Dear parents and caregivers

Many of you may now be aware of a number of locally acquired cases of COVID-19 that were confirmed overnight.

As a result, the Premier has today announced that Greater Brisbane will be entering a 3-day lockdown, from 5pm tonight until 5pm Thursday 1 April for residents in the local government areas of Brisbane, Ipswich, Moreton, Logan and Redlands.

Additionally, anyone who has been in these local government areas or who has travelled to these areas from other locations, since Saturday 20 March 2021 is required to stay at home and isolate except for the reasons listed below:

• shopping for essentials, food and necessary supplies
• medical or healthcare needs, including compassionate requirements
• exercise with no more than one other person, unless all from the same household
• providing care or assistance to an immediate family member
• work, or volunteering, or study if it is not reasonably practicable to work or learn remotely
• child custody arrangements
• legal obligations
• visit for end of life
• attend funeral or wedding in line with restrictions
• emergency situations, to escape harm
• exemption from the Chief Health Officer.

This includes all staff and students who have travelled to the Greater Brisbane area. As is the case for staff, any student who has been in the Greater Brisbane lockdown area since March 20 is to isolate at home from Tuesday 30 March 2021. This applies even if the student is a child of an essential worker. This also includes all students who have travelled to these areas for a school excursion, event or sporting competition since Saturday 20^th March. I acknowledge the impact of this decision on families and thank you in advance for your support as we all work together during these trying times.

During this 3-day period, the school will remain open for vulnerable children and children of essential workers with minimal supervision provided. Our school has a significant number of teaching and support staff, who live in the impacted areas and will have to work from home, so our ability to provide adequate supervision is limited. We kindly ask all parents who can keep their children at home to do so.

During this time all on-site sports and extracurricular activities will also be postponed.

Students on-site during this period will not be required to wear face masks, but may do so if they wish.

Minimal staff will attend on-site as normal to support those children still attending school and to further plan for their Term 2 lessons.

There is no requirement for schools to provide online learning during this 3-day lockdown. However, parents and students at home are able to access a wide range of resources via the department’s Learning@home website.

As a reminder, it is important that we all continue to follow state-wide recommended hygiene and physical distancing measures throughout this period and to stay within our homes as much as possible.

If you or your child are unwell or develop any COVID-19 symptoms at all, please isolate and get tested immediately.

Please continue to monitor the Queensland Health website for affected locations. If you have been to any of the listed locations you should refer to the online self-assessment, get tested, isolate immediately. and contact 13 HEALTH (13 43 25 84) if you have any questions.

I will continue to provide any further updates as appropriate.

I would also encourage you to continue to refer to general information as provided on the Queensland Health website. It is important that we all continue to focus on our own wellbeing and mental health and there are some great resources and information tools available on this website.

For assistance in languages other than English, please refer to the National Translating and Interpreting Service, and the Translated Australian COVID-19 information and resources.

I thank all parents/carers for your support as we work together to manage the situation and any impacts on our school.

I look forward to bringing our whole school community back together again and resuming our normal school operations in Term 2.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Kym Amor

Principal

Foxwell State Secondary College