Kia ora Kaiapoi Borough Whānau,

I have really enjoyed walking around the school during the mornings, participating in duty before and after school (when I am available) and engaging in conversation with staff, tamarki and whānau. I have been super impressed when tamariki have asked me 'how are you/have you had a good weekend?' This shows lots of manakitanga, displaying respect and thinking of others. Awesome! Manakitanga is one of our key values at Te Kura Tuatahi o Kaiapoi. 

Te Kura Tuatahi o Kaiapoi was very fortunate to have been a recipient for the 'Creative in Schools' programme. We have Simone Bensdorp with the support of Megan Flutey who have started the process of working with some of our senior tamariki in print designs, going through a natural process.

From Monday masks will no longer be required outdoors (although our tamariki and parents/caregivers on site are still more than welcome to wear them). If you need to support your children with pick up/drop off it is ok for you to come on site, but please be mindful we are still at RED. For further details on the COVID-19 protection framework please see below. 

Now that we have appointed a new Office Manager (Dean Van't Veen), newsletters will now be published fortnightly (term time only).

Learning hui is coming up on 5-6 and 12-13 April. We will still stay with this process of mainly doing Zoom calls. However, if you are unable to do a Zoom call please contact your children's teacher to arrange another hui/meeting (ie over the phone or face to face). You should have received communication on this and if you haven't please get in touch with the office, office@kbs.school.nz. 

Thank you to our Community with your support on Friday 18th of March while the staff had professional learning development. The team participated in 'Pause, Breathe, Smile'. This is an evidence based and scientifically informed programme based on mindfulness. 

As at Friday 25th March 2022 9am we currently have 21 tamariki with positive COVID-19 cases across the school and 3 staff. If your child has any COVID-19 symptoms please remain at home until better.

COVID-19 Protection Framework, My Vaccine Pass and vaccination mandates update.

• The removal of vaccination mandates for education workers will take effect from 11.59pm Monday 4 April.
• On the same date, removal of the My Vaccine Pass from the COVID-19 Protection Framework (traffic light system).
• There is no requirement to display QR code posters (although we encourage you to retain them) or have other processes, other than your regular processes, to support people to check-in. This system may need to return if case numbers rise.

Red

• There is no change to masks in education settings from the existing Red setting. Medical-grade masks remain a requirement for staff working indoors with children and young people in Years 4-13.
• For all New Zealanders, including school settings, masks will not be required outdoors.
• Capacity limits will be removed for outdoor events and activities.
• Indoor capacity limits for extra-curricular activities increase to 200 people, or a maximum capacity based on the maximum number of people who could occupy the space if each person was one metre apart (whichever is lower).

Please note that we have two Teacher Only days scheduled for term 2 with these on Friday 3rd June 2022 and Thursday 23rd June 2022.

Have a great weekend!

Ngā mihi, 

Hayden van Lent