PRIMARY COORDINATOR

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to Term three. We recently had new enrolments in the Foundation, Year 1 & Year 4 classes and we warmly welcome our new students and families to Sirius College. We hope that they settle in quickly and feel welcomed in their classrooms.

Uniform:

It has been a very cold and chilly start to the term. Please ensure that your child/children wear warm, appropriate clothing to school. We have noticed a number of students who are coming to school in the incorrect school uniform: coloured long-sleeved t-shirt underneath school t-shirt; coloured jumpers and hoodies. We ask that all families read the School Uniform Policy, which can be found on the final page of this newsletter.

Enrolments:

2020 Foundation Enrolments are now open. We are also taking enrolments for Yr1-Yr 6. If you have a child who is ready to start Foundation class next year or any prospective families with children in Yr1-Yr 6, please inform these parents to contact us for any further information or to arrange a school tour.

Food Allergy:

Sirius College endeavours to provide a safe environment for all students and ensures their needs are catered for. We are now trying our best to be an "Allergy Aware" school. The number of children with food allergies in Australia is increasing and it is estimated that 1 in 20 have a food allergy and 1 in 50 have a peanut allergy.

The most common food allergies are peanuts, tree nuts (walnuts, almonds, cashews etc.) cow’s milk, soy, seafood and eggs. Many children will “outgrow” their food allergies however reactions to nuts, seeds and seafood tend to be lifelong. Please inform the school if your child has any form of allergy and hand in the Action Plan provided by your GP.

If your child has a severe Food Allergy:

Teach your child not to share food, drink, food utensils or containers.
Teach your child to wash hands before and after eating.
Food for your child should be supplied from home.

All students at school are being educated about the risks of sharing foods with others as new allergies can develop at any time for any person, child or adult.

As a preventative measure could we please ask you to:

Talk to your child/children at home about sharing food with others and also avoid sending nut products to school in lunch boxes.

This includes:

Peanut Butter, Nutella or other nut spreads
peanuts or other nuts

We also have a policy that no cakes, lollies etc. should be brought or sent to school when students celebrate their birthdays. I have had parents ask me about this on a few occasions. Due to the extreme risk of students consuming foods for which they have no information regarding ingredients, we really have to be very strict about this.

The only exception will be when students attend the Cooking Club as part of their electives or when food is involved in any Literacy or Integrated Studies activity and food needs to be tasted. A message will be sent to inform you and all care will be taken to not use any ingredients as mentioned above which children could be allergic to, especially nuts.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in assisting us to provide a safe environment for all children.