Communication to families- COVID 16th August 2021
As you are aware Stay at Home restrictions apply to all of regional NSW from 5pm, Saturday 14 August 2021, until 12.01am Sunday 22 August 2021. See https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/rules/affected-regions#summary-of-restrictions
• Early Childhood Education and Care services may remain open
• Masks are required in early childhood education and care settings while indoors and outdoors
• Limit visitors to services (non-essential regulatory visits on hold)
To limit the movement of people and families in our DCC community and our local community, we have followed our COVID risk assessment. We anticipate that those families who are able to work from home will keep their children at home with them where possible.
Deniliquin Children’s Centre is not able to determine what is “essential work”- families must decide for yourselves. If families feel that you need to use our services, you are welcome to do so.
We are all being mindful that this ongoing COVID situation is a stressful one for families, and you are making the decision that is best for your circumstances. It is our role to support you with your decision.
Cold and Flu like symptoms
We are asking that everyone be vigilant monitoring for cold & flu like symptoms, and please keep your child at home if they have these symptoms and get tested. In Deniliquin there are 2 testing sites- one at the community health part of the hospital- Book appointment by calling ahead COVID-19 Hotline on 1800 831 099 or the Respiratory Clinic in George St book at https://www.hotdoc.com.au/search?in=sydney-NSW-2000&purpose=respiratory&where=service:respiratory
Please provide a screenshot of the negative test result to the service.
We are following Policy 2.7 Disease Prevention and immunization. It references elevated temperatures as 38o or above. This is based on Staying Healthy in Childcare (Australian Government National Health & Medical Research Council) and Health Direct (Australian Government Dept Health) . If educators are concerned that a child is unwell, they will start monitoring their temperature and recording the time taken and the temperature it on an incident, injury, illness and trauma form. If the temperature is measured as 38o or above, families will be called to collect the child.
Children must be SYMPTOM FREE for 24 hours to return to service. Paracetamol must not have been administered in the 6 hours prior to attending the service as it can mask the symptoms of disease.
If you are worried about symptoms you can use the Health Direct Symptom Checker https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/symptom-checker/tool/basic-details
Masks
Educators and all other adults are now required to wear masks indoors and outdoors. This is a big adjustment for children and adults alike. Raising Children has a helpful factsheet for Supporting children aged 0-12 years with facemasks. https://raisingchildren.net.au/guides/coronavirus-covid-19-guide/face-masks-coronavirus-children
Children will have mixed and varying reactions when they see people wearing face masks.
Talking with children about face masks can help.
Children need accurate, age-appropriate information, plus opportunities to ask questions and talk about feelings.
Play can help children learn about face masks and explore their feelings.
If wearing a mask affects your ability to communicate with your child, try extra eye contact, touch, head movements and more.
If you have difficulty hearing an educator with masks, please explain this. They will be able to remove the mask to speak with you, while maintaining social distancing.
Wellbeing
Service NSW has a great list of services that are available for families https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/mental-wellbeing-resources#for-parents-teachers-and-carers
Keeping Busy if you are at home at home
Raising Children website has a great collection of activity guides for children aged 0-6 years.
Take care in these rapidly changing times
Felicity Michael
General Manager