We are all very excited to be returning to school on Monday under Alert Level 2 guidelines. Thank you to our families for your lovely messages of support and care over the past eight weeks - our staff have really appreciated it.

As a community, I have been proud of the way we have pulled together and whether home-schooling your children, teaching on-line, working in the office, teaching on-line and in our alert level 3 bubbles, taping up and untaping playgrounds and placing signs all over the school, I believe everyone has done a fabulous job! I wonder how many people in our community will be applying for Teacher's College.

Our teachers have spent many hours on the phone to parents this week so we are extra grateful to them for using their own phones and phone minutes! We understand that there is some anxiety about children returning to school and please rest assured that our staff are prepared for this. We have planned a gentle transition back into 'school on-site' life with lots of physical breaks as we know many children have enjoyed the opportunities to walk, scooter and bike lots during the day.

In terms of entry into the school, children will be able to access the school site from the pedestrian/scooter/bike gate, the gate between Te Kete Kākano and Te Ara Tupu, and from the gate between Te Pa Harakeke and Te Ara Whānui. Please remember too, that the roundabout cannot be used as a kiss and drop zone in the mornings as this space is for the taxis. The office gate will only be used by visitors who have business in the office, so if you are using the kiss and drop zone on Dunn's Crossing Rd please direct your child to the scooter gate entry. Please do not enter through the staff car-park. At each entry point there will be a sanitiser station which must be used on entering the school please.

Whilst we are encouraging parents and caregivers to drop children and pick them up at gates, or at set meeting points outside of the school, we understand there are some parents who will come in including our Y1 parents, new children etc. Our schoolapp: 

https://westrolleston.apps.school.nz/install/

will have the functionality for you to sign in and out on entering the grounds, if you do not have the app, then there will be a paper register or a staff member may have an ipad for you to use at the entry point. Signing in and out is critical and must be observed please.

We have also permitted our Y1 learners and siblings to be collected from school at 2.30pm each day, if they wish to, to help avoid some congestion while we get back into routines.

Thank you for your patience as we navigate through all of the health and safety requirements we have. We may also need to modify our procedures after the first day.

Finally, I am sure you have all dusted off school uniforms and are hopefully getting children to bed early as we anticipate everyone will be quite tired as we settle back.

Ngā mihi

Sylvia