Easter Raffle: Thank you, early prize draw and P&C apologies 

A massive thank you to the families who so generously donated prizes and sold tickets for the 2020 YSS Easter raffle, and to everyone who wrapped prizes and helped with the prize draw last Friday, 20 March. 

More than $3,400 has been raised for our school through the raffle and more than 120 prizes were distributed to delighted children in classrooms across the school last Friday. Your support is sincerely appreciated - thank you!

To explain the rationale for bringing the date for the raffle date forward, at the time of last Tuesday's P&C meeting (17 March), there was much confusion and conjecture in the news over whether schools would close or remain open due to COVID-19. At the meeting, members made the decision to bring forward the Easter raffle draw to last Friday, 20 March, to ensure that it could go ahead.

This decision was made under an extraordinary circumstance for the P&C and please be assured that it wasn't taken lightly. It was made to ensure the raffle could still happen in the face of the significant uncertainty on Tuesday evening regarding upcoming government directives concerning schools and COVID-19. 

It has come to our attention that some families didn't receive the messages that announced the early prize draw, and to these families the P&C sincerely apologises. The early draw was announced by the school via the Schoolzine app (SZapp) to all year levels, and also by the P&C page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/YerongaSSPandC/). The P&C Facebook post was also shared to several of the 'unofficial' parent Facebook groups. 

If you haven't done so already, we encourage all parents and carers to download and use the SZapp, which enables the school to communicate urgent messages and important information quickly and easily to our whole school community. For P&C information please 'like' and follow our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/YerongaSSPandC/).

Thank you again to our whole school community for your outstanding support at this time of worldwide uncertainty and stress. We hope the Easter raffle draw brought joy for many.

28 March Democracy BBQ and Cake Stall: Cancelled

Please note that the P&C has cancelled the election BBQ and cake stall on Saturday, 28 March. Thank you to all who had volunteered and offered support. 

We have taken this decision because we do not want to put our volunteers at risk of COVID-19 transmission through money handling and unnecessary exposure in the community. Many people are also applying for postal voting, and voting early, to avoid having to vote in person so the number of people out and about on election day will be significantly lower than for a normal election.

We are sincerely thankful for the support from our school community and will revisit an election BBQ/cake stall for the State Government election later in the year if it becomes clear that it is safe to do so.

Tuckshop closed week 10 (1-3 April)

Given the ever-changing situation with COVID-19 and the impact on the staff and volunteers who keep our Tuckshop operational every week, the Tuckshop will be closed for the last week of term 1 (1-3 April). We will be sure to let our school community know when we are able to get the Tuckshop up and running again. 

YOSHC Easter holiday care program

Bookings are now open for the YOSHC Easter holiday program: www.yoshc.com/holiday-care. The program will be offered as long as government directives enable it to do so (which they do at the time of writing). To keep things simple, if the school is directed to close, YOSHC will close until directly cleared to reopen. You will be notified as soon as there's a change. 

In response to limitations imposed by COVID-19, the YOSHC team has prepared an engaging program of activities which will be offered entirely on the Yeronga State School campus - a copy of the program is attached. There are no excursions or out-sourced incursions in the Easter holiday program to limit children's contact to those within our own school community. 

The P&C and YOSHC understand that there is a high degree of uncertainty around working arrangements at this time. In response to this extenuating circumstance, any fees associated with cancelling bookings will be waived for families who book their children into the Easter holiday program but then have to pull out due to a change in working arrangements or due to other factors that are beyond the control of families, the YOSHC team and/or P&C.

The YOSHC team is also being hyper vigilant with hygiene and disinfection and is committed to following government directives in regards to maximum numbers of people in indoor spaces and social distancing requirements. 

RISE holiday sports camp

RISE will be again running their Sports Camp this Easter Holidays for primary school children that love to move and keep active. The camp runs from 8am-12noon on Monday 6 to Thursday 9 April, on the school tennis courts. See flyer attached for all the details. Register online for individual days or the whole camp: www.rise.com.au/holiday-sports-camp/.