From Our Principal
Published by Bayswater Primary SchoolIt seems both coincidental and fortuitous that just two weeks ago the focus of my newsletter article was the importance of the partnership between home and school. So now during these extremely challenging and unprecedented times, I want to share with you what we are doing as a school to keep our students and staff safe, prepared and calm. I will also share some ideas of ways that you can be supporting this at home.
As everyone is very well aware, the Coronavirus has created an environment of great uncertainty and confusion. We understand that this is a stressful time for everyone. Please be reassured that Bayswater Primary School will continue to remain open unless the Government and Department of Education change their policy on this. We have had no incidence of any staff member or student / family member testing positive. We have already implemented increased hygiene awareness – hand sanitiser in every classroom, posters in every classroom and student toilets with instructions of how to wash hands properly. Our cleaner has implemented additional cleaning / sanitizing protocols. We are also taking additional precautions such as limiting external visitors to the school. This has resulted in Breakfast Club and Kids Hope being suspended for the foreseeable future. These will be reinstated as soon as it is safe to do so.
In keeping with the recommendations from the Federal Health Department in relation to social distancing we are asking parents to limit the amount of face to face contact they have with staff at our school. For example, rather than meeting in person with parents for SSG’s this term, we will be emailing these to families for consultation. We ask if you would like to discuss anything with your child’s teacher that you send them an email or call via the school office. Our new website is now live and operational, and contains hyperlinks to staff emails. We will put general information regarding any updates onto our website as they become available.
All staff at school have been busily preparing in case of school shut downs and we have a comprehensive plan in place to continue to deliver an ongoing and uninterrupted learning program for our students. This would involve teachers working from home to provide regular learning opportunities and work that would be completed at your homes. Teachers would stay in regular contact via email and would provide feedback on student work. This would allow our usual teaching and learning program to continue as well as assessment and reporting processes. All staff will be given clear roles and procedures to enable this to happen smoothly if this plan needs to be enacted. In order for this to be possible it is important that we have up to date contact information for all of our families. Please see the communication sent out yesterday for further details. And as always, if you have any questions or concerns please contact Raelene or myself.
The following is an excerpt from on online article entitled “Helping kids cope with the COVID-19 epidemic” by Tali Health, that I wanted to share with you as many parents have been asking me about how to approach the current situation with their children.
“It’s important that parents and caregivers recognise that children may be dealing with heightened feelings of anxiety as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds. As well as monitoring our own anxiety levels, we need to take the time to look for signs in our children that they’re more anxious than usual. We need to speak openly, honestly and directly with kids, and limit their exposure to constant news and information updates about the spread of the disease. As much as we might find it challenging, it’s important to model calmness when we’re around our kids, and it’s also important that we stick to their daily routines as much as we can. We might not be able to fully calm our kids’ fears the way we’d like and, if we find that to be the case, it’s important to seek the advice of a professional sooner rather than later.”
Our Wellbeing team of Kelly Roberts and Jacqui Carter are also as always, available to give any support, advice or material assistance that you may require during this time. I would like to take the opportunity to thank our entire school community; students, staff, parents and other community members for the calm, responsible and collaborative ways that you have been managing throughout this situation. I am very proud of our wonderful little school and the resilient way that we cope during difficult times.
Brooke Cross