Dear Families

Welcome to start of Term 4.  We have certainly had a bumpy ride but I have been so impressed with the way the staff and students have buckled in to ride out what looks like an interesting few weeks.  Hopefully we can then enjoy a really positive finish to the year.

I have returned from my Long Service Leave this week and while my plans to travel interstate to visit family were scuttled, I can report I have the best veggies, new chook house and cleanest shed in Gippsland.  This the longest amount of time I have been away from work in my 26 years of education and it seems timely as i come back refreshed and looking forward to sharing this last term with you before I transfer to St.Vincent's.  Over the break I managed to spend some time with Mrs.Darby who will take on the principalship of Lumen Christi in 2022.  I spent time describing the school, staff and students and funnily enough she asked why would I want to leave!  I know Sally will be a great fit for our school and we are blessed to have been lucky to secure such a great person and professional.

The State Government announcement have provided some clarity to the structure of the next few weeks.  At this stage the advice as we understand it is for Latrobe Valley schools to follow the Regional Roadmap.  Essentially that means our Junior students (Years Prep -2) will return to school full time from tomorrow, while our Senior buildings works remotely.  For Weeks 2 and 3 our Years 3-6 return part-time with schools given flexibility to coordinate how they deal with compostie structures.  We plan on Year 3 attending Tuesdays and Wednesdays, while Year 4/5 and Year 5/6 will be onsite Thursdays and Fridays.

It is likely that we will still need to offer some form of onsite supervision and we will release the booking request form which will need to be complete by this evening.  We ask for your cooperation in completing these forms promptly and meeting our set deadlines so we can coordinate our staffing.  Our staff have been outstanding over the past two years and I believe we have been very accommodating in our onsite procedures. Parents need to be aware the current conditions see all workplaces being pushed to the limit in regards staffing and we simply will struggle to be able to accommodate late requests as we move into a new phase of teaching some year levels onsite, some remotely but also adequately supervise onsite attendance.  

Even though the anticipated road-map is a step in the right direction towards a return to normal it will require considerable coordination and a greater effort from everyone in our community.  I look forward to sharing the next few interesting weeks with everyone.

As we move into the LIVING with COVID stage I ask that all families continue to monitor the health advice and be compliant with the guidelines specified so that we reduce the risk of Lumen Christi having to return to Remote Learning settings due to an unnecessary exposure.

Take care, Dave