Dear parents,

Since the return to school, over twenty schools in the ACT have had cases of COVID exposures in their school. There has been a significant shift in how ACT Health, the ACT Education Directorate and Catholic Education respond to these incidents. Again, I will use the experience of St Anthony’s at Wanniassa which saw only one class go into isolation when a COVID positive case was found to have been at school. This is a big shift from when all of Holy Spirit went into isolation when a case happened at their neighbouring school of Gold Creek.

When the case was detected at Wanniassa, staff from the ACT Health and Catholic Education worked with the school leadership team to identify who had come into close contact with that particular person. How students entered and exited the school, the cohort structures they had in place, staff rosters and student movement around the school for specialist classes were some of the data they examined.

A close contact was deemed to be a person who had been in a room with the infected person for thirty minutes or more. In the end five staff and one class of students needed to isolate.

St Anthony’s were fortunate that all classes were grouped in year levels and were separate from other year levels. Entering and exiting classrooms took students straight outside with no shared common areas like our breakout spaces. Not all schools are similar, so responding to outbreaks in schools will differ from site to site.

St Anthony’s continued to be open for other students and a deep clean was carried out only in the areas used by the isolating students.

As I said to staff this week, I think incidents like the ones experienced by St Anthony’s and other schools will continue to happen. It is something we don’t want to occur this late in the school year and it will be by a combination of good practice and good luck that we can avoid facing this dilemma.

New staff

Last week we conducted interviews for a number of positions at MTS. The following applicants were successful and will join us in 2022.

• Jessica Allen (Classroom teacher – year 5)
• Stephanie Foley (Japanese teacher)
• Dahne Mulan and Jackie Broch  (Learning support assistants).

I congratulate and welcome these staff members and wish them a long and happy association with MTS.

School Fees

At last week’s Community Council meeting the school budget and fee structure for 2022 were accepted.  While there was a rise across the board, parents of multiple children will notice the decision by Catholic Education to raise the cost for multiple children to a greater extent.

The last few elections have seen the non-government sector in the ACT calling for greater funding from the ACT Government.  The funding of Catholic schools by the ACT Government is the lowest of any State Government in Australia and continues to decline.  Below are some points related to the increases in fees for 2022.

• Funding cuts will result in every Catholic School student receiving $130 less on average from the ACT Government next year. By 2023 every student will be receiving $271 less on average from the ACT Government than they do now.  As a result, total government funding will not keep pace with expected cost increases.
• Our sibling discount structures are currently significantly higher than other Dioceses (see chart below)
• Fees have been prepared recognising the current economic climate impacted by COVID-19. Families facing financial hardship will be supported through fee remission provisions on a case by case basis.
• It is a policy of the Archdioceses that no student should be refused enrolment, excluded or disadvantaged because their family is unable to afford fees. Should families face financial pressure as a result of the fees they can have a confidential conversation with the school regarding available assistance to ensure their child can continue their Catholic Education uninterrupted.

Save the date

This year we will again be holding Christmas Carols on Friday 10^th December.  We are very fortunate to have secured the services of the wonderful trio of singers from ‘O Christmas Trio’ to again entertain us.  After such a challenging year it will be a wonderful way to celebrate.  Please note COVID restrictions will be in place.  More information will follow on this in coming weeks.

Maths Problem

Last week we received no solutions to the maths problem perhaps it was because it was the first week it had appeared in the newsletter for several weeks so the same problem will be posed this week.

Two numbers multiply to make 360. One of them has a zero on the end. What might the two numbers be?

How many solutions can you find? Can you see a pattern between the two numbers?

God Bless

Peter Hughes