Letter to parents: 24 March 2020

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

There are currently no cases, nor any suspected cases of COVID-19 at Hope Christian College.

Thank you for helping us and cooperating with the measures that we have put in place to do our best to minimise the effect of COVID-19. Numbers of students on site are down at the College today by 36%. Students are sanitising and doing a reasonable job at distancing. The new class arrangements and segregated play spaces are limiting the numbers of students in certain areas. These things won’t eliminate COVID-19 but they will help slow the spread. Thank you to parents who did not stay on the College grounds this morning.

Risk Minimisation

We are taking measures to further increase our daily cleaning by implementing the regular use of stronger-than-hospital grade disinfectant. Staff have the ability to spray this on surfaces in their classrooms during the day and at the end of the day.

Term 1 Reports

Due to the distruption to schooling we are now facing the College has decided not to produce Interim Reports at the end of this term. At this stage our intention is to produce Semester 1 and Semester 2 reports this year.

Unemployment

If you lose your job as a result of the Coronavirus, your children will stay enrolled at Hope Christian College. If you are in this situation, please begin a discussion with Finance staff as soon as possible so that we can make arrangements. It is our intention to look after Hope Christian College families.

Student Attendance

Some students are staying home to distance themselves, before any government shut down. We are not able to do as much as we might like for these students. Years 6-12 students will be able to access current lessons on the College learning management system, SEQTA. The work that we developed ahead of time is to be used if the Government shuts the College down for an extended period of time. Some students have been able to join in from home on some lessons by using an application called “Zoom”. We currently do not have plans or the capacity to go online with Zoom for all of our lessons.

Home Education

It is important to inform you that if your intention is to withdraw your children from school to officially “home-educate”, that this is not a simple matter. You must formally apply to the Government for this to occur. This process takes some time.

Self Isolation

If you are self-isolating, please do not come into the College to ask for work or to hand work in for teaching staff across the front desk. This would break your isolation and place you in the environment from which you have decided to protect your children. If you are keeping your children home before any Government shutdown, your children will have a more limited opportunity to do any school work. We are working to grow our capacity for if schools are closed.

In some instances some students are able to connect with some classes over Zoom however the College is currently not required to do this. With 36% of students absent it is impossible to run standard classes and provide work for students who are away. This is a trial, but is not being rolled out across the College at this time.

Collecting Work for Reception to Year 5 students

We are working towards having an allocated day and time after school hours where parents can come in to the Gymnasium to collect prepared booklets etc for their children. This will be for Reception to Year 5. If your children are continuing at school until a Government mandated closure they will be able to bring home the materials.

It is your right as parents to keep your children at home. If you do this it is important that the children do stay at home, and not mix with other families or go to public places for non-essential reasons. These types of interactions may present more risk to your family than being at school.

Fire Evacuation

On a slightly amusing note, yesterday someone burnt some cooking on site which triggered a smoke alarm. In the midst of all that is going on we actually managed a pretty decent evacuation! So, well done staff and students. Although I’m sure after the all-clear we were not socially distant as we left the oval.

Yours sincerely

D Hopps
Principal