COVID-19

Dear parents,

I hope you had an enjoyable Christmas break.  As we approach the beginning of the 2022 School year, I wish to advise you of our Covid-19 plans and policies following the latest mandates and advice from the State Government.

There is much to communicate as there are many factors we have had to consider when putting these plans together.  In order to keep this email to an appropriate length, many of the relevant details are summarised below with links to more information should you wish to go deeper.

In all of the plans and policies we have implemented at St Paul’s School, we follow the health advice from the State Government and have sought best practice advice from around the world..  The overarching aim is to keep our community safe. I believe that by working together and supporting one another we can meet the challenges of this year and enjoy a positive and productive 2022.

Classroom ventilation

As I have previously communicated, we conducted a CO2 audit in late 2021. The aim of this audit was to determine which classrooms may need additional ventilation measures in order to reduce the risk of transmission of Covid-19 in classrooms.

The standard we used was the Australian National Construction Code which uses 850 parts per million as the maximum desirable level of CO2 in any new construction. Of the 176 rooms and spaces across the entire campus we audited, just 17 rooms were unable to achieve 850 PPM, mainly because of automated building ventilation systems. For these spaces, HEPA air purifiers have been ordered and our COVID-19 Sick Bay will also be equipped with HEPA air purifiers.

Vaccines and access to the campus

Due to Queensland Government mandates, any teacher, tutor, contractor or volunteer engaging in any work with the School must be fully vaccinated.  However, visitors to the School do not need to be vaccinated.

For example, any parent who wishes to coach a School sports team must be fully vaccinated, however, all parents (regardless if they are vaccinated or not) could attend a TAS game as a spectator.  Similarly, parents can visit Sippers, attend music concerts and drop off/collect their children from school regardless of vaccination status.  We do, however, encourage all eligible members of our community to get vaccinated.

A more detailed breakdown of the vaccination requirements for engagements with the school can be found here.

If you wish to notify the School of you or your child’s vaccination status, you can do so via Parent Lounge.  Instructions on how to do this can be found here.

Covid testing and detection process

As we prepare for positive COVID-19 cases in our community, it is more important than ever to keep your child at home if they have any COVID-like symptoms. Our first-aid staff will be using the healthdirect COVID-19 symptom checker. I encourage you to use it too.

If a case of Covid-19 is detected in the School community, we have developed a process for Junior School and Secondary School. In the event of a positive case of Covid, your child may be administered a rapid antigen test at school by a trained first aid officer.

These rapid tests are far less invasive than what you have likely undertaken in the past.  These tests involves spitting into a tube with the saliva then analysed in 15-30 minutes. These tests can tell if you are likely to have Covid-19 meaning those who return a positive test will then likely have to undertake a standard Covid test through a health agency.

These tests will be administered on an ‘opt out’ basis, so if you do not wish for your child to be administered a rapid antigen Covid test you must inform the School.  N.B. If you do opt out of your child receiving an antigen test in the event they are a close contact of a positive case, they too will be assumed to be positive with Covid until the School is provided with a negative test result.

Potential lockdowns and remote learning

Unless there is a specific lockdown order from the State Government, St Paul’s School will treat COVID-19 as an infectious disease follow directions from Queensland Health.

The School has an escalation plan for particular thresholds of cases that will trigger further containment measures.  These can be viewed here.

Remote learning will only be offered in exceptional circumstances at the School’s discretion.  For example, remote learning will not be provided to those students whose parents decide to exclude their children from School during an outbreak unless there are extenuating circumstances.

For students who fall ill with COVID-19, any support given will be the same as if they were unwell with any other illness, i.e. they will not be offered online learning.

For those students who are instructed by Queensland Health to isolate, the School will support their learning while they are away in an age appropriate manner, which might include online learning.

The year ahead

I appreciate this is a lot of information to take in, however, we want to be prepared for any eventuality and ensure your children are both safe in our care and continue to receive an education worth having.

Although some of this might seem overwhelming, I continue to be grateful for the goodwill and resilience demonstrated by our community.  I am grateful that all domestic tours and camps are scheduled to proceed, as well as TAS sport and other extra-curricular activities.  These are important elements in a holistic education and bring with them a feeling of normality.

Because of this and the collective goodwill of our community, I look forward to the year ahead and working alongside you to help your children create their own story.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Browning
Headmaster

Dear Parents,

It has certainly been an interesting start to 2022!  The virus continues to circulate and the latest modelling indicates the peak of the current wave is not far away.

As we prepare to commence remote learning for 2022, I wanted to email you all with some further details about the upcoming two weeks as well as some broader comments about the upcoming year.

First a clarification.  In my initial email regarding the term dates for this year, the date I listed for the final day of Term 4 was incorrect.  I can confirm the final day of Term 4 2022 will be Friday 25 November. I apologise for that error.

Laptop collection

Any Secondary School families still waiting to collect their child’s pre-ordered laptop from Datacom can come to the Tooth building between 8am and 3pm on Thursday 20 January.  There will be signs set up to direct you to the collection location.

For Junior School students, laptops will be available for collection from the Junior School carpark on Thursday 20 January and a separate email will be sent from the Director of Junior School with specific details about this process.

How remote learning will work

For all remote learning students:

• The timetable will continue to operate as normal.
• During the school day, students are to wear either their School uniform, a multi-purpose St Paul’s School shirt or their House shirt.
• Students will be required to undertake their specific learning activities for subjects in accordance with their timetable.
• There will be a ten-minute gap between lessons.  If you wish to enable the School’s bell to ‘ring’ via your laptop at the beginning and end of lessons you can do so here.
• During the time set aside for specific classes, teachers will undertake virtual lessons via Microsoft Teams (Secondary School),  Seesaw (Junior School) or Storypark (Pre-Prep)
  • For those students undertaking lessons on Teams, their camera must remain on for the duration of the lesson.
  • Students are encouraged to undertake their lessons from a communal room in their house and not from their bedroom.
• Private music tutor lessons will continue via video conferencing using Microsoft Teams (accessible through the Office 365 Portal).
• Counselling sessions will continue via video conferencing using Microsoft Teams (accessible through the Office 365 Portal).
• All excursions and on-campus-specific activities will be cancelled or rescheduled (look out for class-specific information from your teachers)

For Secondary School (Years 7-12) students:

• Work will also be available on the Learn Portal. Teachers will communicate with students via Microsoft Teams and students will continue to submit classwork, homework and assignments as they would usually do.
• If a lesson will be conducted via video conferencing using Microsoft Teams (accessible through the Office 365 portal), the  teacher will advise participants via email.

For Junior School (Prep – Year 6) students:

• Teachers will set work and provide feedback on submitted work via Seesaw.
• You will soon receive an email from the Director of Junior School with specific details including how to access your child’s classes on Seesaw and when class materials can be collected

For Pre-Prep students

• Teachers will set work and provide feedback on submitted work via Storypark.
• You will likely have already received a message via email with a link to access Storypark.  If you are yet to receive this, you will soon receive an email from the Director of Junior School with more details regarding the collection of class materials.  When you come to the School to collect these items you can also get a fresh link to access Storypark.

We have some resources on our website with advice on how to maximise the learning at home experience.

What about new students?

All new students who are collecting laptops can refer to our ‘setup’ guide to help you through the process of getting your laptop ready for remote learning.

For Secondary School students, the most important software to get working prior to Monday 24 January is Microsoft Teams.  After you have accessed Teams you will need to log in.  After you have done this, your timetable will be viewable and you can ‘join’ your first class of the day by selecting it from the calendar.  If you have any difficulties, please contact your Tutor in Secondary School or your classroom teacher in Junior School.

For Junior School students, SeeSaw (Prep to Year 6) and Storypark (Pre-Prep) will be your most important software.  More details on how Junior School students can access and use these programs will be sent from the Director of Junior School but, in the meantime, we encourage you to download the Seesaw app or Storypark app to your device or home computer in preparation.  Seesaw also has a useful remote learning guide for families.

How will the first day work?

All classes for all Year levels will commence at 11:00am on Monday 24 January.

• For Secondary School, Tutor will run from 10:30am until 10:55am with Period 3 classes commencing at 11am.
  • Year 7 will have an induction day with their core teachers.  More details will be sent regarding the structure of this day later in the week.

Children of essential workers

If you are an essential worker and require your child to physically attend school from Monday 24 January, please RSVP here.  This will allow us to plan accordingly and ensure we have adequate staff on site to supervise your children.

Absences

If your child is unwell and unable to attend lessons online on a given day/s (including in the remote learning period) please notify the School via Parent Lounge. SMS notifications will be still be sent to parents based on unexplained absences at the end of Period 1.

Technical support

Due to unprecedented demand on the IT Department and to ensure appropriate social distancing is adhered to, technical support will not be available via walk-in requests or phone calls.  The vast majority of technical questions can be resolved online and we encourage you to take advantage of this.  As such, technical support will be available via the following means:

1. Logging a support request ticket to the St Paul’s School IT Department by sending an email to [email protected]
2. If your issue is unable to be resolved by a support ticket or you have a physical problem with your device, please book a support session here.

Library and resources

Students and/or families will be able to collect the textbooks and class novels that Secondary students will need for the start of remote learning from Thursday 20 January, from the Secondary Library. Collection will be via appointment only. Please book an appointment here. Please note that not all students will need to collect physical resources, as many classes use digital learning platforms or provide access to digital textbooks and resources. To check which resources your student will need, please visit https://stpauls.qld.edu.au/library/textbooks/ or check with your student’s class teacher.

Plans are being made to enable Junior School families and students to borrow from the Junior School Library. Information about this and the digital resources available now, including ebooks, audiobooks and Story Box Library, will be emailed to parents along with student logins to access these digital resources.

If you are unable to visit the School to collect the necessary textbooks and class novels, please email [email protected] so we can make other arrangements to get the resources to you.

When School returns

If all goes well, we should resume face-to-face learning on Monday 7 February.  A document with more specific back-to-school logistics can be found here, however something I wanted to draw particular attention to is the importance of keeping your child home from school if they are showing any symptoms of illness – no matter how mild.

Additionally, once school resumes, if a teacher deems a child to be symptomatic, they will likely ask your child to report to sickbay and you will be called to collect them.

I appreciate this is a lot of information to take in, however, we want to be as open and transparent as possible with you.

I continue to be grateful for the goodwill and resilience demonstrated by our community and I look forward to welcoming you back onto campus when it is safe to do so.  When this timing is confirmed, I will be in touch with more specific details regarding access to the campus and logistical arrangements.

Yours sincerely,

Paul