St Patrick’s School COVID Safety Plan

As communicated to families St Patrick’s earlier this year via Compass, our school is implementing the Catholic Education Tasmania’s COVID Safety Plan. Correspondence and information can be accessed via our school web site under the ‘Community’ tab. More information will be provided to families as the school is provided with updates, however, a summary of the actions the school will be undertaking that support the wellbeing of all in our school community includes:

1. Health and hygiene aspects
   1. Staff are to wear face masks inside buildings unless teaching or unless there is a need for greater clarity of enunciation.
   2. Students are not expected to wear face masks.
      1. Primary school students of 12 years of age and over, who travel on buses, will be required to wear masks whilst on the bus.
   3. No social distancing is required for staff and students (unless masks are off for enunciation).
   4. Parent prerogative (choice) regarding vaccination of their child/children: Non-discriminatory inclusion.
   5. Our school is awaiting delivery of Rapid Antigen Tests and facemasks and upon delivery we will provide each member of staff and each student with two masks and two rapid antigen tests. These are to be taken home for support of any student who is sent home or stays home with COVID symptoms. We will have supplies at school to supplement these initial ‘kits.’
   6. Isolation’ protocols (particularly for students and staff with symptoms that have escalated during the day)
      1. Separate from other staff and students, contact families and collect to go home by safe means ASAP.
   7. Classroom doors and windows will be open where practicable to enhance flowthrough of air.
      1. Classroom air conditioners have been thoroughly cleaned by air conditioning cleaning professionals.
   8. Enhanced cleaning protocols, including heightened expectation of hand washing or sanitisation by students and adults upon entering school buildings.
      1. School cleaners are informed our school COVID SAFETY PLAN.
   9. Staff and student health and safety is of the upmost importance and one of our key challenges for term 1 will be maintaining staff attendance and minimising disruption to face-to-face teaching.
      1. Parent morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up is requested to be undertaken outside the school internal buildings (except for parents of kinder and Prep students – see point iii below) please in order to mitigate the risk of further exposure to members of the school community, however, we appreciate your child’s education is a partnership between school and home and this relationship may need to be nurtured by parent-teacher discussions which may necessitate short, in-class conversations between parent and teacher, which we will support provided COVID safe guidelines are in place:
         1. All parents who enter the school building are required to use the QR code app AND sign-in at the school office please; parents should then enter the classroom from the external exit door please (the classroom door that faces a playground or external pathway area) rather than walk through internal corridors.
      2. Adults on site and outside are not required to wear face masks or sign-in, however, please observe 1.5 m distancing.

• Parents of children in Kindergarten and Prep students are welcome to use the respective external class doors (facing the playground) to enter the classrooms in the morning drop-off period and may work with their child for a short period of time. Kinder drop-off times are slightly staggered for the initial few weeks at least.

2. Programs and routines
   1. Teachers will arrange for the delivery of online learning for those students who have tested positive or are deemed to be close contacts of a confirmed case and therefore need to quarantine.
   2. Teachers will be incorporating activities to support learning in key learning areas such as English and Mathematics, using Seesaw as the online platform and incorporating learning tasks that correspond with the tasks that are planned to be undertaken as part of face-to-face learning and teaching.
      1. A variety of supporting online programs that are part of our whole-school approach to literacy and numeracy will support online learning; these programs include ‘Sound Waves’ (spelling), ‘Wushka’ (Reading), ‘Maths Online’ (Mathematics), ‘LiteracyPro’ (Reading).
      2. If families choose to keep students at home and there are no underlying medical or educational reasons for this, then the school does not need to provide Learning at Home for those children.
   3. ‘Set-up for Success/Inquiring Minds’ Birth to 4 program that we usually offer on Friday mornings has been postponed with a review being undertaken in week 3 to determine when we will be best served to offer this popular initiative. The decision to postpone the date for this initiative is a Catholic Education Tasmania direction and applies to all Catholic Education Tasmania schools.
   4. Adjustment of school events in the first 5 weeks of this term, at least, regarding camps and gatherings.
   5. School assemblies – parents are welcome to attend provided they sign-in at the school office and sign-in using the Check In Tas APP (located on the doors of each room). School captains will be instrumental in leading each assembly and student celebrations and sharing of news and class work will continue to feature:
      6. Monday mornings – Years 3, 4, 5 and 6.
      7. Tuesday mornings – Prep, Years 1 and 2.

• Wednesday to Friday mornings – School Captains will provide assemblies via Zoom to classes in their classrooms.

3. COVID notification
   1. If a student or member of staff is seen to be displaying cold or flu symptoms, we will assume COVID infection – the person expected to stay home and take a COVID test. Symptoms include: a cough, fever, shortness of breath, fatigue, body aches, headache, sore throat, runny nose.
   2. Close contact due to confirmed case of a household member:

• The person must not come to school – the family is expected to inform the principal and quarantine.
• The person must quarantine for seven days from the date of the contact even if asymptomatic.
  • The person can enter the school on day seven of the quarantine provided two negative RAT results (days 1 and 6 of the quarantine period)

1. Classmates of a confirmed case in the classroom:

• The school will contact parents of children in the class to be alert for symptoms, but face-to-face learning and teaching will continue.
  1. Class outbreak – is defined as 5 or more confirmed cases of a class within seven days:
• All members of the class are provided with RAT (three RAT kits will be provided to each member of the class) and RAT implemented at home by a parent every two days.
• Face-to-face learning and teaching will continue.
• Quarantining only if symptomatic.

4. Community-run sport associations are still supported by school teams provided the respective sport associations COVID Safety Plan supports Health Department guidelines.