As the sun sets on another beautiful day here in the Murchison, I take some deep breathes and reflect on just how lucky we are to live in this beautiful part of the world.

Things have been relatively quiet in our little community, as people bunker down to be responsible and do whatever they can to avoid spreading the dreaded lurgy of COVID-19.

We have had several active cases of Covid-19 in community this week, and even more close contacts. No one has required additional medical assistance to date, but have been resting and isolating in their homes during the mandatory isolation period of 7 days after testing positive for Covid-19.

Kylie Simpson, in consultation with Julie Ryan and the police have decided to keep our community in lock down until the current wave of Covid-19 outbreak subsides.

School is still open with Miss Susan, Kylie and Lulu supporting Mr Bradley who is taking Miss Marika’s class for the next few weeks. Miss Marika is in Perth for her daughter’s wedding, and Mr Sean has had to leave community early to assist in the care of an unwell family member.

A number of our children from school are currently in isolation due to being close contacts with those who have tested positive for Covid-19. Parents are reminded not to send your child to school if they have any symptoms of cold or flu. We need to minimise Covid-19 transmission through the community, and the best way to do that is by isolating from others.

For those children in isolation at home, we have been providing school work packages, so as to minimise interruption to their regular learning programmes. Kylie Simpson and I do a community check-in each morning at the front gates of each house, to ensure that families have what they need to be able to safely and comfortably remain in isolation in their homes.

Kylie and I have been working with the Department of Health, Wajarri-Yamatji Corporation and Department of Education to access services and supplies for families.

On Tuesday Department of Health came to community, brought a big supply of RATS tests for all community members, and then held a meeting with the community to demonstrate how to effectively take a RATS test, and the best actions to keep all of us as safe as possible. As you can see we were all very careful to social distance to minimise contact between each other.

At the meeting we all learned about Covid-19, the symptoms, how to minimise the spread of it now that it has arrived in community, and how to accurately take a RATS test when we have been a close contact to a person with Covid-19 or we have symptoms that we suspect may be Covid-19.

Mr Bradley was the guinea-pig and allowed Nurse Mary-Kate to demonstrate how to use an Oral and Nasal RATS test correctly. Feedback from the community meeting was very positive, and community members now feel they have a better understanding of how to keep safe during our community Covid-19 outbreak.

Kylie has been in discussions with the Wadjarri-Yamatji Corporation and is negotiating accessing funding for the purchase of emergency food, power cards and medical supplies for community members.  On Tuesday school staff distributed our school reserves of Food Bank product, to support families in the short term, until other food supplies can be delivered.

Last night MEEDAC (Mullewa) delivered an emergency drop of dry food packages to community. They will be distributed to families on Thursday by Kylie and myself.

Everyone in community has been amazing during the Covid outbreak - it is wonderful to see people supporting each other to stay physically and emotionally well during these unpredictable times.

Thankyou to the staff at school who continue to go above and beyond to do whatever it takes to keep our school open and to support our community to remain safe and comfortable. As I said in my opening statement:

 As the sun has set on another beautiful day here in the Murchison and the day breaks to a new morning, I take some deep breathes and reflect on just how lucky we are to live in this beautiful part of the world.

Stay safe and well.

Susan Trigwell

Principal

A reminder that tomorrow is a school development day where staff will be participating in professional learning. Students are not required to be at school.

The new look uniform has arrived and can be purchased from the office. See Ms Kylie for assistance in applying for funding or contact Ms Sonia on 9923 5204 for bank details.