Green Point Christian College – Return to School Plan Term 1, 2021
Tuesday 19 January 2021 GPCC has the following plan for the on-going operation of the School for Term 1, 2021. We continue to ground our decisions in certain principles and to take into account official medical and social regulations and advice coming from the NSW and Australian Governments. New regulations for schools released on Monday 18 January maintain the regulations existing in Term 4 last year. Our Pandemic Response Plan sees us continuing at Level 4 as we begin to return to normal. (See GPCC website for the PRP) We acknowledge that to remain at level 4 will require ongoing attention to health guidelines for the pandemic.
Principles:
1. ‘The health advice consistently provided by AHPPC is that attendance at a school campus for education represents a very low risk to students.’ (CSA guidance April 2020, AAHPPC 25 April) “In terms of schools, I’ll just reiterate my position which I am absolutely certain of on the basis of evidence, and we look at this continually, about the risk to children. So the risk to children of this virus is much less than in adults and that is very clear right around the world in terms of the severity of the illness.” (Prof. Paul Kelly, Acting Chief Medical officer at PM Press Briefing Friday 10 July 2020) 2. ‘Our schools must be healthy and safe environments for students and staff’ (CSA guidance April 2020) 3. “All students must be supported by their school to ensure participation in quality education during the covid-19 crisis.’ (CSA guidance April 2020) 4. GPCC has developed a sound approach to home learning that can be delivered to students at home or at school should we need to revert back to home learning due to a spike in Covid-19 infections. 5. Independent schools are now required to comply with public school regulations so that all schools in the State are aligned in their response to the pandemic. 6. Students suffering any symptoms such as ‘fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, loss of taste, loss of smell’ should be covid tested and may not return to school until the school has sighted the negative test result.