Dear St. Clare’s Community,

Welcome to the 2024 school year. It would seem students and staff are just excited about the start of a new school year as the parents. To witness so many smiles and catch up’s delivered with genuine enthusiasm to be back at school is truly wonderful.

We welcome our new staff, Melissa Murphy (Year 3) and Carolin Schoch (Year 5).

Unfortunately, at the end of this week we will say goodbye to Kate Mason as our HPE Teacher. Kate has made a very tough decision and is looking forward to having more time for her beautiful family. We all thank Kate for her time at St. Clare’s in the role of HPE Teacher and for all the tremendous effort she put into ensuring our students had all available opportunities to learn and grow in this area.

For Term 1 the following changes will be put in place. Penny Irvine will take Health for Years 1, 2, 3, 5 & 6 and Sharon Chappel will take Year 4 Health on Wednesdays. Cherie Jenkins will take PE lessons for all Year levels and Prep Health on Mondays and Tuesdays.

This does mean we need to make changes to uniform days for Term 1.

From Week 3 (5th Feb) onwards uniform days will be:

Sports Uniforms - Monday & Tuesday
Academic Uniforms - Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Some students may only have one Sports Uniform. If wearing the Sports Uniform 2 days in a row is problematic for you, students will be allowed to wear Cooby & Woomera shirts on Monday or Tuesday for Term 1.

The uniform requirements are attached to this newsletter as a reminder of expectations, please take particular note of the requirements around hair and the wearing of jewellery. Hair is to be kept off the face and if it is shoulder length or longer it must be worn tied back - this applies to boys and girls.

Staff 2024

Karran Burzacott - Principal
Sharon Chappel - APRE
Chris Edwards - Leader of Diversity / Leader of Learning and Teaching
Helen Andrews - Leader of Diversity
Rosanna O’Kane - Admin & Finance
Antonina Dal Zilio - Admin Support
Vera Borgna - Library Assistant / Admin Support / WHS Officer
Gita Sima  - Prep
Zanelle Collins - Year 1
Amanda Baston/ Sharon Chappel - Year 2
Melissa Murphy - Year 3
Melissa Leonardi - Year 4
Carolin Schoch - Year 5
Kaitlyn Marsilio & Cherie Jenkins - Year 6
Kate Mason (Weeks 1 & 2) - TBA - HPE
Jo Wall - The Arts
Penny Irvine - Teacher Librarian
Pauline Colombini - Student Support Officer
Alicia Johnson - Student Support Officer
Marie Vipiana - Student Support Officer / Tuckshop
Steph Grimaz - Student Support Officer
Jenny Sollitt - Student Support Officer
Natasha Johnson - Student Support Officer
Carla Low - Student Support Officer
Janine Burns - Student Support Officer
Jodie Costa - Cleaner
Luke Mason - Grounds & Maintenance

COVID

It seems the Tully area is experiencing quite a spike in COVID cases at the moment. Please see the key points from Cairns Catholic Education Operating Guidelines. Thank you for your support in keeping the spread to a minimum.

UNWELL STUDENTS

If students are unwell or have flu-like or gastrointestinal symptoms, they must not come to school; or if already at school, the students should be kept in a safe and comfortable area away from others, and the parent or caregivers should be contacted to take the student home. This is not an explicit COVID requirement, but a universal infection control measure. If the student has flu-like symptoms, the school may offer the parent or carer a RAT to take home and administer to the child. This will be dependent upon school stock, and whether the parent wishes to take a RAT kit. Students staying home when sick are likely to have a positive impact on attendance levels, as a reduced incidence of an illness in the school translates into a reduced likelihood of other students being away sick. So rather than being a competing priority, these two-work hand in hand. Ensuring students stay at home when sick should not just be an infection control response, but rather a logical step to improve the wellbeing and academic performance of our students.

COVID POSITIVE STUDENTS

• To assist the school in managing cases within the school community, parents and carers are required to notify the school if their child tests positive for COVID, but there is no requirement for parents to provide proof of infection.
• Schools are no longer required to maintain explicit records of COVID infections.
• It is recommended that students stay at home to isolate for 7 days if they test positive.
• If 7 days isolation is not possible, student MUST observe at least 2 days isolation, and can return to school after this period if they remain free of acute respiratory symptoms.
• If symptom free and returning to school within 7 days of testing positive, students aged 12 and over should wear a mask for 7 days from the date of the positive test, if they are indoors and unable to physically distance.
• No negative RAT is required to return to school.

Students on buses

 For families that use the bus services, if you have not already sent through the days your children are on the bus, could you please do so as soon as possible. It is extremely important we know which days students are catching the bus home.

From time to time you may need to let us know about changes to these days - please ring the office with any changes, before 2pm if possible.

Drop off & Pick-Up

Supervision for students begins at 8:20 am. All students arriving before this time are to remain seated in the eating area until they are dismissed. We ask that students arrive no earlier than 8am if possible. I appreciate that earlier drop offs are required from time to time due to appointments. Please let us know if you need to drop off significantly earlier than usual.

Please be mindful that the pick up zone along Mars Street is a no stopping zone. If your child requires assistance to get in the car, or with seatbelts, please park elsewhere and walk into the school to collect them. If your child is not ready for collection, or the pick up zone is full, please do a lap around the block. We need to be careful not to block Mars Street to other traffic using the area.

ATTENDANCE

Attendance data to date - 91.2% of students have attended 90% (or more). Our goal is 90% of students attending 90% of the time. Currently less than 1% of

student absences are unexplained. Our goal is 0 unexplained absences. Thank you very much and please continue to notify the office if your child will be away from school for any reason.

MEET & GREET

We invite you to mark Tuesday 20th February in your calendar to join us for a meet and greet afternoon. Come and meet your teachers for 2024 and have a look around your child's classroom.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or concerns and I look forward to catching up with you all over time.

Blessings for the weeks ahead