Executive Director's Update to Principals #5: COVID Update - 12 Feb 2021

Stage 4 COVID Restrictions

The Victorian Government today announced new directions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

As a result, in line with the directions issued from Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, all Victorian schools will move to a period of remote and flexible provision from Monday 15 February to Wednesday 17 February inclusive.

Schools must continue to provide on-site supervision for students in the following categories:

• Children whose parents are considered essential workers as listed, cannot work from home and where no other supervision arrangements can be made
• Vulnerable children, including children in out-of-home care, children deemed by Child Protection and/or Family Services to be at risk of harm and children identified by the school as vulnerable (including via referral from a family violence agency, homelessness or youth justice service or mental health or other health service).

During this period, schools should, to the extent possible, enable continuity of learning from home. This can include remote learning programs and/or the provision of learning materials.

Where necessary, students should be provided with access to digital devices to enable access to learning programs being provided by the school.

Attendance should be recorded daily for those on-site and learning from home.

Students attending on-site must be supervised at all times by staff with either current Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) registration or a Working with Children Check. Education Support staff can provide direct support to and supervision of students, provided they have access to support from a VIT registered teacher.

OSHC programs must follow these same directions.

Staff attendance

School staff not required to support the on-site supervision program should work from home for this period.

Next Week’s Leadership Gathering

Next week’s Leadership Gathering in Horsham has been postponed until further notice.

The HIVE Remote Learning Resources

The HIVE has a link to last year's Remote Learning Resources back on the homepage and in the top site menu for teachers to use as required.

PD Events Postponed

The New Learning Diversity Leader’s Induction and the Leading For Learning – L4L events scheduled for next week have been postponed until further notice.