Macarthur Anglican School are working hard to stay Covid-19 free.
But if the worst happens, the Cobbitty based school is ready to spring into action to ensure the risk is kept at a low level for their 930 students, teachers and staff.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, we put plans in place to deal with various scenarios if Covid-19 should occur within our school community,’’ says Dr David Nockles, the school headmaster.
“Additionally, we have implemented processes to deal with hygiene, social distancing, and more to keep everyone safe.
“We know we cannot guarantee full protection against the virus or prevent its spread in the community, but we can do everything in our power to be prepared if it should eventuate,’’ he said.
As part of their contingency plan the school have also kept a watchful eye on the Covid-19 cases in our local region of South West Sydney, which have been widely reported in the past few weeks.
From the outset, Macarthur Anglican School has closely followed the health advice from the government and taken no chances.
“The health advice we have received says that the highest risk is the transmission of the Covid-19 virus from adult to adult, rather than between children or from child to adult,” Dr Nockles said.
“Throughout developments in the Covid-19 situation, the school has worked closely with NSW Health and related Australian Government agencies to ensure the best possible precautions are in place to protect students and staff in our school.
“After we identified that the greatest risk was adult to adult transmission, we put processes in place to ensure all employees are kept as safe as possible,’’ he said.
Social distancing practices apply to staff (not students) and other protective measures have been implemented to look after them.
“We also encourage our teachers to continue with online video meetings and to keep their distance in our staff centre. We also provide the option to any teachers or children who have compromised health to stay home,” Dr Nockles said.
Additionally, since the students returned to school there has been less interaction between year groups and limited mass gatherings.
Extra cleaning has also been implemented with a complete sanitisation of the school facilities at the end of every day, and twice-daily spraying of the toilets and play equipment.
“We have action plans in place should a confirmed case be detected,’’ Dr Nockles said.
“This planning covers our health and operational obligations of Covid-19, as well as how we will handle the media and communications expectations that could be placed upon us.”
