It hasn’t taken long for school life to return back to semi-normal, with a huge number of activities and assessments taking place over the past few weeks.

Dear parents/caregivers

Today we started our ‘Catch-up School’ on a Friday afternoon. Some parents/caregivers and students have already been contacted to request attendance; however, any student may attend if they wish to have supervised support with their learning.

Like many of you, I am awaiting the government decision next week on moving to Covid Alert Level 1. From what we know now, we believe the following are the key changes for schools at Alert Level 1:

• there are no specific public health requirements.
• there are no restrictions on personal movement so all students and staff continue to be safe to go to school and all students must attend school.
• we are no longer required to keep a contact tracing register but will continue with the usual practice of having visitor sign in/out processes and an attendance register (and will need to work with local health authorities to identify close contacts, should there be a case connected with the school).
• physical distancing is not a requirement but is encouraged when you are around people you don’t know.
• there are no restrictions on numbers at gatherings or on physical activities including cultural and sporting activities, practices and events. This means that assemblies and the like can resume.

So for the most part, Alert Level 1 is very much business as usual.  Good hygiene practices and people who are unwell staying away remain a priority.

In order to support students and families moving forward you will notice that our usual school calendar of events has been altered:

• School reports – A ‘traffic light’ summary will be provided at the end of Term 2, with full reports issued at the end of Term 3.
• Subject Interviews – This meet the teacher evening will go ahead, but the date is still to be confirmed.
• Achievement Conferences – these will not be held in 2020.
• Staff Only Days – the NCEA Planning Day on Monday 10 August will go ahead at Nayland College (although not at every school). However, the Staff Only Day on Thursday 3 September has been cancelled.
• School Derived Grade Exams – will now be held in the last week of Term 3 (approx. 21-25 September).
• Senior Prizegiving – will be held on Thursday 12 November.
• NCEA Exams – these have been postponed and will now begin on Monday 16 November.

I was pleased to see that NZQA have made changes to the NCEA qualification for the 2020 academic school year. For those of you that missed this announcement, I have included information again in this newsletter.

Ngā mihi nui

Daniel Wilson
Principal