‘E ako ana, ā, e tipu tahi ana tātou’ - Learning and growing together.

Monday 2 May

Kia ora Koutou

We hope that families have enjoyed a relaxing holiday break and have managed to stay Covid free. Staff have returned refreshed and ready for Term 2 and it was so good visiting classes this morning to see nearly everyone back. There was such a positive feel throughout the school and it was obvious that students were happy to be back with their friends and back into routines.

 During the holidays the senior block has been re-roofed, with just a few finishing jobs to be done. The Cemetery Road project is nearing completion which is great and the transformation of the horse paddock into our new extended carpark area is also nearing completion. When this is finished Andrew Hollands plans to start on the bike track which students are very excited about.

A reminder of guidelines sent out to parents and whanau last week:

While looking forward to a few less restrictions and returning to school life that is a bit closer to normal as we head into Term 2, we have decided that for Week One, things will stay as they were last term, with staggered intervals and lunchtimes, no whole school activities or mixing of teams. We would ask that parents still leave children at the gate for Week One please. Buses will continue to leave at 2.40pm. There has been a slight change with ALL Junior children leaving at 2.45pm.

Guidelines will be reassessed once we see what the Covid situation is within our school community as children return to school this week. This decision has been made in consultation with the Board of Trustees as we consider the health and wellbeing of our children, staff and community a top priority. There will be further discussion on the guidelines at tonight's Board of Trustees meeting.

Although at Orange, wearing of face masks at school is no longer mandatory, Public Health advice is that wearing masks continues to be strongly encouraged when indoors. We ask that visitors to the school, including parents and whānau, wear a mask whenever they are indoors on school grounds.

We also ask that your child (if they are Year 4+) continues to bring a mask to school every day. Depending on the number of cases at school or in the community, we may ask that masks are worn in classrooms for a time. Staff will be wearing masks.

We will continue to keep all the other health measures in place at school that we know slow the spread of COVID-19. These include ensuring our indoor spaces are well-ventilated, maintaining good hand hygiene and cough and sneeze etiquette, appropriate physical distancing whenever we can and, most importantly, staying home if unwell.

It has been great to see children happy to be back at school today and we are all looking forward to the programmes and activities planned for the term.

Please continue to inform us if your child has Covid or that your family is self-isolating. 

Enjoy the week ahead.

Ngā mihi nui

Jennifer