22 May 2020
Dear Parents and Carers,
As you would be aware, on Tuesday this week the NSW Premier announced that all students would return to school as normal starting next Monday 25th of May. Please note the following excerpt from the Department of Education:
Schools are safe and open for full time face-to-face learning
All schools are returning to full on-campus learning from Monday 25 May. All school activities and operations will be in line with Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) and NSW Health guidelines as applicable.
Attendance, illness and support
All students are expected to attend school unless they are unwell. If parents believe that their child has a condition which means it is not safe for them to return to school, they will need to obtain a medical certificate. These are likely to be children with suppressed immune systems or undergoing treatment like chemotherapy. This means students are either:
· at school;
· at home because they are currently unwell;
· at home because they have a medical certificate which states that
they are unable to return to school due to an ongoing medical condition.
If your child is unwell, please do not send them to school. If they are unwell at school you or your nominated emergency contact will need to collect them immediately. Please make sure your contact details are up to date. If a student is absent without a medical reason for more than three days, this will be recorded as an unauthorised absence and followed up by the school.
If you need any support to get your child back to school, please contact our Head Teacher Wellbeing Ms Mel Haskara, the student’s year adviser or, for SEEK students the Head Teacher, Ms Lewis.
Students who have a medical certificate to stay at home will be supported to learn from home in line with regular procedures if they are able to. These regular procedures are different to what was offered during the learning from home period. If you require work to be provided to your child whilst they are at home due to an underlying health condition, you should contact the school for assistance.
Hygiene and communication
Our school will be implementing various hygiene practices in class to reduce the risk of spreading or passing on any illness. The school has also introduced enhanced cleaning procedures with regular cleaning throughout the day of high touch surfaces, and also extra cleaning hours for the school.
We will continue to encourage good personal hygiene practices of regular washing of hands, not sharing drinks or food and sneezing into your elbow or a tissue. The canteen will be in full operation, however, students will need to be social distancing for service. I encourage students to order their food at the beginning of the day to aid safe and efficient service practices.
Cessnock High School will be publishing updated information on our Cessnock High School Facebook page and the Cessnock High School website. We are consolidating the number of FB posts that are published. This means there will only be limited FB posts (if and as required) that will be a summary of current information/announcements/advice from Cessnock High School.
Thank you for your understanding and support during these tough times. With your continued support of social distancing and hygiene practices I hope we can all continue to move forward toward returning to regular social practices.
Yours Sincerely,
Peter Riley
Principal