Dear Parents and Carers
Thank you for all your support during these past few weeks of remote and flexible learning.
Following advice from the Chief Health Officer, the Victorian Government and the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd (CECV) have advised that schools can begin a phased return to onsite schooling.
In the first stage, students in senior secondary students (Years 11 and 12 VCAL and VCE) will return to school from Tuesday, 26 May. To support all school staff to prepare for this transition, Monday, 25 May will be a student-free day.
The Stage 1 return will include Year 10 students undertaking VCE studies, including VCE VET studies. These Year 10 students should attend school for those VCE classes where practicable.
• If this is not possible for your child, our teachers will make sure the work provided to students attending at school is also provided to your child via your child’s Class Notebook.
• Year 10 students unable to travel home at the end of their scheduled VCE/VET classes will be supervised at school for the remainder of the day.
• These students will have a choice as to whether to attend school for only the VCE lesson or whether to remain on the school site in a supervised classroom where they can continue with their other lessons in a remote setting.
• Further details about these arrangements will be forwarded to Year 10 parents.
• Please note that, at Trinity College, the following VCE lessons for Year 10 students will still be conducted remotely: Year 10 VCE Unit 1 Foundation Maths and VCE Unit 1 Religious Education.
All other students in those year levels will continue learning from home until Tuesday, 9 June.
For those students who cannot be supervised at home and vulnerable children, the existing model of onsite schooling will remain in place during the two-week period from Tuesday, 26 May to Tuesday, 9 June. The current process that we are using to enable parents and carers to indicate the days or part-days for which onsite schooling is required will continue for this two-week period.
In the second stage of our return to onsite schooling, all other year levels will return to school from Tuesday, 9 June. The same approach is being taken by all Catholic and government schools in Victoria.
• Once a year level has returned, all students will be expected to attend school as normal. This means that if you choose to keep your child/children home after their year level has returned to onsite schooling, we can no longer support their learning from home.
• This does not apply to children who need to be absent for health or medical reasons. For those families, please contact us so we can make an appropriate plan.
• If your child is ill or is feeling unwell, they must not attend school. They must remain home and seek medical advice.
To support the health and wellbeing of all students and staff, our school will continue an enhanced cleaning routine and will encourage frequent handwashing.
While the Chief Health Officer has advised that students will not be required to maintain physical distancing at school, there will be a number of important changes to our school operations, consistent with health advice to all schools that will be made available in coming days. These will apply until further notice. I will provide more details about our local school context as soon as possible.
We understand that some families may feel anxious about this move back to classroom teaching and learning. I can assure you that this decision has been taken on the basis of the best health advice available to our state.
More information about the return to school and coronavirus (COVID-19) can be found on the CECV website, which will continue to be updated: www.cecv.catholic.edu.au/Coronavirus-information-for-parents.
Online parent and carer information session
We will be hosting an online forum on Monday, May 18 at 7pm for parents and carers to outline our return to school plans. You will be emailed a link to join the meeting and the session will be recorded and available through our website afterwards if you are unable to tune in at that time.
Thank you for your continued support and patience during this time. We look forward to welcoming students back to the classroom.
Yours sincerely
Paul Clohesy,
Principal
