Kia ora koutou,

Key links and numbers: Healthline: 0800 358 5453 

Ministry of Health site

Wellington is remaining at alert level 2 until 11:50pm on Tuesday 29th June.

We are postponing all upcoming events that involve parents coming on to school site:

• Year 6 visit to Newlands Intermediate on Thursday - postponed
• School discos on Thursday - postponed
• Whole school evacuation and pick up drill on Friday - postponed
• Co-curricular open day on Friday postponed. Lessons will still go ahead, but no parents in lessons, please

We will look to run all of these events again at a later date, once our alert levels allow for this. 

What a shift to alert level 2 means for Amesbury School is outlined below. Please can all parents ensure that the following information is passed on to all caregivers and whānau who will be picking children up.

• School is open for all ākonga (students) as usual under Alert Level 2. 

• Children and adults must stay home if they are unwell. If staff notice children at school who are showing signs of sickness, we will contact parents to have them picked up. Please contact your GP or Healthline if you are worried about any symptoms.

• If someone is waiting for results of a Covid-19 test, they must stay home until they receive the results.

• If you or your family were at any of the locations of interest linked with the current Covid case in Wellington, please stay at home and follow the instructions on the Ministry of Health site. 

• All teams will continue to reinforce regular hand washing and/or sanitising before and after all breaks, before eating food, and before all session changes (when tamariki may mix groups).

• Teams will be reinforcing with children about not getting into each other’s ‘breathing zone’. 
  

• Co-curricular lessons will continue as usual. All ākonga (students) have been sanitising hands upon entering and leaving the sessions, and we will ensure this continues consistently.

• Lunch orders will continue and staff will wear appropriate protective equipment to ensure a heightened food safety regime.

• Parents and caregivers will need to sign in if they come onsite. There will be sign in sheets in every hub. If it is necessary to go into a learning space, please ensure you see a teacher in the space to sign in. In order to minimise the need to sign in many parents daily, we ask that parents only come onsite into school if it is really necessary. Please see the map in this article - coming past the red line drawn onto the map is what we consider  'onsite'. 

• Please note that for younger students, or tamariki who are feeling quite anxious, it is fine to come into school with them. Please just ensure you sign in with one of the teachers if you do this. 

Below are further detail about drop off and pick up systems in Level 2.

• Our school playground remains open, and all children can use this playground. Students will sanitise their hands before going to breaks and after coming back on from breaks. During school hours we will ask our ākonga not to use the Wellington Council playground, because we do not operate track and trace registering within the playground, so we cannot be sure who has been there during the day.

• Kelly Club Before and After School Care will operate as usual. Kelly Club follow the same health and safety routines and procedures as Amesbury School. Parents and caregivers who are picking up and/or dropping off at Kelly Club are fine to come onsite, because they always sign in at the Kelly Club, which acts as our track and trace register. They will also be operating their 'one in, one out' policy when parents are picking up or dropping off, to ensure physical distancing.

• We ask that you record your movements using the Ministry Track and Trace app or a manual diary. If you come onsite for any reason, please sign in using the QR code that is displayed at all key entrances to school buildings, or sign in manually using the Vistab system in the office.

Drop off and pick up systems in Level 2

• Our onsite boundary will stay the same as our previous time in Level 2. Our boundary for coming ‘onsite’ will be the far pathway between Romaine Road and Amesbury Drive; the far edge of the netball courts and in front of the council playground; the line running along the edge of the netball courts and along the drop off zone. Please see the photo in this article, or this map,  which illustrate the pick up / drop off boundary line. If any parents or caregivers pass over this line to come onsite, you must sign in with a teacher or at the office.

• This means that the car park will remain open. The drop off zone can be used by all parents and caregivers, but we ask that parents stay inside their cars. Children can hop into the car without parents getting out.

• Parents and caregivers of Koru children can use available car park bays to park, but you must only come to the edge of the drop off/pick boundary (edge of netball courts) to collect your child/ren.

• Any parents of Harakeke or Pōhutukawa children should not be using any car park bays in the school car park unless they are also picking up a Koru child.

• Koru Hub teachers will bring the tamariki out to the courts as usual. They will come outside at the end of the day a little earlier than usual - by 2:50pm. This is to allow us to avoid large groups of students converging. Koru teachers will bring children out to the far edge of the courts (near the car park). We ask that all adults stay off the courts, and gather along the periphery. Teachers will send your tamariki over to you once they know you are there.

• We ask that all parents and caregivers practice and model physical distancing when waiting at school boundaries - leave a 2 metre space between you and other people you do not know well.

• For slightly older children, make a plan for where they will meet you or how they will get home. If they are able to walk by themselves, or walk with younger siblings to meet a caregiver offsite or at the edge of the site, that would be useful.

• This will happen even in poorer weather. In the case of inclement weather, Koru ākonga (students) will still need to come out onto the courts to be collected, so please ensure your child has a suitable coat or umbrella.

• There will be a teacher out on duty in the morning wearing a high visibility vest. This staff member will be present to greet tamariki and help them come into school independently. Navy will be doing road patrol as usual. After school, all Koru teachers will be out on the courts with their students, and two leaders will be based by the drop off zone and on the walkway through the car park, to ensure students can get offsite safely.

• As with our previous Level 2 system, we will be asking all tamariki to leave the school site after school to return home or to the home of a caregiver. All tamariki need to have left the school site or have been picked up by 3:15pm, unless otherwise organised directly with the school.

We are well prepared for this move into Level 2, having done this several times before. Hopefully this will be temporary measure to ensure our ongoing health and safety. We will keep you all updated as we know more about any further moves in alert levels. Stay safe, stay home if you are unwell, and, as always, horoia ō ringaringa, wash your hands!

Ngā mihi nui,

Urs Cunningham