Dear Parents/Whanau,

You have had many updates lately, in fact it may seem like information overload! But, many of the messages you have received are required reading and give you information that the Government needs you to know regarding Covid 19 and schools.

However, this newsletter will give you a little more information and news rather than just Government releases or information.

Simple messages to reinforce at home:

Here are a few simple tips we will reinforce with our tamariki at school:

REMEMBER: Our Reddie Learner values and

Keep your hands clean

Cough/Sneeze into your elbow

Don't share food or drink

Keep space between yourself and others

Be kind to one another

Also remember the 'Three Keeps'

Keep safe, keep helping, keep smiling!

(Protect each other, be kind, stay positive)

It would be great if you could reinforce these at home as well. The keep helping and keep smiling reminders are particularly important regarding children’s attitude and mental wellbeing through the weeks and months to come.

A big thank you… to parents/whanau

To all parents and whanau who have worked as ‘home schoolers’ over the past weeks. We have supplied distance learning for our tamariki and we have received much positive feedback about this. However, we would like to say a big thank you to all those many parents who have so regularly supported their tamariki in their home learning and have shared what the tamariki have been doing, From amazing baking, game challenges, back-yard sports and fitness activities, art and crafts, inventions, stories and research, music and dance, jokes and funny happenings shared… wow, a lot has been going on!

Your efforts in supporting our tamariki has been great!

A special thanks to our on-site tamariki too. Our little bunch of on-site Reddie Learners have been superb.

A big thank you to staff

We have had much positive feedback from parents/whanau about the efforts of our on-site and off-site staff who have supported our children’s learning. We have certainly had to adjust the way we have worked through the past weeks. I have certainly appreciated the flexibility and professionalism of a great staff team!

Has your child’s learning been impacted by the Covid 19 lock down?

Yes. But not so negatively as some may be thinking. The lock down ‘home school’/’distance learning’ brings opportunities and challenges.

We have seen many children ‘blossom’ in what they have been doing and what they have been learning. It’s amazing what our tamariki have experienced and learnt at home. It has been encouraging to see the work/learning ideas we have sent through have been undertaken but it is also a real joy to see your home-inspired learning and activities. Many great opportunities have been grasped at home.

Tamariki will have done some great learning! There will be some aspects of learning for some of our tamariki that we will need to concentrate on especially adjustment back to a big learning group, aspects of reading and writing and elements of maths… some learning challenges. But, they won’t have fallen further behind their peers because all our tamariki have been in the same waka/boat… the changed Covid 19 learning waka! So, do not worry unnecessarily about your child’s learning, we will keep in touch with you as we settle back in and find out more about our tamariki’s learning over recent weeks.

Reporting and assessment:

This will now be pushed back to later in the year. We are yet to define the date that our usual mid-year reports will be done. We will need some extra time to get back into our school routines etc and catch up with where our tamariki are ‘at’ with regard to their learning.

Assemblies and school gatherings:

All school assemblies, team assemblies and gatherings remain cancelled at this point. I envisage that these will resume if/when we move into Alert Level 1.

Music lessons, Marzipan and Kapahaka/Te Reo

These on-site external providers will not be delivering their usual sessions in the first week. The school is currently reviewing the protocols and requirements with regard to external providers on-site.

Teacher only day:

A reminder that the Totaranui Community of Learning Teacher Only Day Friday 29 May HAS BEEN CANCELLED

Now for something different: the school redevelopment! The latest…

Yes the Covid 19 stuff has impacted our start date, a little… but a progress report:

• A project manager has been assigned and will begin working with the school

• Building consents have been lodged

• Tenders are being called for the redevelopment

• Demolition of some buildings will begin in September

• Building of a new playground will commence after building demolition of Rooms 13 and 14 (temporary library and resource room) and Room 9 (beside current ‘junior’ playground) later this year

• Rooms 19/20 demolished by end of year

• School Hillary Hall cladding and other internal hall upgrades undertaken

This will involve some tamariki shifting out of current learning spaces by the end of the year but we will keep you informed of this well in advance of it happening.

The school redevelopment will continue through all of 2021 and into 2022.

These will be exciting times but will also lead to some disruption as children are shifted out of current learning spaces to allow the redevelopment to progress.

We will keep you updated with information as it comes to hand.

John Stackhouse

Tumuaki/Principal