Kia ora koutou

Welcome to East Taieri School for the start of the 2022 school year. Although it isn't the start to the year that we had hoped for, it was great to see everyone back today, excited about catching up with their friends, coping well with new expectations, with our Year 4 to 6 students managing well with the added challenge of wearing masks. We were so impressed with the independence and resilience shown by our students, especially our Juniors.

A special welcome to our new families. I hope that everyone has enjoyed happy times with family and friends over the summer holidays and our students are refreshed and keen to start the new year.

There are several important items of information included in this first newsletter. Please check those relevant to your children.

Face coverings

Staff and children in Years 4 – 6 must wear face coverings when inside at school when we are at Red. For children in a composite Year 3/4 class, wearing a face mask is optional.

Parents need to wear masks unless they have an exemption.

Public health advice is that an appropriate face covering will fit snugly and seal well around facial contours. This can include single use, disposable masks (medical masks) and re-usable fabric masks with three layers.

Managing cases in our school

We have a good contact tracing system in place so that if there is a confirmed case who has been at school while infectious, we can quickly identify who was a close contact of that person. We will then quickly advise those contacts of what they need to do.

Only if the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Education advises to do so, would we consider closing the school and moving to distance learning for everyone. At Red we will keep everyone learning onsite for as long as we can.

Please make sure your contact details we have on file are up to date, so we can get in touch with you if needed.

The following information outlines some of our guidelines as we return to school:

PUPIL ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE

· Unwell children and adults are not to enter the school.

· Parents are encouraged to drop their children at the main gates - Cemetery Road entrances and school carpark gate entrance. There will be a staff member monitoring entry at each gate. Gates from the field will be locked.

· The name of any parent who comes onto the school site will be recorded - to enable contact tracing.

· Children are NOT to arrive at school BEFORE 8:30am (unless they are attending Kelly Club).

· Some children may be anxious or reluctant to leave parents at the gate, especially our new 5 year olds. If this is the case, parents may bring their child to the classroom door, do the hand over, and then leave the school promptly.

· Children who show signs of sickness will be sent home.

· Latecomers are to head straight to the office

· The bus will be leaving school at 2.40pm

· To avoid congestion at the gates children from Rooms 9 & 10 will be taken to the school carpark gate with their teacher at 2.40pm and Rooms 11 &12 at 2.45pm. Older siblings will leave at this time as well. Could parents please let us know if they cannot collect children at that time. Those who cannot be collected early will stay with their teacher until 3pm.

· Middle and senior school students will leave at the normal time of 3pm.

VISITORS

· We need to keep a record of all we come in contact with.

· Visitors will be discouraged to visit school under the present framework. They will be asked if possible to use the phone or email to communicate with school staff.

BUSES

· School buses will be running as normal in the mornings

· When bus children arrive at school they will go straight to their classrooms

· Afternoon buses will be leaving school at 2.40pm

Enjoy the short week this week, as well as the upcoming long weekend, with Waitangi Day on Monday.

Ngā mihi

Jennifer