Dear Parents/Guardians,

Re: Covid Update

While it has been pleasing to be able to return to something much closer to normal school life to date this term, Covid continues to have an impact on school life. Currently the number of young men who are testing positive and/or are required to isolate as household contacts are much lower than term one.

There are also a number of staff who are having to isolate and this is beginning to put pressure on our ability to adequately cover all timetabled classes. Consequently, for the two weeks, beginning next Monday, May 30, Year 12 students are asked to study from home when they have a period 5 study class on a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon and Year 13 students who have a study class period 1 are also asked to study from home and will only need to be at school in time for their period 2 class. We are hoping that these measures will enable us to meet the necessary supervision requirements for all other timetabled classes.

We will review these arrangements in two week’s time and advise you and your son whether or not they need to be extended beyond this time.

Other than those young men who are unwell or required to isolate, all students should be regularly attending school. A reminder that young men are expected to be at school by 8.40 am every morning, unless they have a period one study class.

Below is a reminder of the relevant Covid-19 protocols now that we are at Orange in the Covid Protection Framework:

At Orange, facemasks are no longer mandatory at school. However, public health advice is that facemasks continue to be strongly encouraged when indoors. The health advice is that wearing a facemask is a key health measure that helps reduce the spread of COVID-19 in indoor settings. Consequently, we strongly encourage all students and visitors to the school, including parents and whānau, to wear a facemask whenever they are indoors on school grounds.

We also ask that your son continues to bring a facemask to school every day. There will be times that we will ask him to wear a facemask, such as during school assemblies. If there are a high number of cases at school or in the community, we may ask that facemasks are worn in classrooms for a time to slow the spread of Covid.

Please note that at Orange, students aged 12 and above are still required to wear a facemask on school and/or public transport.

It is likely that Covid cases, and the disruption that goes with them, will continue to occur within our community for some time to come. Therefore, it is important that we are all mindful of public health advice:

If your son is unwell, he should not attend school. Please notify our attendance office as per usual processes if your son is sick and is going to be absent from school (354 5176 ext. 761).

It is important that all of us are monitoring for Covid-19 symptoms. If any of the following symptoms develop, ring Healthline on 0800 358 5453 or your doctor.

Common symptoms of COVID-19 are like those found with illnesses such as a cold or influenza. You may have one or more of the following:

• new or worsening cough

• sneezing and runny nose

• fever

• temporary loss of smell or altered sense of taste

• sore throat

• shortness of breath

Less common symptoms of COVID-19 may include diarrhoea, headache, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, malaise, chest pain, abdominal pain, joint pain, or confusion/irritability. These almost always occur with one or more of the common symptoms.

Can I please encourage you to continue reinforcing the importance of good personal hygiene with your son – in particular regular hand washing and coughing and sneezing into his elbow or a tissue. Tissues should be disposed of in the rubbish immediately after use.

All students who are well and who are not household contacts of a confirmed Covid-19 case should attend school as normal.

We want to keep visitors to the school to an absolute minimum. Consequently, our preference is for you to make contact by email or telephone – 3545176 or admin@pnbhs.school.nz for the Main Office, 3545176 ext. 799 or finance@pnbhs.school.nz for the Finance Office.

If you are picking your son up for an appointment, please arrange to meet him outside of the school gates. If you are required to pick your son up during the day because he becomes unwell, please ring the main office when you arrive at school and he will be escorted to the front door by the office staff.

To reduce the number of visitors to school we encourage parents to utilise online banking for payments whenever possible. The details are:

Bank: Westpac
Account Name: Palmerston North Boys’ High School
Account Number: 03-0726-0476403-00
Reference #1 (Student ID):
References #2 (Student Name):

Please contact the Finance Office if you do not know your son’s Student ID number.

Thank you for your continuing support. 

Yours faithfully,

D M Bovey

RECTOR