From the Principal

An Update to families

I am forwarding the communication that I have received from Catholic Education South Australia along with some additional information regarding our Remote Learning Plan.

CESA Notice
Pupil Free days (6-9 April)
The Government has announced that the final week of this school term (Monday 6 April – Thursday 9 April) will be a pupil free week across all South Australian schools. This means that the last day of Term for students will be Friday 3 April.

This time will enable teachers and school staff to prepare for the remote delivery of lessons.

Catholic Education SA is committed to ensuring educational, spiritual and pastoral support for every child in our schools.

The COVID-19 pandemic impacts every aspect of our life – our families, our work and our wellbeing. Every day there are new restrictions in place and many new questions.
In many regional and rural communities, the pandemic comes amidst a range of other challenges – bushfires, drought, loss of key industries and employment.

Fee Remission
Amongst all the worries that we have at this time – worrying about the payment of school fees should not be one of those things. Please be assured of our support for your family. If your family has lost significant income due to COVID-19 you will receive a total school fee remission effective immediately, initially for a period of 3 months. We will continue to review the fee situation for individual families and the school as a whole. Further information will be released early next week.

Online learning
Catholic Education SA is working to guarantee that learning will continue for your child. We will ensure that students can continue their studies remotely and remain connected with their teachers. We are also working with the government to ensure that – where parents need to work – that students can access schooling.
Commitment to your child

Please be assured. Your child matters to us. Your family matters to us.

Our absolute commitment is that we will support your child in their learning and wellbeing at this difficult time whether they are physically at school or at home.
Regular updates are being provided on the Catholic Education SA website – www.cesa.catholic.edu.au/alerts

Please continue to pray for our leaders, our schools and our teachers. May we be kind to each other in the face of uncertainty.

Nativity Update

From my previous update I outlined our Timetable using three scenarios
Scenario 1 Schools still open as we are
Scenario 2 School closed for 1 to 2 days
Scenario 3 Longer Closure for an extended period of time

We are still in the Scenario 1 situation for now and next week (week 10) unless the situation changes.

The trend this week is an increasing number of parents are choosing to self- isolate their children from school.

Every class teacher has now prepared Remote Learning activities for students who have been self-isolated. Each family will receive a communication from their child’s teacher tomorrow with a list a suggested activities to undertake during next week (Week 10).

The Early Years’ families received a notification about reading books for home. Parents with students who were absent can collect the books from the front office. Those attending school took the books home yesterday.

Tomorrow each family will receive a note from the respective teachers regarding Remote Learning Activities. I am extremely grateful for their professionalism and work ethic in managing this mode of learning delivery as well as running the classroom programmes. I am also very appreciative of your understanding and recognition toward this.

Our school Counsellor Sophie McCallum has put together a “Keep Calm and Carry On” Sheet of helpful tips to manage our health and wellbeing. This document, only one page, will been sent via email.

We are still working through the implications from the announcement today by the Premier regarding the Pupil Free Week in the last week of term (week 11). I will provide a further update once these details have been confirmed. Teachers will provide a further update next week regarding learning activities during this week and into the school holidays.

I am the confident the strategies we are implementing will allow your child to access a learning programme during these uncertain times.

Kind regards

Greg Haynes
Principal