Dear St John the Apostle families,

Congratulations everyone on such a positive start to Term 3 and a big welcome to our new students and families. Welcome to St John the Apostle community and thank you for choosing to be part of our story and the privilege of being part of yours.

We've had a number of staff and students away this week due to COVID, flu or other reasons and while this term is predicted to be challenging, in relation to illnesses, we have good strategies in place to support staff and students in continuing their teaching and learning, no matter the circumstances. If you find your child having to spend time in isolation at home then please be sure to visit our online Home Learning Centre to find work set by the teacher.

Impact of COVID - Term 3

Earlier this week I wrote to families letting them know about some of the procedures and practices that will help us reduce the transmission of COVID and flu within our community. This included what to do should a student or their family member test positive for COVID. Please refer to that message for those details.

To manage the impact of both the transmission of COVID and shortage of relief teachers in the ACT, Catholic Education have had to consider a number of other strategies to keep schools open, students in classes and teachers in front of students.

Camps and Excursions

Catholic Education have advised us that all camps and excursions planned for Term 3 

are to be cancelled or postponed. Those schools who had these planned for the first two weeks of term may go ahead with them, due to the late notice, however any planned later must not go ahead.

Years 5 and 6 will not be able to go to camp this term. We are currently reviewing our options with each of the providers and will let everyone know of the outcome of these discussions shortly. We have closed the Qkr! payment option for both camps until further notice and will organise refunds for families who have already paid should they be cancelled completely.

Assemblies

Thankfully we can continue to gather as a whole school throughout the week. These are important to us for maintaining a strong sense of community and belonging among our students and classes. We use these times to celebrate learning and to pray together. We will keep them succinct and focused.

Liturgies and Masses

Over the coming weeks many of our Year 3 students are celebrating the Sacrament of First Eucharist. This is occurring at one of the Parish masses. As it occurs outside school it can go ahead but with a mindfulness of being COVID safe. We look forward to celebrating this Sacrament with each of our families this weekend.

Parent/School Interaction

You may find that teachers will organise meetings with you via phone or MS Teams rather than ask you to come into the school grounds. To reduce accidental transmission we have been strongly encouraged to hold any meetings with families remotely. 

Parents must still remain outside the school gates unless invited in for an event that would be held outdoors, e.g. Book Week dress up parade later this term. We also really encourage parents waiting at pick up time to engage in physical distancing.

Our Fathers Day breakfast will be re-considered to make it a more COVID safe event.

Our Athletics Carnival will now be held at school with the opportunity to have parents

assist outdoors where required.

Events with parents, that are held outside school times, can be on site provided they are COVID safe. Those sport teams that practice after school are encouraged to be COVID safe. Our Community Council can still meet on site in a COVID safe manner.

While we haven't been required to go back to the strict practices of cohorting students and having various entry gates we are still encouraging students and classes to maintain excellent hand and respiratory hygiene throughout the day. Hence our focus for this week.

Thank you all for the small choices you make each day that go a long way to keeping your families and our school community healthy and well. 

We look forward to another term of outstanding learning and achievement for our students.

Matthew Garton