Kia ora koutou

I hope life in the bubble is going well for all of our families and whanau. 

The Covid-19 crisis has turned our lives upside down and the last five weeks has created a ‘new normal’ for all of us. 

For many families it has been a very busy time as people carried on with their jobs which has some challenges. For some it has been very difficult as job losses or loss of income has added a great deal of stress. 

However, I hope a number of you have been able to use the time productively to get jobs done around the house, binge watch the Tiger King, or possibly in the last few days you may have seen the first episodes of the Michael Jordan documentary. Most importantly of all, I hope you have looked after yourselves and enjoyed time as a family.

The government’s decision to re-open schools on Wednesday 29th April has led to us planning how we manage this safely over the next two weeks. Information has been sent out and it is pleasing to see that most families are following the Prime Minister’s advice that if you can keep your son at home, you should. You should only physically send him to school if you need to. For those boys that do come to school we will have very strict measures in place to ensure that boys stay in bubbles of no more than ten, physical distancing will be observed, and hygiene will be essential.

All boys, including those coming to school will continue to do online learning. Our teachers are working hard to ensure this is useful learning and they are in regular communication with the boys. 

For our boys who are doing NCEA, my advice is not to panic. You may be doing learning that will help with NCEA, but I have advised the teachers not to do assessment while the boys are at home. NCEA is a national issue as students throughout the country are in the same situation, and I am confident that measures will be put in place to ensure those doing NCEA will not be disadvantaged.

Tuesday 28th April is a Staff Only Day. We are using this opportunity for staff to come back to school in small groups to collect resources they need to continue working from home. Boys may have school work to continue with, but our teachers won’t be providing lessons online or be available to students on Tuesday.

Lastly, thank you to everyone who has followed the advice of the government, stayed home and stopped the spread of Covid-19. It has been a challenging month, but we have made progress and the move to Alert Level 3 is a positive step. It is important to continue minimising our movement and sticking to our bubbles so we can eventually get back to a normal routine.

Stay home, stay safe and be kind.

He waka eke noa - We are all in this together.

Tim Grocott