30 Aug 2021
Good Morning,
Welcome to Week 8 of Term 3! As we continue into our tenth week of lockdown, please ensure you are prioritising your physical and mental health by taking advantage of the beautiful weather today and completing your hour of exercise outside.
As you are aware, the Premier made an announcement on Friday about planning a safe return to school. We are still working through the details of what this will look like for Riverstone HS considering our students, community and our location within the Blacktown LGA.
The summary we have been provided with is:
- From Monday 25 October, select cohorts under stay-at-home rules – starting with students in Kindergarten and Year 1 – will return to face-to-face learning under Level 3 plus COVID-safe settings, as long as community transmission and vaccination rate requirements have been met.
- Level 3 plus COVID-safe settings include things such as staggered start times for each Year Group and no mixing of student cohorts.
- From Monday 1 November, students in Years 2, 6 and 11 will return to school sites under Level 3 plus settings.
- From Monday 8 November, students in Years 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10 return to school sites under Level 3 plus settings.
More details will be shared this week once the Public Health Order is issued.
Part of the announcements on Friday discussed vaccination opportunities for students and a mandate for all staff to be vaccinated by November 8th. We will provide more information surrounding student vaccinations once this is available.
It is important to read the above information with an understanding that our return to school plan will be guided by the NSW DoE advice and the community transmission rates within our LGA (Blacktown). This could mean a later return if the transmission rates remain high. We will be doing all we can to make sure we keep you updated on our plans and the processes we will be putting in place to help ensure COVID safe practices for all staff and students.
While having a clearer idea of when school should be returning may be comforting, we also understand that this presents a longer time for students to be learning from home. We greatly appreciate the support of our parent/carer community in keeping children at home and we recognise the challenges this poses for many families. Our staff have done an exceptional job of designing engaging class content to help keep students engaged. As we continue our remote learning we will be maintaining our high expectations and student contact to help ensure we all get through this together.
Other news:
Our Support Unit is Off to Canberra (Virtually!)
This week, students in our Support Unit will be completing a virtual tour of Canberra. They will be visiting places like The War Memorial, Questacon, The Royal Australian Mint and the National Galleries through online virtual experiences. Students will be emailed out the details and links they need to join the excursions each day.
Have a wonderful time everyone!
Assessments
Please ensure students are aware of the Assessment Information that has been linked to our RHS Remote Learning HUB and emailed to Year 11 students. This maps out all assessments and examinations that are due over the coming weeks. If you or your child have questions, please do not hesitate to ring or email the school.
Stay Safe