Yesterday I wrote to all families about the measures in place to ensure that we all remain safe and healthy as students begin their return to school. You will find it in the Compass Parent Portal.

For those who haven't had the opportunity to read it yet I would like to reiterate my last section.

I would like to thank every parent, grandparent, brother and sister who has helped a child participate in the remote learning program for our school. Our own teachers very much understand and appreciate the effort that families have gone to. Many of them have been working from home, possibly in quarantine and supporting their own children with remote learning while also providing for yours. They love what they do and do it gladly.

When we pause and think about it, it has been an enormous community achievement and for your family’s part in that, we will remain ever thankful and grateful.

Ventilation

I did accidentally miss this one piece of the puzzle in yesterday's communication which I will just outline now.

Ventilation has been a topic of conversation when talking about students returning to school because it is an additional, helpful factor alongside hygiene practices, physical distancing, mask wearing and staying home if unwell. Good ventilation, where students spend time together, will assist shared spaces to remain healthy spaces for learning.

Thankfully, our school is very well ventilated. Not only do we have the luxury of a very large outdoor area for spreading out we also have a lot of space inside our buildings.

All classrooms have plenty of functioning windows along two or more walls, they also have large doors that open onto breakout spaces that are also ventilated with open doors and high windows that draw air through the buildings.

Every day, where possible, windows and doors will remain open in classrooms allowing the natural flow of air to move effectively through the entire building structure. Thankfully the weather at this time of year is perfect for operating in this way.

When the weather isn't so cooperative, all of our classrooms are individually air conditioned, with the capacity to draw air from outside as well as assist with the circulation of air inside classrooms. We recently had maintenance performed on them and they are ready for use. We will continue to monitor these and maintain their effective use.

In addition, we will not be gathering in groups larger than class size in any room and we will take advantage of the opportunity to work outside when appropriate.

Ventilation is just one consideration among quite a number of strategies for maintaining a healthy learning environment as we return to school. Please feel free to contact me should you have any specific questions.

Wellbeing Wednesday

Wellbeing Wednesday has been a wonderful opportunity to focus maintaining our own wellbeing during this time of lockdown and remote learning. For those children who needed to remain at school during this time we have been making sure they also have the same opportunity as others.

Here are some Wellbeing Wednesday pictures for a few of our students at home and school this week:

We look forward to seeing our Kindergarten, Year 1, Year 2 and Year 6 students on Monday. I hope to pop into some Year 3, 4 and 5 online meetings during the week as well.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

God Bless

Matthew Garton

REMINDER FROM LAST WEEK:

World Teachers Day

Friday 29 October it is World Teachers Day. It is a day to acknowledge the tireless work our teachers do for their students, whether through remote learning or face to face teaching.

I would like to put together a video of our students talking about their teachers and share it with them and the community on that day. Not all students will have returned to school by then so you could help by recording a very brief conversation with your child using the questions below. If you are happy with it then please send it directly to me at MatthewGartonn@cg.catholiceduu.au . Tip: if you ask the questions and then let them talk. without talking over the top of each other, it can be edited to include only the sections where your child speaks.

If you could ask your child the following questions:

• How would you describe your teacher?
• What's something your teacher does that you really like/love?
• What do you think they do in their free time when you're not at school?
• If you could give your teacher anything in the world what would you give them?
• If you could say something nice to them what would it be?