He mihi mahana kia koutou katoa - Warm greetings to all.

Greetings from my bubble to yours. I'd like to introduce you to two of my bubble, Nea and Henry. They are enjoying the extra daily walks (we live in the country and have a rather large block) as well as the extra attention that comes with me working at home. My husband, Ron, works as a nurse in the Emergency Department of Christchurch Hospital. As an essential worker, on the front line, you can imagine that at times  it can be very challenging!

Living in the bubble certainly makes you appreciate all those people who help us stay in our space and stay safe. Whether it be stocking supermarket shelves, policing our community, ensuring our school is safe, collecting our rubbish or working with animals at the SPCA shelters we are fortunate we have all these workers.

The last three weeks have been an interesting time for all of us. Some of us are learning new skills - I think I have now used 6 different meeting platforms since we went into lockdown to attend different meetings. That doesn't include good old fashion phone and emails!!

As I said before going into lockdown we have been trying to provide certainty in uncertain times. To do this you have had to deal with a huge flow of information from us at school. Schools are "damned it they do and damned if they don't". We need to give parents information to support their children's learning and wellbeing while being  aware that you are dealing with the other aspects of your lives.

Getting the digital workspaces up and running and ensuring we keep in contact are  important  cornerstones of our values of  connecting and belonging as well as learning.

There has been a huge amount of work by the Somerfield Te Kura Wairepo team to get things up and running for digital learning last term and this term. They deal with many of the same issues as you do at home. "We are all in this together" says it all. Our teachers have had the challenges of using new digital spaces and technologies but they are well supported by other members of the staff. This week our learning support and admin staff rocked into action to design fun activities and work to support what is going up on the workspaces and the learning for individual children.

I am hugely proud of the way everyone is pulling together to ensure your children get the best we can provide. In fact last night I received a personal letter from the Secretary of Education. It said, "I recently read your comments in a media article about how Somerfield School was dealing with the Level 4 lockdown. It is great you are encouraging parents to do activities with their children that work alongside online resources to keep them engaged in their learning."

All credit to our team. I know many of you agree with me as you have contacted me and said so. Thank you for your feedback, its great to hear from you.

Moving to Zoom this week has offered new challenges. It hasn't been perfect but we are working to sort out all the glitches so it is straight forward for next week.

It is not our intention to make any of this stressful for you or your tamariki or the rest of your whanau. You can choose what your children participate from our workspaces and if they engage in Zoom. It is entirely what suits your whanau.

We realise this is a difficult time for many of you with working at home and or changing employment circumstances. As a school we are mindful that 41% of our population have lost jobs or are having to receive support. That is 41% of our community, our staff and whanau. Our Board of Trustees is having ongoing discussions on how to support our community in these tough times.

Like many of you I have just watched the Prime Ministers announcements about the requirements of Level 3. I will put out more detailed information as it comes to hand, likely after her Monday announcement. This is when she will tell us if and when we are moving to Level 3. But it looks like in Level 3 children of those who need to return to work can come to school. The government is making attending school voluntary, encouraging those that can stay at home to do so. Less children at school means we can manage the social distancing more easily. We have plans for learning at school and at home.  Children who stay at home will still be getting online learning and contact with a teacher.

We are fortunate that this year our focus is on Fun, Fun, Fun, Have a go, Fun and Wellbeing is also at the heart of what we do. You will see this theme in the activities our teachers plan at school and online. Its not all reading, writing and mathematics!!

We are certainly, "All is this together" and if you haven't seen our staff video, here it is again.https://youtu.be/FHkUCXKML6U. A huge thank you to our very own producer and editor Latiesha Egan.

Go well whanau and I look forward to seeing you (at a appropriate distance) on the other side!