Executive Director's Update to Principals #53: COVID Update - 18 Aug 2021

God of the fire and God of the wind,
God of the silent sound, when you speak to us, you do so in ways we may not expect but cannot ignore.
Allow us in this time of frantic noise and eerie stillness to listen again to the wind and the earth, to the gentle whisper of you calling our name.
May we hear in your voice words of love and hope, the good news of your presence with us still.
Amen.

Updated School Operations Guide

The Term 3 School Operations Guide has been updated and is available to download from CEVN. A summary of pertinent changes related to regional Victoria is below. 

Staff and students travelling to and from Melbourne

If you live in regional Victoria and need to travel into metropolitan Melbourne for your work or if you live in metropolitan Melbourne and work in a school in regional Victoria, an authorised worker permit is required (page 4).

Students and staff who live in metropolitan Melbourne and are enrolled in or work in a school in regional Victoria will be able to attend on-site. Staff will require an authorised worker permit. If you live in metropolitan Melbourne and work in a school in regional Victoria, an authorised worker permit is required (page 5).

See pages 4-8 for full details.

Outside School Hours Care programs 

OSHC programs in regional Victoria can accept students from multiple schools to attend the same setting. However, if the OSHC were to take students to an external venue on an excursion as part of an OSHC program (i.e. gym, gallery etc) they would not be able to use the single school carve out (See the excursions section for further information). On the OSHC premises, mixing between students should be limited as much as practicable, but density limits do not need to be applied (p 14).

Cross-border permits 

The state-wide NSW lockdown does not impact the cross-border permit system.

Cross border extreme risk zone permits are not required for people under the age of 18 travelling independently, but they must comply with all other conditions (only travelling for the permitted reasons including education).

If a student (under the age of 18) is travelling with someone over the age of 18, that adult would require a permit and would need to list the student in their cross border extreme risk zone permit application as their dependent/a person under 18.

If they have a permit, staff from the Cross-Border Community Area can still cross the Victorian-NSW border for the purposes of work or education.

See page 33 for full details.

Updated COVIDSafe Plan and COVID-19 Safety Risk Review templates

The templates for the COVIDSafe Plan and COVID-19 Safety Risk Review were updated yesterday, Tuesday 17 August, to reflect the changes made in the latest update of the School Operations Guide. They are also available on the CEVN website.

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