Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you for all your support during these past few weeks of remote and flexible learning.

Following advice from the Chief Health Officer, the Victorian Government and the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd (CECV) have advised that schools can begin a phased return to onsite schooling.

In the first stage students in Prep, Grade 1 and Grade 2, senior secondary students (Years 11 and 12 VCAL and VCE) and all students in St Marys College for the deaf will return to school from Tuesday 26 May.

Year 10 students undertaking VCE studies, including VCE VET studies, should also attend school except those students in Year 10 completing RAS and Text and Traditions Unit 1, who will continue to learn remotely until June 10. If this is not possible for your child/children to attend school, our teachers will make sure the work provided to students attending at school is also provided to your child/children via SEQTA. Year 10 students coming into school for their VCE subject will be required to attend school for the day from 8.50am until 3.20pm and will be supervised while accessing their Year 10 subjects via remote learning.

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

In the second stage of our return to onsite schooling, all other year levels will return to school from Wednesday 10 June with the 9th of June being a calendared student free day for report writing.

For those students who cannot be supervised at home and vulnerable children, the existing model of onsite schooling will remain in place during the two-week period from Tuesday 26 May to Friday 5 June. The current process that we are using to enable parents and carers to indicate the days or part-days for which onsite schooling is required will continue for this two-week period.

All other students in those year levels will continue learning from home until Wednesday 10 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 onsite schooling, we can no longer support their learning from home but learning materials will continue to be provided on SEQTA. 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 Catholic and government schools in Victoria.

To support the health and wellbeing of all 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 that will be made available in coming days. These will apply until further notice. I will provide more details about our local school context as soon as possible, but it is important to note that changes will include:

• staggered school recess and lunchtime
• lunch orders only from the College Cafe
• 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 CECV website, which will continue to be updated: www.cecv.catholic.edu.au/Coronavirus-information-for-parents.

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

Yours sincerely

Tim Hogan
Principal