Term 4 at BBPS - Message from Mr Smerdon 1st October 2021

I hope you had a welcome change of pace over the holiday break and some time together without having to balance learning from home with other demands. Please find below details of return to school at this point in time. We will continue to update you should circumstances change of course.

Term 4 returns with learning from home:

1. As our school is in an LGA that is still under stay-at-home rules until 11 October at this time, we will continue to learn from home for the start of Term 4. It is important that you continue to keep your children home if you are able to work from home. While we are planning for our return to face-to-face learning and our teachers are completing their COVID-19 vaccinations there will only be minimal supervision for students on site and all students will be provided with the same work as they would be completing at home.

2. Please continue to access the paper resources from the front of the school, the school pop up library, the online learning hub https://sites.google.com/education.nsw.../bbpslearninghub/ and the links to digital learning resources as we did last term. Your teachers will check in with Seesaw each day and by phone. Please reach out to them for assistance, feedback or support. We are here to help!

NSW Return to school Roadmap for Term 4:

In Term 4, where stay-at-home rules are still in place but high community vaccination and low transmission conditions are met, students will return to school in a staggered approach for prioritised cohorts, with no mingling or on-site activities.

In the majority of schools students will return to face-to-face learning with NSW Health-approved COVID-safe Level 3 plus (more details about this closer to return) settings on school sites in the following order as announced by the Premier on 30 September:

From 18 October 2021: Preschool, Kindergarten and Year 1

From 25 October 2021: Years 2, 6 and 11

From 1 November 2021: Years 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

Preschool- NSW Health has advised that parents and carers across NSW are strongly encouraged to keep their children at home in areas where stay-at-home orders are in place, unless they need to be at a service. Please discuss your personal circumstances with the school and Mundarra staff if you believe they need to be in care due to your work or personal circumstances. We are here to assist.

Note: The return to school roadmap is subject to change depending on new information expected through the Public Health Order and additional advice from NSW Health.

For those families who have siblings across year groups I know it will be difficult to keep some at home while others are back on site. But to re-iterate the state based message above – we need this time to prepare our school and operations for having all our students back so it’s essential that you only send your children to school in line with the set plan.

Please take some time to check out our wellbeing resources for students and families.

https://education.nsw.gov.au/.../wellbeing-for-students...

You’ll find useful tools for mental health and Term 4 preparation. Please do not hesitate to reach out and have the chat with us if we can do anything to help you and your children to prepare for the return to face-to-face learning or if you have any concerns about the return to school.

Clearly, this term is going to see things that are a little different but we continue to be thankful for our great community support and look forward to working closely with you again to make Term 4 a fantastic and exciting one for our great kids!

Mr Smerdon I Principal