This information outlines what will happen when Omicron arrives in our school community, affecting our students and staff.

Health measures in place to slow the spread of COVID

We continue to encourage the health measures endorsed by government that minimize the spread of COVID: vaccination, mask-wearing, scanning QR codes, regular use of sanitiser, hand washing, physical distancing, having good airflow in indoor spaces, and staying home from school when sick.

COVID Notification Actions

Once a confirmed case of COVID has been notified to the school. We will send out a text notifying that to the whole school community. We will follow that up with an email as soon as possible indicating where in the school the case(s) are.

Establishing Contacts of Cases

We will then work with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education to identify close contacts and casual contacts – then we will advise the identified families whether their child is a close contact or a casual contact.

Close Contacts

An identified CLOSE contact of a COVID case needs to isolate at home for at least 7 days, be tested and may return to school at the end of the isolation once Public Health advises that they can.

Casual Contacts

An identified CASUAL contact without COVID symptoms can continue to attend school but must watch for symptoms for 10 days and if any develop, get tested immediately and stay at home until 24 hours after symptoms resolve.

Close Contact vs Casual Contact

So how does a student or staff member at school become a close contact to a COVID case or a casual contact to a COVID case at school?

Amongst the various scenarios that the Ministry of Education has given us to help identify contacts – here are two that help explain who a close contact or a casual contact in a classroom situation or conversation might be.

As you can see below from the two scenarios below – the duration of exposure, physical distance from the case, and whether a student is wearing a mask or not are all factors that determine whether other students/staff are classified as a close contact and have to stay home for a minimum of 7 days or whether they can continue learning/teaching at school as a casual contact.

Scenario 1

Friends hanging out together in a classroom for more than 15 minutes. Close range contact within 1.5m of case.

• If the case was wearing a face mask and time was less than 2 hours: friends would be CASUAL CONTACTS
• If the case was wearing a face mask and time was more than 2 hours: friends would be CLOSE CONTACTS
• If the case wasn’t wearing a face mask: friends would be CLOSE CONTACTS

Scenario 2

A teacher-student interaction (or a parent-teacher conversation) indoors for more than 15 minutes. Close range contact within 1.5m of case.

• If the case was wearing a face mask and time was less than 2 hours: contacts would be CASUAL CONTACTS
• If the case was wearing a face mask and time was more than 2 hours: contacts would be CLOSE CONTACTS
• If the case wasn’t wearing a face mask: contacts would be CLOSE CONTACTS

Viability of operating the school

As case numbers rise, and more of our staff have COVID or are identified as close contacts and are required to stay home, we may not have sufficient staffing to cover all classes.

Should this occur, we will move into a House-based structure (in separate areas of the school) where students will be supervised whilst completing their online learning. We may have to roster students home as our available staff numbers dwindle. Our ability to support online learning will depend on whether affected staff are well enough to do this from home. We will do our utmost to keep as many students on-site for as long as we can. The worst-case scenario is that we would stay open only for essential workers’ children.

We are doing everything we can to keep our school community safe and ensure teaching and learning continues. Thank you to our parents, students, and staff for all you are doing to ensure we will manage whatever comes over the next few days/weeks/months.