It will be great to have everyone back on site tomorrow as we begin our 2022 year together. Some information about our start back to kura.

A wonderful turn out of whānau for the whānau interviews today. Thank you for joining us today to share in the learning journey for your tamaiti/tamariki. It has been lovely to reconnect with those of you that I saw. 

Tomorrow we will welcome our new kaimahi, tamariki and whānau to our marae and kura. While this is not the start that we had hoped for,  it does feel that we are slowly making steps towards a community where we can live with Covid. The next few months will be unusal, and we will have to be flexible and more reactive than we would like to be. However I do feel confident that we will manage this and return to a more stable situation soon. 

In my 4 years as the Tumuaki of Te Kura o Tuahiwi there has not been a single year that did not have some sort of crisis, be that terrorist attacks or Covid-19 and I still enjoy coming to kura, working with our amazing kaimahi, ākonga and connecting with our community. It has been a real privilege to be given the opportuntity to lead our kura and to create opportunities for our ākonga to achieve success. 

99% of our region has had at least one dose of the vaccine. It is also important to remember that some of our communtity cannot be vaccinated and we should not assume that all choose not to. 

I cannot tell you that our kura will not be affected by Omicron, in fact the reality is that we will be affected in some way. We need to wear masks (if we can), we need to be vaccinated (if we can), and we need to stay at home if we are sick. If our community does this we will have reduced both the risk and the impact, whilst still enjoying some normality of living. And of course we need to be kind.

Our team will try the best to work through what will be an uncertain time for some. Please wear a mask if you are coming on to school site this is important to us and our tamariki. 

Some FAQ’s about masks:

Can ākonga attend kura if they are not wearing a mask?
Āe. Our goal is to get as many ākonga to wear a mask as possible. Some will have exemptions and thats ok.

If I forget my mask will I be sent home?
No. We will have a chat about your mask at some point, just be honest and remember it tomorrow

I am worried that someone in my childs class is not wearing a mask.
The wearing of a mask protects the wearer more than those who are around you. Make sure your tamaiti wears a mask.

Will you provide masks for ākonga who forget?
On some occasions if they are available to us. If we start giving out masks no one will bring one. We already see this with pens, pōtae etc...

Are all masks created equal?
We know the N95 is the best there is. It is almost a waste though if you do not know how to fit it and look after it. The blue masks are great. After that any mask is better than none. The government has said anything else is off the table including t-shirts and bandannas.

I look forward to seeing you all over time. 

Please note there are NO lunches tomorrow. These will start on Friday.