Week 4 was a mix of high and lows. Years 5-8 competed in the school cross country. We were very proud of the students who trained and then gave it their all as they braved the weather and conditions to complete the course.

Our week finished on a high for The 10 Kura Hustlers team who headed off to Invercargill for the Regional Hip Hop competition today. A nervous wait for them as organisers debated the pros and cons of the competition going ahead.

Regardless of the outcome, Mrs Kuita, Sia and the team have worked hard to prepare themselves for the event. We eagerly await an update from them.

With Tuesday night's announcement that we were heading back into Covid-19 Alert Level 2 it meant we had to reintroduce the Level 2 restrictions of contact tracing, increased hygiene and cleaning. Moist zones were put in place requiring us to review teaching spaces and van transport. Jocelyn kindly ran a training session with the teacher aides on how to make your own mask.

On Wednesday morning the leadership team met to revise how we would implement distance learning should we move into Alert Level 3. The staff established clear guidelines for them and the students and are prepared to set up hard packs and distribute devices. As the ministry devices are not being delivered we will issue one per household. To ensure everyone has access to a device we will divide the day into time slots with Years 1-4 timetabling sessions between 9am and 12 noon and the Years 5-8 from 1pm to 3pm. A full article will follow should we move into Alert Level 3.

In preparation for the possibility of online learning you should look at the newly released Online Safety Parent Toolkit, Netsafe’s guide to help parents and whānau keep their child safe online.

https://www.netsafe.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Online-  Safety-Parent-Toolkit-R2.pdf

This week any sporting activities and programmes involving volunteers had to be cancelled. However, there were many exciting opportunities for our students to engage in including:

• TekChicks,
  
• Digital Ignition,
  
• Cross Country,
  
• Envirogroup,
  
• Sewing Club,
  
• Reading Oasis
• Dance Lessons
• Choir

The Caversham Community Group are busy completing a survey on our local area and were wanting ideas from the students about what they don't like, would like included in their community and especially in local parks. Perfect timing as we ran our Year 5-8 cross country on the Caversham Reserve which has undergone a transformation with further upgrades coming. The students completed the survey on a Google Form. 

Interesting to note that two ideas that came through strongly were toilets and traffic lights. It is great that the students are given a voice and have their opinion valued.

We wish you well and thank you for your continued support. We will keep you updated via text, email, Facebook or our website. Remember that should we return to Alert Level 3 our main focus will be on student well being and staying connected.

                                    "He waka eke noa"
                               "We are all in this together"

Katrina Munro

Acting Principal

Carisbrook School