Principal Report

Dear Parents, Teachers and Students,

Ongoing Health Concerns
With ongoing concerns about the spread of COVID-19, I would like to remind all in our community that staff and students who are unwell with respiratory illness should remain at home until symptoms resolve. As the impact of the virus on children and healthy adults can be quite mild there may be a tendency to continue working and attending school and hence increase the risk of infecting others. This is in contrast to other viral outbreaks, such as SARS and Swine, where most people were quite unwell if infected. The current advice from Health is that staff and students who have the slightest sign of illness should not be attending school.

Maintaining good hygiene standards is an important way to reduce the risk of acquiring and spreading respiratory infections using infection control guidelines. Students will be reminded to wash their hands as hand washing is the single most effective way to reduce the spread of germs that cause respiratory disease. Please read the "Too Sick for School?" fact sheet attached to this newsletter.

Further information on COVID-19 is also available from NSW Health: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/diseases/Pages/coronavirus.aspx

Mt Carmel is on Facebook
Thanks to those who are now following our school facebook page. We will be making regular posts to keep everyone up to date with the many goings-on in our wonderful school. Please don’t forget that we are looking for contributions for Flashback Friday posts, so if you are a past student or have generational ties to Mt Carmel School, feel free to send any photos, with a brief description and the year they were taken, to jan.harvey@cg.catholic.edu.au. We look forward to seeing and sharing some great memories.

Thank you to all families who have returned the social media note to the Front Office – these forms will be kept on your child’s file so we would appreciate any unreturned notes to be handed in as soon as possible.

St Patrick’s Day

Next Tuesday, 17 March, is St Patrick’s Day, and 4KF will be leading our Prayer Assembly at 9am in the PAC. Principal’s Awards will be distributed at the end of the assembly. The celebration of St Patrick’s Day is an important tradition at Mt Carmel, thanks to the Sisters of Mercy who travelled to Yass from Ireland in 1875 and were an integral part of our school until the 1990s. For the last two years, St Patrick’s Day has fallen on the weekend, so this year’s celebration will be a special one. We invite all members of our school community to dress in green for the day but ask everyone to bring a gold coin donation for the St Vincent de Paul Bushfire Appeal.

"The Breastplate,” St Patrick's poem of faith and trust in God:
Christ be with me, Christ within me
Christ behind me, Christ before me
Christ beside me, Christ to win me
Christ to comfort me and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger
Christ in hearts of all that love me
Christ in mouth of friend or stranger.

May God’s peace be in your families,

Michael Green
Principal