COVID-19 Update

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I apologise for the need to give you so much information over a short period of time but I am sure you will appreciate that these circumstances are unprecedented for us all, and I would rather over communicate than under communicate at this stage.

I wish to thank all members of the CCPS community for your patience, understanding and positive energy as we work through these new challenges together.

I am sure for many of us, these circumstances have resulted in a time of reflection and of revisiting what really is important to us in our lives.

In particular, it has helped us to see the value of our families/loved ones, our education and our sense of community/connection.

I would also like to thank our CCPS staff for the work they are undertaking to ensure a continued education for all our students. Staff at the CCPS have been working tirelessly over the past few weeks to ensure that teaching and learning will continue for our students commencing on Wednesday 15 April, in whatever format that may be.

Flexible and Remote Learning 

It is becoming more likely that we will have school closures in Victoria at the start of or during Term 2, and this may last for some time. CCPS staff, along with all schools and teachers across the State, are preparing to start flexible and remote learning as soon as it is needed.

During last week, our staff were testing systems, on-line learning platforms and tools that will be used to support students in their learning.

We have also prepared guidelines for students and parents regarding how to plan and manage a normal day of learning on-line, and these will be provided to you by your classroom teacher, if CCPS is instructed to close.

I remind all families that classes commence for Term 2 on WEDNESDAY 15th APRIL, whether this is on campus or via flexible and remote learning.

The program and method for the beginning of Term 2 will be communicated with all families once we are directed to close. This communication will come directly from me on See saw and the school website.

Student contact

In the event of moving to flexible and online learning, teaching and support staff will be contacting students through e-learning platforms and other mechanisms for the purposes of education and support.

Internet access – REMINDER

Internet access is important to any system of on-line learning, so if your family does not have adequate internet connection at home, we will organise other ways for your daughter or son to access resources needed.

Please contact your classroom teacher via See saw if you do not have adequate internet access or devices for your children to access on-line learning.

School Holiday Arrangements

In order to minimise social interaction, CCPS will be closed over the upcoming school holidays.

All gates will be closed and all members of the school community are asked to not enter the school grounds under any circumstances.

A deep clean will be conducted across the whole school. The process of the deep clean will include a full disinfection and sanitise clean from room to room and then each room will be closed off with a sign to confirm cleaning has taken place and to not enter. This procedure is critical to make sure that the school has been sanitised correctly and is a sterile environment.

NAPLAN

A Reminder that the Australian and state governments have decided that NAPLAN testing will not proceed for 2020 because of the additional challenges facing schools in the next while.

School Holiday

I hope all students and families are  making the most of their surprise extra holidays, and I hope you are practising your social distancing so that we can hopefully go back to normal much quicker than if we all keep spending time around others outside our own family, spreading our germs!

It’s a bit of a tricky time, and a lot of people are feeling quite anxious and worried about all of this, and about what the close future will look like. There is a lot of overwhelming information in the media and on social media; also this is a new experience for all of us, so our brains don’t quite know how to predict what is going to happen.

We can’t actually control a lot of what’s going on, but there are things that we can control. For example, we can control how much of the constant news stream we watch and protect our children from hearing these news streams, because we all start to feel very worried when we are hearing about coronavirus all day!

Although heaps of things are changing (like the ridiculous toilet paper situation, and extra holidays, and people losing jobs, and people not travelling), there are also a bunch of things that are staying constant.

• We are very lucky to live in the age of internet, so that we can stay physically isolated without being socially isolated.
• We can still talk to our friends and socialise, but just online instead of in person for a little while.
• We can still come back to school after the holidays, even if the school building might not be available (we don’t know this yet), but we can do school online and still see all of our teachers and peers online.
• We can find information about a bunch of services out there that help us to communicate with others about how we are feeling.
• We are all going through this together, and it is affecting all of us. This has the opportunity to unite us and bring us together as one human race.
• We all have the opportunity to show kindness to others, whether it’s by waving to your neighbours, leaving food and toilet paper on the shelves at the supermarket, or sending a nice message to someone online.

I will end with this quote that I read on the internet:

“If I can leave you with one thing, it’s this: at the end of all this, your kids’ mental health will be more important than their academic skills. And how they felt during this time will stay with them long after the memory of what they were doing during those weeks is long gone. So keep that in mind, every single day…”

Kind regards,

Nicky Walker

Principal