Tēnā koutou katoa, Mālō e lelei,

Welcome to our second newsletter for 2020. What extraordinary times we are all living in at the moment. One thing is for sure - it will impact on and change all of our lives in some way forever.

The shift in school holidays, due to the country being placed on Level 4 Alert as a result of COVID-19, has meant they began two weeks earlier than scheduled. Please note 2020 School Holidays are now 30 March - 14 April. School will resume on Wednesday the 15th April and will see students learning remotely from their bubbles. This will take a bit of adjusting and require us all to be flexible, adaptive and considerate of others.

The most important thing to remember is to look after yourselves and your family/whānau. This includes ensuring overall safety and wellbeing. We are strongly encouraging our staff to not expect too much of themselves or their students during these challenging times. 3 - 4 hours learning is more than adequate per day.

Learning from your Bubble

Remote leaning, learning online, distance learning, there have been many different names given to the type of learning that our students will participate in from 15th April. Educators are working hard to ensure that student learning can continue with as little disruption as possible during the period of isolation. This will require our teachers to work with students differently. Hopefully our staff made contact with your child last week and established how teachers are going to share resources and teaching material.

Maximising Learning from your Bubble - quick tips for parents/ whānau to support student learning

1. Establish a routine

• Get students into a routine for the day including when they get up and when they go to bed

• Try to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the same time

• Make sure they get some fresh air!

1. Commit to 2 - 3 hours formal lessons a day

• We are strongly encouraging our teachers to only have on average over the five days 30 minutes learning a day for each course. There will be days when students choose or are required to spend more time on one task than 30 minutes.

• Get the student to make a plan each day on what they are going to complete. This may include participating in online (ZOOM) lessons or completing online activities.

1. Have a space where students can work

• This may not always be possible. However the student will benefit from having access to a quiet place to complete work without distractions

• Don’t be surprised if students work with earphones in. However, it might be a good idea to agree to an hour or so where they have their cell phone turned off or in another room

1. Break the day up into parts or ‘chunks’

• Try to get the student to work solidly for 30 - 45 minutes then have a break

• It is important that students do take regular breaks away from screen time.

1. Focus on everyone's well being

• Students should be encouraged to connect with their peers regularly, and you may find they are completing tasks while on skype, facetime or zoom to another student(s). This form of group work is completely OK

• Ask questions about their learning and encourage students to regularly check in with their teachers

• Make sure that they are doing something for FUN everyday. Remember learning can happen anytime, anywhere and with anyone.

We will send out another update closer to the start of Term 2 to share more information about remote teaching and learning. Please send any queries you may have in the mean time to: principal@katikaticollege.school.nz

For more information refer to the special section in this Newsletter on "Keeping our Kids Safe Using Digital Devices and the Online Environment".

Reflecting on the great start to Term 1 before Level 4 Alert

Before the College closed due to the COVID-19 Level 4 Alert our students and staff experienced many positive learning moments and celebrated much success. This newsletter is full of many examples. Some of the Term 1 highlights included:

• Swimming Sports and Athletics Day. Once again these were an opportunity for our sportspeople to show us all just how much talent we have in the College. Outstanding performance and very high levels of participation saw four College House battle it out once again for top honours. Congratulations to all our College champions and record breakers. A special thanks to all our staff who supported the day marshalling, counting, coordinating and encouraging; it's great to have such a supportive team. Thanks to our PE Faculty and Sports Coordinator for running these events.

• Year 13 Camp is always a great way to start the year for our college leaders. We have a talented, diverse and caring group of Year 13s and it was a privilege to spend time on camp with the students and staff. My favourite activity is Kayaking, with Paintball always leaving a lingering reminder of how old I am getting! Thanks to Mr Nicholson and Mr Donaldson for the awesome action-packed camp

• I am constantly reminded when we run events like the School Triathlon how lucky we are with our College location. Being able to have such a scenic triathlon course without having to travel. Thanks to Mr Besley for once again managing this event

• Ms Grant’s Market Day is always a day to mark on the calendar. Staff and students are guaranteed delectable delights for lunch. Thank you to the Year 11 students for their outstanding efforts. Ms Grant says this was one of the best Market Days yet.

• Support Staff Day on the 11th March was a day to celebrate our amazing support staff Team and acknowledge all they do. Student leaders wrote personal messages to our support staff and delivered them along with a Kitkat and a morning tea was made for them by our Senior Hospitality Students. Special thanks to our Hospitality teacher Karyn Williams.

• Our Innovative Hort Programme has a record number of student enrolments this year and is offered at Level 1, 2 and 3 NCEA. We are now focused on raising funds for our new purpose-built Innovative Hort facility to try and accommodate our large increase in students. To measure our success along the way there is now a thermometer outside the Talisman Hotel. We are aiming to raise $500K and are already well on our way. Special thanks to Innovative Hort Manager, Hilary Johnson and the Katikati Advertiser for making this happen.

• Our students continue to demonstrate positivity and kindness to others and this is seen in the Student Council Manaakitanga Wall initiative. It was an incredibly humbling experience to watch our students construct such a positive demonstration which encapsulated our college 2020 theme of Kia Tika (Do the right thing) as well as all our College values; Manaakitanga (caring), Ako (shared learning), Rangatiratanga (Managing self & leadership) and Kotahitanga (Unity). Special thanks to Mrs Finnimore and the Student Council for this awesome idea!
  

Community Suggestions

There is a ‘Community Suggestion Box’ available on our Website for our school community to have their say and communicate their ideas and feedback to the college. These comments will be addressed each month through the Principal’s Comment of each Newsletter.

Community feedback from February and March included:

• Many positive comments on the new uniform,

• A request to better align our school holidays and Teacher Only Days with Katikati Primary School

• Suggestions to improve our website

• Queries about engagement reports

• Several suggestions to help us improve our communication

Thank you for all the ideas. We are always exploring new ways to improve the effectiveness of our communication . I can confirm that one of our areas for development and improvement this year is our website. We apologise that some of the information has not been updated. This is because we are investing in the new website and are hoping to have it ready by about the end of Term 2.

We have been working with Katikati Primary School to better synchronize our start and end of year dates, as well as our Teacher Only Days. As a secondary school one of the considerations we must take into account especially at the start of the year is NCEA and when these exams are scheduled for in November. If we were to start school the same week as the primary school we would lose a week's NCEA teaching for our teachers of senior classes.

Our Engagement Reports are important tools to use to track your child's engagement and progress. You should receive these every two weeks. Use the Engagement Report Criteria to help you interpret and track your child's progress. If you are not receiving fortnightly engagement reports or have any questions please direct them to Deputy Principal Ian Nicholson inicholson@katikaticollege.school.nz

Learning Queries

We strongly encourage our whānau, parents and caregivers to work in partnership with our College to support the learning of our students. This is especially important during the COVID-19 Level 4 Alert Isolation period. To further support this a flow chart to show where Learning Queries should be directed is availableat  https://goo.gl/K3mvWR.

Please use the information sheet to identify contact details of who you to go to when you have questions about your child’s learning. Information for all our parents wanting to make Learning Queries is available using this link https://goo.gl/fMvD9L and for our whānau / parents with students in our Whānau Pūmanawa class more information is available using this link https://goo.gl/o8HGEj. AIGA and Pasifika students should go to https://goo.gl/hKTkLY .

Making a Formal Complaint

Katikati College and the Board of Trustees are committed to ensuring that all complaints are dealt with promptly, openly and without prejudice, so that the issue can be addressed effectively and in accordance with the principles of natural justice. If you wish to make a formal complaint please refer to the Katikati College Complaints Policy and Procedures. Following this please complete the Formal Complaints Form and send to principal@katikaticollege.school.nz or drop a hard copy into the School Office.

Flutracking

Flutracking is an online survey which asks if you have had a fever or cough in the last week and which can help us track COVID-19. As requested by the Ministry of Health, please complete the online register to help our surveillance efforts by providing early detection of community spread of the flu and also of COVID-19 symptoms.

Thank you for playing your part in keeping our community safe by registering signs or symptoms online at https://info.flutracking.net/

This is a practical thing everyone can do to help us monitor flu and COVID-19 symptoms throughout New Zealand.

School Grounds Closed

While the country is at COVID-19 Level 1 4 Alert our College Grounds are out of bounds to everyone, for all activities. No exceptions. Please keep away from the College until further notice

As noted by the Prime Minister these restrictions are our best chance to slow the virus in New Zealand and to save lives. We all have a clear role here to slow the spread of COVID-19.

We will continue to communicate with you over the coming days.

Please do not expect too much of yourselves or our students. Learning happens everywhere and anytime!

Kia Kaha, Aroha nui

Nāku noa na

Carolyn Pentecost

TUMUAKI/ PRINCIPAL