of the support we have given each other, our adaptability, and unity. Thank you for your extraordinary work, support and dedication during this time- it takes a village to raise a child and the Edithvale village is a great one! One of the exciting tasks ahead is to work together to ensure the gains we have made during our remote learning continues in the coming weeks and months.

Following advice from the Chief Health Officer, the Victorian Government has advised that schools can begin a phased return to on-site schooling.

In the first stage, students in Prep, Year 1 and Year 2, senior secondary (Year 11 and 12 VCAL and VCE) students and all students in specialist schools will return to school from Tuesday 26 May.

To support all school staff to prepare for this transition, Monday 25 May will be a pupil-free day.

In the second stage of our return to on-site schooling, all other year levels will return to school from Tuesday 9 June.

For those students who cannot be supervised at home and vulnerable children, the existing model of on-site schooling will remain in place during the two-week period from Tuesday 26 May to Tuesday 9 June. The current process that we are using to enable parents and carers to indicate the days or part-days for which on-site schooling is required will continue for this two-week period.

All other students in these classes and year levels will continue learning from home until Tuesday 9 June.

Once a year level has returned, all students will be expected to attend school as normal. This means if you choose to keep your child/children home after their year level has returned to on-site schooling, we can no longer support their learning from home.

This does not apply to children who need to be absent for health or medical reasons. For those families, please contact us so we can make an appropriate plan.

This same approach is being taken by all government schools in Victoria.

To support the health and wellbeing of all our students and staff, our school will continue an enhanced cleaning routine and will encourage frequent hand washing.

If your child is ill or is feeling unwell, they must not attend school. They must remain home and seek medical advice.

While the Chief Health Officer has advised that students will not be required to maintain physical distancing at school, there will be a number of important changes to our school operations, consistent with health advice to all schools. This will apply until further notice. I will provide more detail about our local school context as soon as possible, but it is important to note that changes may include:

adjusted arrangements for drop off and pick up, including staggered school start and finish times;
restrictions on access to the school site for anyone other than immediate school staff and students;
the way we conduct parent-teacher meetings and interviews

We understand that some families may feel anxious about this move back to classroom teaching and learning. I can assure you that this decision has been taken on the basis of the best health advice available to our state.

More information about the return to school and coronavirus (COVID-19) can be found on the Department’s website, which will continue to be updated:

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/department/Pages/coronavirus.aspx

Thank you for your continued support and patience during this time. We look forward to welcoming our students back to the classroom.

Return to School Information (168 KB) – 12-May-2020