Executive Director’s Update to Principals #1: COVID Update - 19 January 2022

Loving God,  
Our creator, our saviour, our companion,  
bless this journey of a new school year that we undertake together.
Refresh our souls 
and renew our spirits 
as we embrace the beautiful ministry you have called us to in 2022.  
Bless each of us for the many gifts we have been given and for the privileges that our leadership roles bring.    
Lord, make our hearts pure as we prepare for the return of students and staff to the schools throughout the Diocese of Ballarat next week,  
and may you guide us and them to return with open hearts and minds eager to learn and teach. Help us to be strong and courageous; and be with us wherever we go this year. 
We ask this in Your name,  
Amen 

~ The Corrymeela Community

Happy New Year and welcome to those who join our diocesan community for the first time.  As we prepare to commence another school year, we look forward to collaborating in the spirit of the Gospel in 2022 and working together to support the needs of our amazing students, families and staff.   

As Principals, with the team at CEB, we continue to navigate educational leadership in extraordinary times and our school communities provide an extraordinary ministry as places of consistency, confidence and hope amidst the many other challenges of life. 

COVID Update

As we commence our preparations for another hope-filled school year, we acknowledge the concern of our school communities with the continuing presence of COVID within the state. Uncertainty regarding school COVID protocols remains, and at this time, CECV and CEB have not received any formal advice from the Victorian Government regarding the commencement of the school year.   

We await the updated School Operations Guide (SOG) from the Department of Education (DET) and the CECV and will be shared with you as soon as possible.  We anticipate this will coincide with the commencement of the term. 

To assist schools in planning for a safe return to school, any information that becomes available before then will be shared promptly.  In the meantime, we provide the following advice-: 

Close contacts

With the change to the definition of close contacts, i.e., to household or household-like contacts only, schools will not be required to compile the contact information (spreadsheet) for the Department of Health as we did last year. 

For household or household-like contacts: 

• Where someone has spent more than four hours with someone who has COVID-19 inside a house, accommodation, or care facility. 
• You must quarantine for 7 days. 
• You must get tested on Day 1 of quarantine (or as soon as possible) and get tested again on Day 6 of quarantine - with a rapid antigen test or a PCR test if you can’t access a rapid antigen test. 
• If you test positive on a rapid antigen test, you must report your result. Visit Reporting your result page for more information. 

• Household or household-like contacts are also referred to as close contacts. 

For education and workplace contacts: 

• Where someone who has COVID-19 has informed you that you are their social contact, or a workplace or education facility has informed you that you are a workplace or education contact.  
• If you have symptoms, you must use a rapid antigen test or get a PCR test if you can’t access a rapid antigen test. 

• If you don't have symptoms, you are recommended to use a daily rapid antigen test for 5 days.   
• If you test positive on a rapid antigen test, you must report your result. Visit Reporting your result page for more information.  
• If you don’t have symptoms and cannot access a rapid antigen test, then monitor for symptoms and get tested if symptoms emerge.  

We anticipate the Schools Operation Guide and DET advice will provide further guidance regarding instances of school-based exposure.   

You can also refer to the coronavirus.vic.gov.au contact checklist for further information.  Note, if you are a confirmed case you need to follow the checklist for cases.  

Access to Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) and N-95 Masks

You will be aware the demand for access to RATs and N-95 Face Masks has been greater than supply.  We understand that a supply of RATs will be made available for education staff and students and at this stage we have not been informed when the RATs will be delivered.  We continue to work with CECV to ensure these supplies are made as early as possible.  We are unclear about the intended provision of N-95 masks, however if you can secure a basic supply for members of your staff, this may be advisable for the start of the year. 

Face masks

Wearing a mask is required for everyone aged 8 and above in all indoor settings in Victoria (unless an exception applies, such as when in a home, when consuming food or drink, or when receiving beauty services). 

CHO advice strongly recommends wearing a mask if you can’t physically distance, even if you are outdoors, have any symptoms, or if you are with people who may be vulnerable to COVID-19.    For more information regarding where face masks are required and exceptions for not wearing a face mask refer to the updated information at www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/face-masks-when-wear-face-mask. 

The Vic Gov Coronavirus website provides a range of posters informing everyone of mask and other requirements.  You can download these for free (in a range of languages) via https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/signs-posters-and-templates#business-display-posters-and-flyers. 

General Advice regarding COVID safe schools

We understand there are questions about upcoming PD, inductions, parent/teacher meetings and a range of other activities and events taking place over the next few weeks.  In the absence of an updated SOG, we trust that principals will make informed decisions under their delegated authority as leaders of their schools. 

It is not advisable to conduct whole school assemblies or liturgies at the start of the year. There is also merit in considering whether staff meetings could be conducted online. Equally, schools will need to consider whether events that may bring families onsite and into close proximity with staff and one another are essential or if alternatives exist.  

For all other activities, we advise that until further guidance is received, principals consider the merit of each event/activity and the context in which it is to occur, asking yourself: 

• Is the activity essential to support the students? 
• Can it be delivered/undertaken differently (online, written correspondence etc.)? 
• Can it be postponed/rescheduled? 

If the event/activity is essential but can be delivered in an alternate way or postponed, we recommend you do so for now.  

If the event/activity is essential and cannot be delivered in an alternate way or postponed, proceed ensuring you make it a COVID Safe event/activity adhering to current Victorian Government advice (e.g., face masks, distancing and density requirements, access to handwashing/sanitiser etc.).  

Consideration may be given to holding the event/activity outdoors rather than indoors, reducing the duration and/or limiting attendance numbers. 

Please do not hesitate to contact your Education Consultant for further support. 

Planning for Potential Staffing Shortfalls Due to Isolation Requirements 

A number of concerns have already been raised regarding possible shortfalls in staffing should increasing numbers of staff need to isolate due to Covid and the school’s inability to replace staff due to shortfalls in CRT numbers. With this in mind, we would like to run a series of Video Conference catchups with the principals in each zone to start capturing some ideas of how we might deal with this situation should it arise.  

The first of these will be held on Tuesday, 25 January at 10.00 am. We are aware that you are still on holiday, so we do invite you to join if you are available. We felt that it was important to attend to this sooner rather than later as it is already causing angst for some principals. We also thought it would be good to get in early. So please note, attendance at this first video conference is purely invitational. 

You will receive a video meeting invite from the following:

• Southern Zone Primary – Eugene Dalton 
• Central Zone Primary – Lee Schlooz 
• Northern Zone Primary – Matt Byrne 
• Secondary – Tim O’Farrell 

For this online meeting, could you please give some consideration to; 

• What might be some of the possible solutions should you have a number of staff away and you are unable to replace them with CRTs? 
• Is there scope for schools to network and “share” staff to fill gaps? 
• At what point do you feel children/classes may need to be sent home or schools closed due to inability to fully staff? 

All ideas will be collated.  There will be a second online meeting on Thursday, 27 January, at 2.00 pm. We want all principals to attend this meeting, and at this time, we will be able to share any updates as well as the suggestions gained from the previous meeting. Invites will be sent out to you. 

There will also be an opportunity at these meetings to ask any other “Covid related” return to school questions that we may be able to answer or take on notice. 

Non-compliance with the Mandatory Vaccination Directions

In December 2021, in preparation for the commencement of the 2022 school year, we provided template letters for principals to share with staff who did not, at that time, meet the Mandatory Vaccination Directions.   The template advised those staff that they are required to inform the principal of their intentions about complying with the vaccination directions and DOBCEL vaccination policy or to provide the principal with evidence of receiving the vaccine by Thursday, 20 January 2022.   The template noted that failure to provide this information means the employee is unable to attend onsite at the commencement of Term 1 2022 (27 January 2022). 

To finalise this process, we ask principals with staff who have not provided evidence of compliance with the Mandatory Vaccination Directions to complete the Google Form by Thursday, 27 January 2022.  The CEB HR Team (Maree Baker and Jo Huntley), with the relevant Education Consultant, will work with those principals regarding the next steps. 

Recording of Staff vaccination status

Please ensure all other staff record their vaccination information into the PRS (CEVN) or eHR (ICON) per the Executive Director’s COVID Update #117 (10 November) by Monday, 31 January 2022, to enable all DOBCEL and CECV reporting obligations to be met.  Please also remind staff to update this for future COVID vaccinations (boosters) or exemptions. 

Details on recording vaccination information and reporting are available via Update #117. 

Next COVID Update