The announcement occurred yesterday informing New Zealander's what Level 2 will look like when the government moves to this level.

It is reassuring to hear how well our country has done at minimizing the impacts of COVID-19.  The staff would like to thank you for your support, as we have navigated these levels and worked together for the education of your child.

Today, Jacinda Adern - our Prime Minister, advised that in Alert Level 2, schools are safe environments for children, young people and staff and that additional public health control measures are in place to prevent the spread of the disease and to support contract tracing.

The good news is that when we are able to, Lochiel School will be ready to welcome all students and staff back to our school site.

The two key Public Health principles that support the Level 2 approach, is to minimize the risk that someone gets infected in the first place, and second, to ensure we can identify and contact anyone who has been in close contact with a person, if someone in a school is infected.

As we have done in Alert Level 3, we will be required to monitor who is at school, who our staff and students have been in contact with, and who has been on our school site.  We are looking at the best ways of monitoring adults coming onto our site and easy ways of recording this.

Physical distancing is a good precaution to prevent the spread of COVID-19.  In an Alert level 2 school environment, this means children, young people and staff maintaining a physical distance so that they are not breathing on or touching each other, coupled with good hygiene practices (coughing into your elbow, hand washing and drying) and regular cleaning of commonly touched surfaces.

There will be situations where physical distancing is not possible, such as some sporting activities.  In these situations extra emphasis on handwashing and drying (or cleaning with hand sanitizer) before and after activities and regular cleaning of equipment is needed.

Under alert Level 2, we advise any students and staff to stay at home if they are sick, and we will send anyone home immediately if they show any symptoms.

Our school has safe and sensible practices to maintain the health and safety of everyone on the school site. As described by Dr Payinda in his NZ Herald Article. "Covid's not measles or chickenpox, it doesn't hang in the air for hours waiting to infect passers-by.  It travels on invisible drops of spit.  You don't have to cross the street to avoid anyone.  Just avoid getting in their 'moist breath' zone.  We all just need to remember to have some breathing space at Alert Level 2".

It's important however that not just at school but at home, safe hygiene habits are practiced by everyone, as this is essential to minimize the risk that someone gets infected with Covid-19.

For more information about the public measures at Alert Level 2, you can visit the covid10.govt.nz website:  https://covid19.govt.nz

Lochiel School is currently planning for Level 2, so we are ready for when the government decides to go to this level. We have been told that when the government makes the decision to move levels, schools won't open midweek - whenever the decision is made - they will open at the beginning of the following week.  So if the decision to shift to Level 2 is done next week, schools will have plenty of time to prepare.  If you know your child will not be returning under level 2, due to them having a serious illness, or someone in the family that is vulnerable, could you please email principal@lochiel.school.nz so we can plan to arrange further home learning to occur when level 2 begins.

Kind regards

Mary Miller/Mel Montgomery
Lochiel School Principal/Lochiel School BOT Chairperson