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An Update from Graeme Budler - 1 March 2021

KingsWay School —

Dear Parents,

While another lockdown may leave us frustrated, I trust that we can continue to be agile and responsive during this time. Despite the challenges of 2020, KingsWay's NCEA results were the best we have ever recorded. How did we do this? Easy answer. All parts of the community rallied, and with the strength of God, we persevered. It is time to draw on our reserves and to do it again. I love and respect the KingsWay community and believe we have unbreakable resilience.

Whole School Information

Meet the Teacher Parent Meeting - Virtual!

At Alert Level 2 and 3, KingsWay cannot hold the annual Full Parent meeting. To avoid compressing too many events into the latter part of the term, the ELT want to host a virtual full parent meeting on Thursday, 4 March at 7 pm. This event should be both informative and convenient. I will send you further details closer to the time, but please reserve the date and time. I am aware that many of you are over attending Zoom meetings, but please prioritise this event.

Wellbeing

Learning at home brings with it a unique set of challenges. It is perhaps timely to revisit some ways we can care for one another and ourselves:

  1. Accentuate and feed the positives.
  2. Connect spiritually as well as socially and for work. Find the Lord by reading His Word, prayer, and socially distanced connection with fellow believers.

  3. Be kind and work together to balance and realign expectations.

  4. Listen to one another and your physical needs. Get up and out of doors!

  5. Celebrate getting from A-B rather than worrying about getting from A-Z.

Mihi Whakatau- New Student Welcome

We have postponed this event until the country moves into Alert Level 1.

New Parent Meeting

We have postponed this event until the country moves into Alert Level 1.

Sport Practices

Sports' practices are cancelled until the country moves into Alert Level 2.

Other Events

I realise that the community is anxious to know the status of different events. The leadership will update events as close to the scheduled date as possible to avoid unnecessary postponements or cancellations. Please check the website for event updates.

Primary Specific Information

During the collection of Home Learning Packs today, it was lovely to see so many waves and smiling faces. As mentioned yesterday, each pack contains enough work for four weeks. This work prepares everyone for the eventuality of additional lockdowns throughout the year. Please do not let your child complete home learning sheets beyond the first week, as we will not be providing different packs unless we exceed four weeks of L3 or L4 lockdown over the rest of the year.

Remove Pack/Week 1 from the bag and safely store the remaining pack/s for use later in the year.

Teachers will begin online meetings with their classes tomorrow.

Please feel free to email your child's teacher if you have any questions about their learning or need clarification on any aspect of it. Teachers will be available throughout the school day until 3:30 pm. Please remember, however, that many of our teachers also have young children at home whom they are supervising, so they may not always be able to respond to your email immediately.

Year 5 BYOD Online Meeting:

Please note that this meeting will take place online tomorrow, Tuesday 2 March, at 7:30 pm. We will email parents a web link to join this meeting soon.

Middle School Specific Information

It was great to hear of the students meeting with their Form teacher and classmates today. Students have done well in accessing learning in their Google Classrooms. The Middle School Distance Learning programme commences tomorrow morning of Tuesday, 2 March, with students having their first-morning Zoom devotion. Students need to access Google Classroom before 9 am. Parents will receive an email from their child's Form teacher with specific learning details for the week.

As always, please feel free to email your child's teacher with any questions or concerns. They will reply during school hours. If your child does not have access to a laptop at home, please email lisa.lambert@kingsway.school.nz.

Wellbeing

Teachers want to invite students to participate in a Whanau House competition to inject some fun and physical activity into their week. For those who do not know their Whanau House, they will soon. Let us work together to keep our young people in healthy routines that support their body, soul, and spirit. If your child finds this season particularly challenging, please update their Form teacher.

Parent Evening

Middle School meetings will take place over Zoom. More information and details to follow in tomorrow's update.

Senior School Specific Information

Timetabled Classes

As per our protocols for longer lockdowns in 2020, our teaching and learning timetable is delivered as follows:

  1. Each course will have a maximum of three online learning sessions this week (Y10 options may be less).
  2. A maximum of 1.5 hours per week per class is permitted (30mins x3).

  3. There should be additional work set through Teams that you can check to measure engagement and progress.

  4. The senior management requires teacher not book times with students outside of their regular timetabled classes.

  5. Teachers have all been given information about online protocols as part of their pre-lockdown briefing that includes specifics around conduct, privacy, subjects covered and use of sources online.

NCEA Assessments and Trips

We are in the process of evaluating how many assessments will be affected during this week, and next week should there be a lockdown extension. Teachers will adjust assessments as needed should on-site presence be required. Likewise, we are evaluating trips on a case-by-case basis. While we prefer to postpone field trips, we may have to cancel some.

NCEA Information

A video presentation will deliver NCEA assessment information to students via form classes. We will also be sending out a link to Year 11-13 to remind them about NCEA protocols.

Parent Evening

Senior School meetings will take place over Microsoft Teams. More information and detail to follow in tomorrow's update.


Kind regards, 

Graeme Budler
Executive Principal