Our Lady of Grace Newsletter No images? Click here Oh God, enlighten my mind with truth TERM 2 WEEK 3 - 14 MAY 2020 PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGEDear Parents In our social media posts over the last two months we have finished with the statement “we love you, we miss you, we will see you again soon”. We will always love our students and as of Monday 18th May we will see them return to school! For those children who are exempt from returning, because of medical conditions or family medical circumstances, we will continue our quality remote learning and connection, so you can ACE your day the OLG way. Children who have a medical condition or family medical circumstances (medical certificate to be provided) that prevent them returning to school will be supported in their learning by their class teachers. You must inform the office by tomorrow 12pm and provide the medical certificate if your child is to continue remote learning. Please call 6241 9500 or admin@olg.wa.edu.au. From the second week of Term 2, children were being taught by their regular teachers and our remote learning package was delivered to all students learning at home and at school. I am very proud of our teachers and staff who worked tirelessly to ensure all children were supported in their learning. Our support programs started in Week 1 and from Week 2 we were attending Mass online at Our Lady of Grace Parish. Our greatest gift to the children has been a return to the familiar routines of school. This will increase from Week 4 as we return to our specialist teacher programs and face to face learning. Parents, your support of our return to Term 2 has been outstanding and I want to thank you for the wonderful way you have adapted and supported your children in remote learning. I am sure you have a deeper insight into how children learn and we certainly have a deeper insight into the importance of partnering with our parents in the education of their children. We will continue to work with you as we move into the next phase of our schooling. Thank you for your generous feedback and trusting us with your most precious children. All medical advice has been that the risk of infection at school is low HOWEVER, we are still vulnerable to COVID-19 and will be following procedures that keep children and staff safe. I recognize that some of the procedures are inconvenient and thank you for your patience. We will continue; The restrictions for parents not leaving their cars and not attending school site are mandated by the State Government, and are set in place until we are notified otherwise. We have increased drop off and pick up times, so we encourage you to stagger your timing of dropping off and picking up your children. We have been immeasurably proud of our students during this pandemic. We are enacting our Wellbeing Strategy developed last year to ensure all our children feel safe on return to school. So many of our children have demonstrated resilience, optimism and courage in returning to school and adapting to new routines. We will be vigilante in monitoring the mental health and wellbeing of our students as they begin to process the events of the pandemic. One way we will do this will be a Wellbeing Friday on May 27 – a full day devoted to our spiritual, emotional, physical and mental wellbeing. This day will be led by our Year 6 Ministries, Head Boy and Head Girl and House Captains and more information will be sent home soon. I would like to thank all our children for their incredible energy and trust. We have worked hard to maintain contact with our children and families over time and the benefit of this has been a smooth return to school. They are delightful to be around and the reason we all come to work. As all members of the community are still vulnerable to COVID-19, our strategy and rapid response team remain from Term 1. Communication to parents will be consistent and transparent and if worse comes to worst and we are instructed to return to remote learning we will use your feedback and data from all survey's to make necessary changes. Information regarding the impact of remote learning on school reports and reporting to parents about student progress will be provided next week. We will be guided in our reporting by the national and state educational authorities, and will do our best to reduce the impact of this disruption on our student’s education. Whilst we will not be able to gather physically to pray on Monday mornings or attend Mass we have adapted and will be conducting these important faith filled moments online. We are trialing a live prayer assembly via our OLG YouTube channel, watch this space! Parents and family, you can still join OLG Parish online Wednesday mornings at 9.30am for Mass, as well as Sunday morning Mass at 9.30am with an online credo now available. The Year Level Mass timetable is below, commencing with Year 1 in Week 4. God Bless, Gabrielle Doyle Payment plans and school fees Thank you to those who have handed in their school fee payment plans. If you are yet to do so, or are unsure please contact Kate Corkill ASAP on 6241 9500 or via email kate.corkill@cewa.edu.au The payment plans were emailed on 21 February. For those families who are making the payments themselves, your forms still need to be handed in and signed as your acceptance of school fees. Payments have been deducted from nominated accounts as of March 13. If for some reason you have noticed that fees are NOT
being deducted, and you have submitted the payment form, please contact Kate ASAP.
Student Detail Sheets will be sent home this week. Please check them carefully and return them to the office even if there are no amendments to be made.
Pre-Kindy and Kindergarten enrolments OPEN! Letter to local MLA's A letter has been sent to local MLA's outlining our schools concern about the lack of access to funds for extra cleaning at school. The letter was co-signed by our Chair of the Board and the P&F President. Wellbeing - Michael Grose Family Meals - Term 2 The response to the family meals has been overwhelming - thank you parents for your support! We are going to continue this service for the remainder of Term 2, however takeaway family meals will only be available on a Friday. As volunteers are still not permitted onsite, the family meals menu will be simplified to 2 meal options per week. This may change depending on availability of seasonal produce. To purchase a family meal, orders need to be placed by 9am on Wednesday morning via QuickCliq. The meal will then be given to your eldest child Friday afternoon before pick up. When ordering, any questions should be added in the comments section of your order. Please note, when we reach the capacity for family meals, they will be closed off for ordering. We recommend ordering early to avoid disappointment. Recess and Lunch As of week 4, Monday 18 May, recess orders will resume, however after lunch sales remain on hold. A gentle reminder, orders MUST be online via QuickCliq, no cash or paper bag orders will be accepted. We acknowledge the original custodians of this land, the Nyungar people, and show our respect for their ancestors and traditions. Our Lady of Grace School |