Dear Parents

Welcome back! In whatever form you and your family are engaging with school, we are pleased to “see” everybody and know you are all well, safe and ready for Term 2.

It has certainly been an interesting few weeks with stay at home, social distancing, Anzac day on your driveway and the other changes the Covid-19 crisis has created and a rocky start to school with competing priorities and advice. In years to come these holiday stories will make for some very interesting reading!

At Joeys, these next few weeks will look like this: Week 1 and 2 - limited return to school of our essential workers and special case students. All students complete blended learning either at home or here at school. There will be no difference in the work being covered in either place.

As we begin the return to school, the students who have been at school will continue to attend on the days their parents and carers have nominated.

Week 3 will start our slow, staged return to ‘normal’ school….. We would like to have Kinder to Year 2 returning first. This is because we all feel the older students are coping well with the Zoom, Google Classroom and learning expectations. Students of essential workers and special case students who have been already attending school in Weeks 1 and 2 will continue their same routine.

So, from Week 3, students in Kinder to Year 2 (ES1 and S1), are invited to join us at school on Monday and Tuesday if their parents would like to take up this opportunity. In Week 4 we will add S2 on Wednesday and S3 on Thursday along with ES1 and S1 continuing. In Week 5, S2 and S3 will join us on Wednesday and Thursday with ES1 and S1 on their days.

Older siblings are also welcome to attend on Monday and Tuesday in Week 3 if this assists parents. Unfortunately, from Week 4, students will only attend on the day they are rostered.

On the days when students are not onsite at school, they can continue with the blended learning approach we have adopted.

Students will be required to bring their school chromebooks with them to school on their rostered day/s. Parents need to be aware that you will still be responsible for the safety of these devices until school returns to normal.

Following these few weeks of timed returning, we hope we can welcome back all students but this will be dependent on the progress of Covid-19. (More information on this as that week approaches.)

So that looks like this..

If this proves impossible for you or your family, please contact the office. You may also like to refer to the most recent letters from the Catholic Schools Office and from the school, both dated 23 April, regarding returning to school in Term 2, which were emailed to parents last week and can be found on the school website: https://www.alstplism.catholic.edu.au/. If you need further explanation, please email therese.seymour@lism.catholic.edu.au.

APRIL Thursday 30 - Junior

Joeys begins (POSTPONED - proposed new start date: Thursday, 4 June.)

MAY

Mon 4 - Wed 6 - S3 Lennox Head Camp - POSTPONED

Friday 8 - Bookclub issue 3 orders DUE. Online (L.O.O.P.) orders only.

Tues 12 - Fri 22 - NAPLAN Years 3 & 5 - CANCELLED

JUNE

Thursday 4 - Junior Joeys begins (proposed amended start date).

Tuesday 23 - Confirmation, 6pm - POSTPONED

Friday 26 - Term 2 Fees DUE - refer to C.S.O. letter dated 3 April, 2020 available on our school website.

JULY

Friday 3 - Last day Term 2

Monday 20 - Staff Development Day

Tuesday 21 - Students return Term 3.

AUGUST Tuesday 11 - School

Photos rescheduled. Friday 28 - Family Day

SEPTEMBER Tuesday 1 -

Recommencement of approved, deferred school fee payment arrangements.

11 Perry Street Alstonville NSW 2477 ( PO Box 265 ) Phone: 02 6628 1009 www.alstplism.catholic.edu.au Email: alstp@lism.catholic.edu.au

WEEK 1

Term 2 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Week 3 ES1 & S1 ES1 & S1 ----- -----

Week 4 ES1 & S1 ES1 & S1 S2 S3

Week 5 ES1 & S1 ES1 & S1 S2 & S3 S2 & S3

Week 6 To be advised

If you would prefer to keep your children at home until there is greater surety around the Covid-19 concern then this is completely okay too.

In addition to the slow, staged return to school, we are trying to limit interactions with others outside school. For staff, this continues to be social distancing whenever they are outside school and it will mean no face to face interactions with parents inside school for now. So, please be aware that parents need to stop at the front gate/ office area and not venture into school before or after school please. If you urgently need to talk to staff this will need to be managed by phone or email for now. If you do come to school to drop off books, drop in a drink bottle, etc. then the ladies in the office will organise for that to occur for you.

Any external tutors, counsellors or health care people will not be allowed on site until further notice. All LAP tutors will be advised they cannot visit at this stage.

Our cleaner is doing double cleans each week and we have staff allocated to doing in-between cleans of areas like playground equipment and other shared spaces.

There is plenty of soap and hand sanitiser. All children need a drink bottle for school as there is no access to bubblers. We will check the temperatures of any child who presents to the sick bay. Any child who becomes unwell during the day will be sent home. We are taking every precaution we can to keep us all safe and well. We are very grateful for your support with this.

This week you will receive an SMS from Schoolworx (our roll marking system) if your child is absent. Please reply with either sick, self isolating or details, if their absence is for another reason. If you advise that your child is absent due to self isolation, they will be marked as such for Week 1 and 2, negating the need for a daily SMS. Please Note: Previous advice received in Term 1 that your child is self isolating is deemed to relate to Term 1 only. If you receive an SMS it is important that you reply to avoid your child being marked as Absent - unexplained rather than Offsite Learning (as in the case of those self isolating and working from home). Now that we are sure of the way Week 3 onwards looks, we are asking ALL parents to advise us of their plans by emailing the school on alstp@lism.catholic.edu.au. This will also make the SMS process far easier from then.

Road Works and Car Parking on Perry Street During the holidays, Ballina Shire Council advised they would be commencing the work in Perry St. This involves levelling and bitupaving the road, guttering and the added bonus of structured car parking along our school boundary. Once the signage is put in place, you will notice some parking is only 15 minute parking. It will also mean the cars that used to park on the corner will no longer be able to do this. Please be patient as this work continues. The signage will be the last to go up. Meanwhile car drop off and pick up will probably be the easiest option for families. During this work our side gates will not be opened. So entry will only be at the back and front of school in the morning and afternoon times. We will be having some interruption to our water supply on Thursday due to water main replacement involved with these works. Please make sure that all students bring a drink bottle on this day.

Mothers Day Stall Liz Bugden has kindly agreed to assist with our Mothers’ Day Stall in Week 2 on Thursday 7 May. We know this is a special time for our students to be able to choose a gift for mum or grandma, so we will be holding the stall on Thursday morning for those attending school. The following day, Friday 8 May, Liz has also offered to run the stall, between 9-12am, for those students who have not yet returned to school, who wish to purchase a gift. Parents, please take your child directly to the Intervention room (opposite Stage 3 classrooms), use the sanitiser provided and maintain appropriate social distancing. Gifts range in price from $1 to $7.

Chess update The following message from Danielle Bullen made its way to me - “..the online chess is going great with about 28 students signed up and playing... I have been running them over the holidays too and getting great feedback from parents saying their kids are loving it.” If you would like to join in, please contact Danielle directly by email mrsdaniellebullen@gmail.com . It seems to be a terrific way to bridge that gap at present.

Enrolling now for 2021 Our Junior Joeys program was scheduled to begin this week, however, due to the present circumstances, this transition program will now not begin until Thursday, 4 June. Meanwhile, we need to still do our Kinder 2021 enrolments. So, if you have a child beginning school next year, or know of anyone who does, would you please remind them to get an enrolment application. Enrolment applications for school and Junior Joeys are available from our website https://www.alstplism.catholic.edu.au/ under the Enrolment tab or by contacting the office to have an enrolment package mailed out.

Family Fun Night We had planned a Family Fun Night this Term, with Mrs Rowling keen to offer a free family night for us all to enjoy. Covid-19 means this is not possible right now but Mrs Moloney put her thinking cap on and came up with an idea! She is calling it St Joseph's, Virtual Family Trivia Game and is asking you all to let her know the best time to open this so that you can participate as a bit of family fun. Please complete this survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1KW3C2vxn_lg6HXzJHxH44efcG5XpocQTEAQTgTxiWfU/edit?ts=5e9fa7cb and we will get this happening! Thank you to Anna and the staff who assisted in putting this together. Anzac Day 2020 Usually in this newsletter we get to share the photos from the Alstonville Anzac Day March. This year we put a call out on our school Facebook page for photos to be shared with us. You can see these later in our newsletter. Staff and students were also invited to join our school ceremony via Zoom yesterday. Congratulations to everyone for joining in the Anzac Spirit in so many clever and meaningful ways.

Therese Seymour

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The following children have celebrated their birthday since our last newsletter:

Myf Richardson, Ruby Vickrage,

Felicity Bultitude, Rose Driscoll, Zeke Kubils,

Jasper Burton-Clay, Jayden Bennett,

Ollie Hipkins, Kai Kubils and Jordy Thompson.

Happy Birthday from all of us at joeys

Leader of School Evangelisation - Mrs Julia Meyers Please click on the following link to Bishop Homeming’s celebration of Third Sunday of Easter Mass held on Sunday 26 April, 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrNLxYzjcI4

SPORT NEWS Sport in Term 2 The advice from both Catholic Schools NSW and our Diocese, tells us that there will be no Sport outside school this Term. This means any student who was to go on to higher representation in a sport during this Term will probably find that this will not occur. We have not worried about Cross Country at this point because there will be no Zone or Diocesan Cross Country this Term, however, we are looking at ways we might manage aspects of the Athletics. Stay tuned!

CANTEEN

CANTEEN WILL REMAIN CLOSED UNTIL

FURTHER NOTICE.

LIBRARY NEWS

Library borrowing and Take Home Readers The Library is still closed at this time, however, parents can arrange for Book Boxes to be collected from the office. Also, if your child would like to borrow a particular book from the Library, I am happy to take it to the office for collection. In both cases, please email me to make arrangements.

BOOKCLUB Issue 3 ORDER NOW

Book Club is here but a little bit different!

Catalogues can be viewed online at Scholastic.

Orders can only be made online using LOOP. We will not be processing any orders here at school. You will need to create an account in LOOP to place your order, select your students' Stage and pay securely online. Orders will be delivered to school and you will be notified when they are ready for collection.

Orders must be made via LOOP by Friday 8 May. There are some great bargains in Book Club, and remember our School Library benefits from every sale.

Happy Reading Ros Kingsford

Library Manager

SCHOOL FEE SUPPORT We take this opportunity to again bring to your attention, special support arrangements for families, implemented by the Diocese of Lismore due to the COVID-19 health crisis as advised previously. These are: 1. Waiving of outstanding 2020 school fees for those families in receipt of JobSeeker payments. In order for school fees to be

waived, please forward a copy of your letter from Centrelink. Please note: the JobKeeper payment does not make you eligible for this concession.

2. Families experiencing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 health crisis may apply to defer the payment of school fees until 1st September. Please make your application in writing via the school email: alstp@lism.catholic.edu.au. When considering this option, please take into account that deferring the payment of school fees will result in an increase to your minimum instalment amount once this period has ended. Please contact Tanya Pagotto, who will recalculate your new minimum instalment amount.

Of course, at any time when your circumstances may change and impact your financial situation, we ask you to please contact Therese Seymour to discuss the options available to you. The letter from C.S.O. regarding fees, dated 3 April, is available on our school website under Recent Notes or via the C.S.O.’s website Covid-19 Information Centre for your reference also.

Prayer for a Pandemic

By Cameron Bellm

May we who are merely inconvenienced Remember those whose lives are at stake.

May we who have no risk factors Remember those most vulnerable.

May we who have the luxury of working from home Remember those who must choose between preserving their health or making their rent.

May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when their schools close Remember those who have no options.

May we who have to cancel our trips Remember those that have no place to go.

May we who are losing our margin money in the tumult of the economic market Remember those who have no margin at all.

May we who settle in for a quarantine at home Remember those who have no home.

During this time when we cannot physically wrap our arms around each other, Let us yet find ways to be the loving embrace of God to our neighbors.

Amen.

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DO WE HAVE THE CORRECT INFORMATION?

As you can understand, it is important at any

time but especially given the current circumstances, that the school has your correct

contact details. If you have moved house, changed jobs or are in any doubt about what

contact numbers (including Emergency Contacts), and emails we have on record, please

contact the school to check and if necessary, update your information.

Mothers’ Day Stall Dear Parents & Carers,

We are still organising a Mother’s Day Stall for the children to be able to buy a small gift for their mother’s, grandmother’s or female carers. It will of course run a little differently to previous years.

We have some beautiful gifts this year, ranging in price from $1 - $7. (There is a sneak peek at right.)

The stall will be open for students attending school next Thursday morning, 7th May, and if parents want to bring other students in on Friday 8th May, I will be there 9am – 12pm to help. It would help if you could text me if you intend to come on the Friday so that I might be able to co-ordinate times to try and prevent everyone arriving at once and to help conform with current social distancing rules.

Please contact me on 0428 285 048.

We have decided to keep the Mother’s Day stall running for a couple of reasons - the stock had already arrived before Covid 19 was an issue and to still give the children the ability to get a gift for their loved ones.

Until next time Liz Bugden PSF Co-ordinator

ANZAC Day 2020

Congratulations to Verity Paulsen, seen

here at right, collecting her prize after winning the

guessing competition which

was part of our Project Compassion fundraising activities.