Executive Director’s Update to Principals #86: COVID Update - 22 Sep 2021

God who washes our feet,
God who commands us to love:
before the prayers in the garden,
and the stations of the cross;
before the tomb and the spices
and the stone they put in place,
there was this moment
when you showed us what it meant
to be divine.
May we not forget
that the power to defeat death
was not what you wanted us to imitate. It was to lay aside all other things
and to love.
Amen.

~ The Corrymeela Community

COVID Update

The Deputy Premier and Minister for Education, the Hon. James Merlino, made a number of significant announcements today.

Vaccinations for teachers and school staff

The Victorian Government will require all teachers and school staff to have a first dose by 18 October or have a booking within one week, with full vaccination required by 29 November unless a medical exemption applies. This also applies to early childhood and care settings.

Air purification devices

Air purification devices will also be made available to all low-fee Victorian Catholic schools, which we believe will include schools that were deemed eligible by the Victorian Government for the Tutor Learning Initiative funding. A full list will be provided in coming days. These devices will remove potentially infectious particles – like coronavirus – from higher-risk areas in schools including staff rooms, sick bays, music rooms and other high traffic areas.

The rollout of these devices is expected to start soon, and we will provide detailed advice when it is available.

Shade sails for outdoor learning spaces

Alongside this, the Victorian Government is also making $25,000 grants available to low fee Catholic schools for shade sails, to create more outdoor learning spaces and make it easy for classes to be conducted outside.

Please continue to enjoy your well-earned break while we work through the details of the announcements with the Victorian Government. We will provide a further update on vaccination requirements, air purifiers and shade sail grants in the next week.

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