We continue to receive frequent updates from the Ministry of Education about health and safety and the appropriate response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some key information from the latest update:

As you have been doing, please continue to focus on prevention of spread including through:

• Washing hands with soap and water for 20 seconds and drying thoroughly - before and after eating as well as after attending the toilet
• Covering coughs and sneezes with clean tissues or with an elbow
• Putting used tissues in the bin

Staff and students need to stay home if they are unwell in any way. 

Remember that personal hygiene, and reducing unnecessary physical contact (eg. hugs, handshakes, hongi) are still the most important things to do to stop the spread of any virus.

We know that some parents have concerns about their children attending school at the moment, some of which may be due to what they are seeing in the media about other countries.

There’s a simple rule here – if students are unwell (whether or not their illness relates to COVID-19) they should stay at home. Students who are not unwell should continue to attend school.

The Ministry reminds parent communities that while we are seeing large-scale school shutdowns elsewhere in the world, in New Zealand we still have no community transmission. Consequently, any decisions about school closures will be made on a case by case basis. In the meantime, unless students are unwell themselves, then parents should keep sending them to schools and early learning centres as these environments continue to be safe and the best place for them to continue their learning.

Other things that we are doing at Sherwood:

• Our cleaners have increased the frequency of cleaning surfaces such as tabletops in the school.
• We are employing additional cleaners to clean areas that wouldn't normally get so much attention e.g. locker handles.
• Teachers have extra disinfectant supplied so they can wipe down surfaces more frequently.
• We have altered our lunch eating time to 12.30 so that students can be reminded to wash their hands directly before going to eat. Teachers will finish their pre-morning tea programme and pre-lunch programme slightly earlier to make time for this.
• We will not have whole school assemblies, but may meet in smaller team groups and without inviting visitors.

How you can help:

It is helpful if your child has their own hand sanitiser. We know it may not be possible as it is in short supply. However, when we need large numbers of children to clean their hands in a short timeframe such as before eating lunch, it is much quicker if some can take care of this themselves.

Reassure your child that everyone, including health experts and medical staff, are working very hard to ensure good outcomes for people. They are likely to be less anxious if you keep calm and provide them with correct and age-appropriate information. There are some great online resources that you can access to do this, some of which we shared in our last newsletter. Also attached is an information sheet to help parents.

These two videos from Michelle Dickinson are excellent resources that you might wish to view with your children:

Coronavirus Explained (for kids)

Teaching your children about handwashing