Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) – Pupil Free Campus

3 April, 2020 (2:00pm)

Please see a message from our executive staff – https://youtu.be/tUvL1lZW3bw

 

24 March, 2020  (3:10pm)

Email to parents 24 March 2020 re COVID-19 and start of pupil free days

Email to parents:

Dear Parents / Caregivers

NOVEL CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) – PUPIL FREE CAMPUS

Thank you for your continued support of the school as we try to address the uncertainty that recent government decisions have created, particularly in the ACT. The challenge is to make good decisions in an unstable and stressful environment – we appreciate the messages of support we have been getting.

Our staff have been faithfully providing the best sort of instruction they can and intend to continue to do so. Many staff have personal health concerns and some also have the added weight of caring for their own children who may now be home. This has put a lot of stress of them and, as an employer, we need to be mindful of the health and wellbeing of our people.

The School Management Team has met today and made the following decisions further to my letter of 23 March:

1. The School (including ELC) plans to operate normal classes again tomorrow (Wednesday, 25 March 2020).
2. The School is moving to pupil free days commencing this Thursday, 26 March and will continue in this mode until the end of the term (Thursday, 9 April). Students are encouraged to finish any outstanding work from their current classes on Thursday and Friday while teachers prepare work for next week and onwards.
3. We recognise the essential community role played by many parents across the ACT who may not be easily able to stay at home to care for their children – where students need to be at school, we will be providing supervised care during the pupil free days until the end of term. Al such students are to report to the School Office on arrival.
4. The ELC / Preschool will be operating as normal until Friday, 27 March and then a decision will be made on the same day as to whether to continue or not.
5. Parents of Primary students are encouraged to pick up student exercise and text books from their child’s desk tray after school tomorrow.
6. Teachers have commenced preparations for online learning but this mode of study will start in a limited way next week.
7. The ELC/Preschool will be issuing a student pack of activities late next week – an email will be sent to all ELC families when it is ready to pick up.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to give me a call.

Kind regards,

Martin Keast

Principal

 

Pupil Free Days

23 March, 2020  (4:00pm)

Letter 2 to parents 23 March 2020 re COVID-19/pupil free days etc

Letter to parents:  200323-message-2-letter-to-parents.pdf

 

23 March, 2020  (9:30am)

Initial Update On Pupil Free days

Email to parents:

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

As you may be aware, the ACT government has decreed that all schools will go into pupil free days starting tomorrow (Tuesday, 24 March) until the end of term – the intent is to allow staff to prepare for on-line delivery in Term 2. It was not a health/containment related decision but an operational one made to allow time for schools to prepare on-line delivery options. This conflicts somewhat with the Federal government announcements that schools should remain open for now.

At this point (9:30am on Monday) we are not sure of the details of the decision as it affects independent schools such as Covenant. We will be meeting today to discuss what Covenant will be doing. At this point we intend to operate classes should parents wish to send their children to school. We will send out an email later today to inform parents once we have obtained clarity about what is to be done.

Please be patient as this is a fast moving area and there are many conflicting decisions being made at different levels of government.

Kind regards,

Martin

Martin Keast

Principal

 

Coronavirus Information

18 March, 2020

School Protocol – COVID-19
Letter to parents: Coronavirus (COVID-19) School Protocol 18.3.20 mk

Identifying the symptoms: coronavirus-covid-19-identifying-the-symptoms

 

 

12 March, 2020

Planned School Response

The Coronavirus situation continues to develop and now there have been a few schools in Australia that have had to deal with the implications of one of their people having the virus. Typically this has involved the school shutting its doors for a time.

We intend to use the Google Classroom system as our vehicle to support your children’s continuing education should we have to temporarily shut our doors as a result of a corona virus infection so please make sure that your child has login information and confirm that they can access their covenantsystems.org Google Classroom page(s). For very young students, parents/caregivers should have the access login and password – if you don’t, please contact your class teacher for this information. Please attempt to actually login if you have not done so as yet. If this doesn’t work, please let your class teacher know so we can resolve the issue straight away. Keep a written record of login username and password handy in case it is needed.

 

Preventative measures

Practising good sneeze/cough hygiene is the best defence against most viruses. Please remind your children and help them to practice good hygeine at home.

Students should:

•wash their hands frequently with soap and water, before and after eating, and after going to the toilet

•cover their cough and sneeze, dispose of tissues, and use alcohol-based hand sanitiser

•and if unwell, avoid contact with others (stay more than 1.5 metres from people).

If your child has a fever, cough, shortness of breath or sore throat, please ensure that they stay at home and advise the School.

 

Hygiene Information Posters

Tissue ettiquette: https://health.act.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-02/Issue%20a%20tissue%20A4%20posters.pdf

Hand hygiene: https://health.act.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-03/CV_Hand%20hygiene_Poster_Accessible.pdf

Prevent the spread of germs: https://health.act.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-03/CV_Good%20hygiene_Poster_Accessible_0.pdf

 

Returning from travel

Please check this page from the Health Department for up-to-date advice on returning from travel: https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-advice-for-travellers

 

Information for students and schools

Further information about Coronavirus for schools and students can be found by downloading the Department of Health factsheet here: https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-schools-and-early-childhood-centres

ACT Health also have information available here: https://health.act.gov.au/about-our-health-system/novel-coronavirus-covid-19/education

 

Information for people required to self-isolate

If you have symptoms: https://health.act.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-03/COVID-19%20FAQ%20Isolation%20at%20Home%20-%20symptomatic%20cases_06032020.pdf

If you have no symptoms: https://health.act.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-03/COVID-19%20FAQ%20Isolation%20at%20Home%20-%20asymptomatic%20cases_06032020.pdf

If you are waiting on test results: https://health.act.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-03/COVID-19%20Information%20for%20someone%20who%20is%20being%20tested%20for%20COVID-19%20%28suspected%20case%29_06032020.pdf