We have two valued members of staff retiring at the end of this year, Gabby Hughes and Lisa van Rooy.

Gabby started her career in 1979. She has been at numerous schools throughout the region and also a stint overseas. She has had many responsibilities over the last 20 + years at our school as our Art teacher.

Lisa started in 1986 has been a teacher at a number of local schools, with her longest stint being at Morwell Park P.S. She has undertaken many roles within schools but was also employed as a consultant at Regional Office for a period of time.

Her last 5 years have been at Liddiard Road as Assistant Principal.

Their contributions to our school and school community have been outstanding and they will be greatly missed. I’m sure that I speak for all of our school community in wishing both Gabby and Lisa all the best in retirement.

After awaiting the required time for due process to be completed, we welcome our two new Assistant Principals, Mrs. Maguire and Mr. Price.  They were selected for the positions because of their experience and proven ability to form positive relationships with students, staff and parents.

Richard and Tracey have filled leading teacher roles at our school over the last few years and are well equipped to support the school moving forward. We wish them well and congratulate them on their appointments!

LEARNING SPECIALIST – MARK ANDREW

We must also congratulate Mr. Andrew who has picked up a Learning Specialist position at our school in 2022. Mark will work closely with both Tracey, Richard and myself as part of our leadership team.

Although both Tricia and Ali are not new faces, having been employed as Tutors this year, they will take on classroom roles in 2022, with Tricia in the Prep/1’s and Ali in a 1 /2 class.  I’m sure that the Liddiard Road School Community would like to welcome the following ‘new staff’ members aboard next year.

Based on current enrolment numbers, the Grade structure and class teachers assigned to these classes next year will be the following:

Prep / 1 x 3 –Miss. Millard, Miss. Langan, Miss. Hicks

1 x 1/ 2 and 2 x Grade 2 –Miss. Tomkins, Mrs. Hammet, Mrs. Laws

3 x 3/ 4 and 1 x 4/5 – Mr. Gregg, Miss. Wilson, Miss. Harrison and Mrs. Shippen

3 x 5/6 – Mrs. MacDonald (0.6) / Mrs. Smythe (0.4), Mr. Barbour and Miss. Dabelstein

Art – Mrs. Fenech

ICT – Mrs. Francis

PE – Miss. Woskoboenko

Auslan – Mrs Frendo

Learning Tutors – Mrs. Jewell, Miss Playdon and Mrs Brans.

Obviously if more students enrol than we currently anticipate, these structures may need to be revisited. We are in the process of placing students into classes.

If know of some parents who haven’t enrolled or are intending to enrol their children at LRPS for 2022, please remind or encourage them to do so ASAP, so they can be placed accordingly.

Next Friday December 10, the Grade 6 Graduation will be held. We congratulate all of our Grade 6 students and wish them all the best with the next phase of their school life. Their persistence and resilience will hold them in good stead moving forward.

Staff are currently familiarising themselves with Xuno which is a software package and a Phone App that the school has subscribed to which has the communication features of Class Dojo, along with many other features which will make life easier for parents/carers such as:-

• Attendance – parents/carers send a message to Xuno and the attendance for the child automatically updates and the class teacher, leadership team and office get the message. It will also automatically send a message to parents/carers when a student is absent. Mr Price is particularly fond of this Xuno feature. He will still call parents/carers when attendances are unexplained.
• Provision for parents to sign notes and pay for excursions via the App.
• Book in for parent/teacher interviews.
• Access school reports.

One of the features which staff and students are already reaping the benefits of is a XUNO kiosk at the office, where students log in when they are late or leaving early. This automatically updates the attendance roll. It is also used for visitors to the school.

We are hoping to introduce the Xuno system to parents/carers prior to the end of the year.

As with anything new, it will come with its challenges during the initial setting up, but we are confident that after the initial teething problems it will make life much easier for parents and staff.

Class Dojo/Dojo shop will still be used internally by teachers for rewarding student behaviour, but the messaging feature will not be active. Xuno will be used for messaging.

The School Council has approved the following student free days in 2022.

• Friday 28^th January (First Day back at school) – Planning
• Friday March 11^th – PD – attached to the Labour Day Public Holiday (Monday March 14^th)
• Friday June 10^th – this is aligned to the Monday (Queens Birthday) Public Holiday and is about two weeks before the end of 2^nd term – Planning, PD, or Report Writing
• Monday October 31^st – this is the Monday before the Melbourne Cup

We have been asked by the Department of Education and Training and the Department of Health to provide this statement to all families/carers.

COVID-19 testing requirements

If your child is identified as an education contact of someone who is a confirmed case of COVID-19, you must ensure your child quarantines until they have completed a PCR test and returned a negative result. A PCR test is the test you have at the main testing sites or local doctors. The PCR test result is usually available within 24 hours and the result will be texted back to your phone. 

You must show evidence of the negative result to the school before your child can return to onsite learning.

Schools are not permitted to allow your child to return until you have shown evidence of a negative test.

If you are not able to show evidence of a negative test, your child cannot attend school for the following length of time depending on their circumstances:

• 7 days if they are fully vaccinated
• 7 days if they are under 12 years and 2 months old and all members of their household are fully vaccinated
• 14 days if they are over 12 years and 2 months old and not fully vaccinated
• 14 days if they are under 12 years and 2 months old and all members of their household are not fully vaccinated.

Rapid antigen testing

Rapid antigen tests are provided free at all PCR testing centres for school students who are education contacts. If your child is an education contact they will receive a pack of five rapid antigen tests. Instructions are provided and there is also information available about rapid antigen tests at coronavirus.vic.gov.au

Rapid antigen tests should be completed on school days in the morning (one each day) before attending school for the week after receiving a negative PCR test result.

Using rapid antigen tests in the week after a school exposure is very important to keep our school community safe from COVID-19.