by Heather Walkinshaw

LATEST NEWS AND VIEWS : 26 May 2022

   /   
Welcome to our Newsletter #7 for 2022

This week we welcomed back Mrs Sarah Josland to a 2 days a week release position in Pukeko.  Sarah brings a wealth of experience to the teaching team.

Mask reminder

While we welcome parents into the school grounds again, we do expect all adults to wear a mask, and not to be in the classrooms.  Teachers are enjoying being able to have face to face conversations with parents again.  Watch out for the opportunity to attend a Learning Space face to face meet up during the term.

New Scooter Track

You will notice the track starting to take shape.  It is going to be so cool and we hope to be using it from the beginning of Term 3.  The concrete pipes and logs will be part of the track surrounds.

Covid 19 

Long COVID in children

Long COVID describes the symptoms that continue or develop after the initial COVID-19 symptoms.

This is usually longer than 12 weeks after a person is first infected.

Most people with COVID-19 recover completely and return to normal health. People usually recover from COVID-19 after two to six weeks and many make a full recovery within 12 weeks.

KidsHealth has provided some useful information about COVID-19 symptoms in children which you may wish to share with your community:

  • for most children with mild COVID-19, they will be back to normal within a week. A small number of children might take up to two weeks to feel back to normal
  • most children with COVID-19 will have a mild illness and get better quickly
  • for a child or young person to have a diagnosis of post-COVID-19 condition (long COVID) their symptoms need to be having an impact on their everyday functioning and cannot be explained by another condition
  • nearly all children will fully recover and return to normal health
  • scientists and health professionals are still learning about long COVID, but studies so far have found:
    • children are much less likely to have long COVID than adults
    • children recover faster than adults
    • it mostly affects children over the age of 10 – it's very rare in younger children.

Further information is also available on the KidsHealth website, including caring for a child with COVID-19.

When can a sick child return to school?

Any child who has COVID-19 or is a household contact must remain at home for the legally required isolation period, regardless of whether they have returned a negative RAT.

Isolation is currently seven days with Day 0 being when a positive test was returned or from symptom onset. At the end of the seven-day isolation period if the child is still sick, they should stay home until they are well and for 24 hours after they no longer have symptoms.

There is no need to wait for an official message to leave isolation although they may receive a text message confirming their isolation period has ended.

For COVID-19, colds and flus and potentially other illnesses, a child may continue to have minor but lingering symptoms such as a runny nose or minor cough.

  • Anyone who is sick should stay home until they are well.
  • When a child has respiratory symptoms, they should stay at home and seek advice from their GP or Healthline. Staying home is key to controlling the spread of any virus in a school setting.
  • Many children will have a long-lasting runny nose or cough after viral infections. If it has been more than 10 days since the onset of symptoms and they are no longer feeling unwell, they are very unlikely to be infectious and can therefore return to school.

However, if they are continuing to feel unwell or their symptoms are worsening after 10 days, they should not return to school. A GP review or a call to Healthline is recommended.



Heather Walkinshaw

Principal