Tēnā koutou e te Whānau

We have had a very settled week and a half at school since welcoming all of our students back last Monday. The teachers have used this time to re-connect with their T groups and help acclimatise the children with being back at school after such a long break away.

We have been very impressed with the independence and resilience our students have shown since being back. Their increase in self-management and confidence has also been evident as many are now entering and leaving the school grounds without added support from their parents.

This is a positive sign and all part of learning to grow and thrive in a safe environment. We are aware that some children will still require extra support to get them into class occasionally so you are very welcome to do that.

Now that the children are settled, we look forward to getting our regular teaching and learning programmes up and running so we can finish the term off on a high note.

We were pleased to hear during the Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday that some of the Alert Level 2 conditions have been relaxed, particularly in relation to the size of gatherings permitted. Although this is another step in the right direction, it doesn’t impact too much on how a school our size operates. It does, however, provide us with the opportunity to consider hosting some school events such as assemblies with up to 100 parents attending. This is something we will explore over the next couple of weeks.

The signs continue to be very promising for our country with today being the fifth consecutive day with zero COVID-19 cases. This makes us optimistic that a move to Alert Level 1 may be a reality when the next major announcement takes place on Monday 28 May. Until then, we will continue to keep our rigorous processes in place around hygiene routines and contact registering.

On that note, thank you for your patience and understanding about our contact registering process. It is great to see the majority of parents are now registering their visits to school using the new feature on the school app. This has helped to speed up the process considerably.

Please note that with the colder weather settling in, we are now just using the main entry and scooter gates in the mornings as they provide some shelter. This is more manageable for us as there is a steady stream of children arriving between 8.30-8.55am. We will continue to use the other gates at the end of the day to more evenly distribute the children as they leave at 3.00pm.

Drop-off & Pick-up Zone

With more parents choosing to drop-off and pick-up their children at the moment, our drive-through zone has become very busy again. Please remember that this area is designed to work as a taxi rank. If there is a parking space available ahead of you, please move forward into it. This allows traffic to flow more smoothly. Turning left as you exit the car park also helps increase the overall flow.

I know it is frustrating for drivers to see empty parks ahead of them that they can’t access due to them being blocked by drivers in front of them. If everyone uses the area with consideration and respect for others, it will flow very well.

Have a great long weekend.

Ngā mihi nui

Stuart Cameron
Principal