Ngā mihi ki a koutou,

The Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday was a very welcome one for us here at Mount Maunganui College. As a result of the move to Alert Level 2, we can confirm we will be open for all students from Monday 18 May.

While there have been certain aspects of life in lockdown that we have enjoyed, we are relieved that we can now get back to working with students at school and continue to support them with their 2020 academic goals.

We have been working hard over the past few weeks to plan for a safe return to school. The Ministry of Health has clearly indicated schools are safe to open so long as certain precautions are taken.

Among other measures, we have increased our schoolwide daily cleaning and sanitising processes and all classroom and common spaces will have access to hand sanitiser. We will continue to limit large gatherings within the school such as assemblies until we are confident we can manage these situations safely. We will insist on and encourage good hygiene practices from everyone here at school and continually monitor our processes to keep our school community safe.

While we are taking extra measures here at school, below is a list of things that you can do to help keep our community safe:

Illness

If your child is unwell or anyone in the household is unwell please keep them at home. Seek medical advice, and make sure your child is fit and well before returning them to school.

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Devices

While it is safe for students to share common items such as tools in the workshop, scientific instruments, musical instruments and devices such as Chromebooks, we ask that if your child has an appropriate device such as a Chromebook or laptop that they bring that to school to continue their learning on. This will help reduce the number of people that come into contact with school devices.

If you have received a school or a Ministry Chromebook these need to be returned to school. We would like to start collecting these devices this Friday 15 May and would appreciate these being dropped into the school library between 9am and 4:30pm. Please send your child to the library with the device and remain in your car.

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School Canteen

The school canteen will be open in line with Ministry of Health guidelines. There is likely to be a reduction in the types of food that can be purchased as it will take some time for stocks to be replenished.

To help with physical distancing we encourage families to have their children prepare a packed lunch before school to reduce the number of students using this service.

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Contact Tracing and Front Office

All visitors to the school, including parents, are required to register at the front office.

If you are collecting your child from school during school hours please notify the front office as per normal processes. Physical distancing measures will be enforced at the front office so please be mindful of others and follow staff advice and requests.

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Bay Bus Services

Bay Bus has informed us that their bus service may not be operating as it was prior to the lockdown due to new restrictions. They are currently working through a number of issues.

Please keep up to date with any bus service changes and restrictions through their website www.baybus.co.nz

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School events and sports will be managed on a case by case basis and more communications about these will be issued in due course as we receive advice from the relevant sporting bodies.

We are grateful for the incredible support we have received from our families during this difficult time and I am sure that if we continue to work together and keep strong lines of communication open, we will make 2020 a great year for our students.

I will keep you updated throughout the transition to Alert Level 2.

Noho ora mai,

Alastair Sinton
Principal