It was great to welcome students and staff back to school on Monday this week.

Everyone has adapted really well to our new routines and requirements, even when this has required students to walk the ‘long way around’ when moving between classes!

We were delighted with the high rate of attendance on Monday (92.8%). This has fallen off as the week has progressed with a number of students having to stay at home as a stomach bug and colds have hit. While it is important for students to attend school if they are well, it is even more important they stay at home if they are unwell. We do have a small number of students at high risk of a severe response to Covid-19 or who have family members who are, who have not yet returned to school. Please keep the school informed if your situation changes. Students who are unable to attend school will be able to continue to learn by keeping up with the work posted on Google classrooms.

We will be retaining the changed daily routine for next week, meaning that there will be no whanau times, assemblies or timetabled silent reading time and the school day will finish at 3:05pm. Staff will be reviewing this next week, after the Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday, and a decision will be made then on how we will proceed for the remainder of the term.

The requirements around Alert Levels have meant that we have had to make many changes to our school calendar. Unfortunately many activities have had to be cancelled and this has included our combined OBs and OGs musical production of ‘Legally Blonde’. I know this is a huge disappointment to all involved but we simply could not go ahead given the finances involved. The National kapa haka competition and Polyfest event have been cancelled. Hopefully the students who would have been involved in all of these events will still be able to entertain us with elements of their performances later in the year. Winter sports tournaments are another casualty of the Covid-19 situation. All sports bar hockey have cancelled their tournaments already and hockey is expected to follow shortly.

Parent teacher interviews have had to be pushed back to later in the term. This is to enable staff and students to settle back into school and allow time for them to reconnect and determine where individuals are ‘at’ in their learning. We are currently working on when and how parent teacher interviews will take place and will publish the updated dates in next week’s newsletter.

Last week NZQA announced changes to NCEA in response to Covid-19. These changes include delaying the start of NCEA examinations to November 16 which pushes the finish date back to December 9. A link to the updated timetable can be found here. We are currently working to adjust our end of year arrangements accordingly. Submission dates for portfolios have also been pushed back and teachers will be communicating this to students. There are no announcements around reducing the number of credits for certificates or University Entrance at this stage.

Late last week we received exciting news that our Guidance Counsellor, Kirsten Taylor, was the winner of the inaugural Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia Fellowship. This has resulted in her having access to $A10,000 to run a pilot for a group based, culturally responsive counselling programme. This is the result of a great deal of research and hard work by Kirsten and we are looking forward to seeing the fruits of her labour as she works to find innovative ways to meet the needs of our students.  

Thank you to all of you for your support of the school over the past two months and for your support for your child’s learning. The many positive messages we have received from parents have been much appreciated. It can feel like a lot has been sacrificed as we have worked together as a country to beat this virus but I, personally, feel very grateful that so few lives have been lost as a result of our combined response. I have enjoyed talking to girls about their experiences during lock-down. For most it was a largely positive experience but we do have some students who have struggled. Please let us know if you have concerns so we can work together to support your daughter.

Ngā mihi

Linda Miller