As announced at yesterday’s press conference with the Prime Minister and Director General of Health, Auckland will move to Alert Level 3, Step 2 tonight at 11.59pm, Tuesday 9th November. This may mean an increased number of parents and caregivers will be required to return to work.

Under Alert Level 3, schools are essentially closed to students below Year 11 with the exception of those children whose parents and carers MUST go to work at Alert Level 3, and there is no appropriate caregiver at home. As we have been throughout Alert Level 3 and Alert Level 3 Step 1, we will continue to be open on Wednesday, for children of parents who are returning to work and cannot arrange other alternative care.

If you are returning to work from tomorrow and need supervisory care for your child/children Y1-10 at school please register your child today for ALERT L3 “Essential worker Bubble” onsite at school learning.   Please register here.

All students must be registered so that we can arrange the appropriate staffing as currently we have only 1 Essential worker bubble operating with 1 teacher.

All our usual safety precautions for Alert Level 3 will be in place which include following all the recommendations from the public health experts. This means we will regularly clean and disinfect high touch surfaces, encourage everyone to frequently wash their hands and cover their coughs and sneezes with their elbow, sanitiser continues to be widely available and we keep everyone physically distanced from others as much as possible.

Masks are required in all settings for 12 years and over during Alert Level 3 steps. We will also be making available and encouraging mask use for under 12 year olds.

At this stage we are holding our ‘bubbles” to 10 students, while our staffing allows this. Bubbles will be kept separate and will not mix during the day.

School starts at 9am, the gate is open at 8:45. School closes at 2pm so that teachers can wipe down all surfaces etc. We are giving the children 2 x 15minute breaks during the day for eating and fresh air. School Lunch is provided but please send children with a named water bottle.

If your child is unwell, coughing/sneezing please do not send them to school but contact your doctor or Healthline.

We will continue to support all students who remain learning from home, through our distance learning programme which has operated throughout this lockdown since August.

Please contact us if you have any other queries that we can help with.

Warm regards and keep safe

Karen Mose

Junior School Director