Tēnā koutou e te Whānau

What a difference a week can make! It is hard to believe that eight days ago we were all enjoying the relative freedoms that come with living in a 'Covid-free' country. The move to a full lockdown overnight was a real shock for many of us and one that has taken quite a bit of adjusting to. On a positive note, we know that our community has been here before and we will get through this again. 

Our Distance Learning Programme (DLP) got into full swing on Monday. One of the keys to this being successful is maintaining a strong connection between home and your child's T group teacher. If you have any concerns or questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch with your child(ren)'s T group teacher. They will be more than happy to help. 

I want to acknowledge that juggling learning from home with your own work commitments is not easy. Everyone's family circumstances are unique. We have designed our Distance Learning Programme to allow flexibility for families to decide what balance is right for their home context. For some families, this may mean choosing to complete all tasks assigned whereas for others, it may mean just completing a selection of activities.  

If required, there is also a huge range of activities available through the Ministry of Education's  Learning from Home and Learning TV I Papa Kāigna TV websites along with the Learning at Home resources on our school website. These resources include ideas for how you can support your child's wellbeing, something that is really important to keep in mind during these uncertain times. 

I would like to take the opportunity to thank our staff for the work they are doing with our Distance Learning Programme, many of them are also juggling their own family commitments at this time. I'm really proud of how well our team has supported each other to get the DLP up and running again.

Preparations for a possible shift in Alert Levels 

As you will be aware, an announcement about any changes to the current Alert Levels will be made on Friday afternoon. If the decision is to drop down to Alert Level 3 at some point in the future, our plans are well in place to be ready to open for children who can no longer be supervised at home due to parents having to return to work. 

The key driver for Alert Level 3 is to reduce and restrict the number of interactions between people whilst balancing the need to re-energise the economy and allow people to return to work where possible. With this in mind, our school’s main objective at Alert Level 3 will be to maintain our Distance Learning Programme for all children whilst creating a safe environment at school for those families who can not keep their children at home. 

Thank you to everyone who completed the survey that was sent out on Monday morning indicating whether your child(ren) is likely to return at Alert Level 3. We are currently in the process of making contact with any families we haven't heard from as it is critical that we know who will be onsite at Alert Level 3.  

If a move down alert levels is confirmed in Friday's announcement, we will be in contact with the families of children who will be attending school shortly after that. 

In the meantime, I hope you stay safe and well and enjoy some sunshine over the next couple of days. 

He waka eke noa (We are all in this together).

Ngā mihi nui

Stuart Cameron

Principal