Tēnā koutou e te Whānau

We have had a fantastic start to the new school year with our tamariki now well into their learning programmes.  One of the highlights this week has been T31, T32, T33 spending Monday-Wednesday on camp at Living Springs. They have had a fantastic time enjoying a range of outdoor activities. Thank you to all of the parents who helped out on camp. It simply wouldn't be possible to offer these sorts of opportunities without this level of support. I would also like to acknowledge the hard work that has been put in by Ōtāwhito Team Leader Anita Head and her teachers for all of the extra work they put into preparing for the camp.

Covid Protection Framework

As you will be aware, our school has implemented a range of additional procedures in response to the Red setting of the Covid Protection Framework. Based on guidance from the Ministries of Health and Education, our approach has been to develop a three-phased approach as follows:

• Phase One: little or no transmission in the Canterbury region
• Phase Two: active transmission in the Canterbury region
• Phase Three: confirmed cases within our school community

We are currently operating at Phase One of our plan (please note that our phased approach is specific to Halswell School and not the same as the Government's phases). Our Board of Trustees is closely monitoring case numbers in our region. Based on how things are tracking, it is likely that we will be moving to Phase 2 of our plan in the very near future.

We have created a Covid-19 page on our school website that provides details about what each phase will look like at our school. Please familiarise yourself with this information. 

If/when the Board decides to move to Phase Two, you will receive a separate Hero notification detailing specific information about how we will operate at this phase. In the meanitme. if you have any questions, please free free to contact the Office.

Ngā mihi nui

Stuart Cameron

Principal