Kia ora Whānau
We are coming to the end of Easter and, in spite of it being a lot different to any you have experienced before, I hope it has still been a nice time with your family and connecting with God.
The school holidays are about to draw to a close tomorrow and our staff have been working hard through a great deal of their holidays to make sure learning can start again online from this Wednesday the 15th.
Your children’s teachers will soon be in touch with timetabling and work. We have designed this to take approximately half a day so that it is not too taxing on your family. There will also be fitness activities and ideas for creative play outside this time too.
Timetabling
Each day we have worked out an online time that each class will be connected for learning. We have allocated 45 minutes per day for this to happen. Other learning will be able to happen without being connected to the teacher but all teachers will still be contactable through email, particularly through the morning. We need parents please to make sure your children are on at the appropriate ‘connected’ time through the link that will be sent to your children by our teachers. At this stage we have made sure that the teaching times do not overlap between classes for those who have family members in more than one class. Here are the times they need to be connected please:
9:00AM: Room 5 with Mrs Schutte
9:45AM: Room 1 with Mrs Rossier or Mrs Park
10:30AM: Room 2 with Mrs Evans or Mrs Uerata
11:15AM: Room 3 with Mrs Lee or Mrs Goodwin
Note that other than during these ‘connected’ times, the set work has flexibility to be done at times that suit your household.
Family Zone
Two weeks ago I sent you a letter inviting you to link your child’s device (and any school device) to Family Zone, a company we have partneered with as a school to provide online protection to your children and family. The speed at which we were all locked down prevented us from being able to get this setup for you but Family Zone assure us they have in place what is needed to give your child online protection through their app if you download this and set it up. The school has paid for this for all our families to use so it comes at no charge to you. The deal we have made with Family Zone is to provide cover for all our families for up to six devices per household.
We note only a few have set this up so far and we encourage you please to download this now. Signup here. (Opens website in new window. Just follow the 3 step process)
Family Zone have a help team available from their website if you are having trouble making it work.
What Might Happen at Level 3
The Level 4 lockdown will happen at least through our first week of Term 2 to Wednesday the 22nd of April. On Monday the 20th there is likely to be an indication of what level we will be facing after the 22nd.
If we drop to Level 3 the Minister of Education has suggested this may be what happens in our schools:
- School will not return until at least Wednesday the 29th of April. On Thursday the 23rd and Friday the 24th schools will be cleaned and maintenance will be able to happen. This is then followed by the long ANZAC weekend. Tuesday the 28th will be a Teachers Only Day for all schools.
- At Level 3 it is likely that school will only return for students of essential workers. This is to keep contact low and reduce the possibility of any further spread. All other students would still remain at home and work online.