Tēnā koutou e te whānau

As the country transitions to Alert Level 2, I want to begin this week’s newsletter by thanking our parent community for the continued support you have provided the school over the last seven weeks. There is no doubt these have been challenging circumstances for everyone. However, the resilience and flexibility demonstrated by the community have been major factors in supporting our children through the lockdown period.

We are delighted to be able to welcome our students back to school on Monday. Our key messages are as follows:

• School will resume for all children on Monday 18 May. The Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health have stated that under Alert Level 2 it is safe for schools to open
• Safe and sensible practices for hygiene and contact tracing will be the norm
• Keeping children home who are unwell will be very important

Our number one priority when we return to school next week is to look after the wellbeing of our students. We appreciate that some children will be anxious about coming back after such a long break. To support this, T group teachers will be spending the first week or so reconnecting with their students and re-establishing learning routines. It is important to note however, that school will still not look and feel completely normal at Alert Level 2. 

The Ministry of Education has been very clear with its requirements for maintaining a safe learning environment for our staff and students. We will continue to encourage physical distancing practices where practical but the guidelines stipulated during previous Alert Levels no longer apply to schools. 

Some key points to be aware of are:

• There is no bubble concept at Level 2, so there are no restrictions on groups of students mixing with others on site. Teachers and support staff are not restricted to one group and can move freely between groups of students.
• Where maintaining physical distancing is not practical, rigorous hygiene practices for our students will be applied including regular handwashing with soap and hand sanitiser.
  
• All playgrounds, sports equipment and learning devices can be used and music, arts and cultural programmes can resume under Alert Level 2.
• We have worked with our cleaning contractors to ensure that all surfaces and high touch zones are disinfected at least daily.

Contact Tracing

One of the key strategies at Alert Level 2 is the introduction of contact registers at schools. This allows the Ministry of Health to quickly and efficiently trace any possible contacts in the unlikely scenario that a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19 occurs within our school.

Every school in the country is required to register all visitors entering the grounds including parents. As I’m sure you can appreciate, this is a real challenge for a school our size. To achieve this we request the following:

• Access to the grounds: To help monitor people entering the grounds, we will only be using the three main gates at the front of the school. These are the gates at the far end of the drop-off/pick-up zone, the gates by the scooter area and the main entrance gate next to the Office. These gates will be used by all children to enter and exit the school unless they are accompanied by a parent.
• Morning Drop-off (8.30am-9.00am): All parents wishing to enter the grounds between these times need to enter via the hall please. A staff member will be on hand to record the parent’s name and learning studio they will be visiting. To keep the numbers manageable, we would appreciate you not entering the grounds with your child unless you feel it is absolutely necessary.
• School hours (9.00 am-3.00 pm): All visitors including parents need to report to the School Office between these times. Please communicate with the Office via email or phone to limit the number of people in the Office at any given time.
• Afternoon Pick-up (3.00 pm): To reduce the number of parents coming onto the grounds, where possible please wait for your child outside the school gates. We suggest that you make a plan with them before Monday about the best place to meet them. For older children, arranging a meeting spot a little further away from school would help ease congestion. If you need to come onto the grounds at 3.00 pm, please enter via the Office so we can add you to the contact register. We will be making separate arrangements for New Entrant students.
• All other times: OSCAR and Kelly Sports will still be operating their programmes on-site but the school grounds will be closed to the public including the hire of the school facilities.

Please note that these procedures are likely to stay in place for the first two weeks after school returns. We will review them again when the Government updates any changes to Alert Level 2.

Finally, on Friday you will receive an email from your child(ren)’s T group teacher outlining further details about what to expect when school resumes on Monday. Please keep an eye out for this.

I look forward to seeing you all on Monday morning.

Ngā mihi nui

Stuart Cameron

Principal