Kia ora koutou; hello everybody.

Like me, I am sure you have followed with interest the announcements made by the Prime Minister.

It is reassuring to hear how well our country has done at minimising the impacts of COVID-19. Alert Levels 4 and 3 have not been easy and I thank you for your ongoing support for the work we are doing.

Today, the 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 disease and to support contact tracing.

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

The key Public Health approach is to minimise 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, you can be assured that in Alert Level 2 we will know who is at school, who our staff and students have been in close contact with and take appropriate measures to keep everyone safe.

Physical distancing is a good precaution to prevent the spread of disease. We do however know it is challenging in schools, so good hygiene practices and regular cleaning are even more important here. This includes staff and students coughing into their elbows, handwashing and drying and regular cleaning of commonly touched surfaces.

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 practised by everyone, as this is essential to minimise the risk that someone gets infected with Covid-19.

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

While Alert Levels 4 and 3 and have been challenging and learning remotely continues to test us all, some silver linings from this experience are appreciating how important both teachers and students are to each other in terms of co-creating the curriculum and developing understandings. Everyone is at different places – we know some students are thriving in this new landscape and some are not. There will be a range of work outputs and we know we can’t expect to get through our normal academic programme in these circumstances. But it has been great to hear of some of the innovative ways teachers and students have been connecting with the curriculum while in lockdown. We hope that you enjoy the photos, stories and reflections in this newsletter – and thank you to the teachers and students who shared them with us. And, thank you too, to parents and whānau who have been learning buddies and supervisors to their daughters. Your input has been invaluable. Our students and whanau have faced many challenges during this period and we need to realize that ‘getting through’ lockdown has been a huge achievement for us all. We know that many students, Year 13 in particular, will be going through a range of emotions including grief and anxiety about how the year has developed – not a way they would have envisaged completing their final year of secondary school. Our Executive Prefects recently completed a webinar on ‘Leading Remotely’ and share some of their thoughts on this within the newsletter.

As we develop protocols for keeping the school safe and healthy it does mean different ways for parents to make contact with us. We do advise that currently our front office is locked – if you need to collect or drop anything off, please ring first to make arrangements for this. This will continue while we are in Alert Level 3.

Once school reopens fully under Alert Level 2, we are expecting students to be in winter uniform but we will be understanding if there have been issues of supply during lockdown. Currently winter uniforms can be obtained through the Academy Apparel website https://academyapparel.co.nz/shop/ and orders placed using click and collect. They are also taking orders over the phone on 354 0979. If you are facing supply issues or financial constraints around this please email the dean and or guidance team. We do appreciate the challenges and will make allowances for girls during this time.

As we now have a 12 week term we will be taking a mid-term break on Friday 29 May and having a Staff Only Day on Tuesday 2nd June (Monday 1 June is Queens’ Birthday Public Holiday).

In the meantime, enjoy the contributions in this newsletter and we will be back in touch very soon regarding Alert Level 2 protocols and our plans. We look forward to our school community being able to come back together.

Ngā mihi,

Tracy Walker

Principal