Rāhina 6th Mahuru / Monday 6th September 2021
Kia ora whānau
With this afternoon’s announcement that we will be dropping to Level 2 from midnight tomorrow night you will no doubt be wondering how this effects your children attending school.The Prime Minister has this afternoon announced that students are able to return to school from this Rāpare / Thursday. She has asked schools to take the next 48 hours to be ready and to setup protocols for this. Here’s what this means for you right now:
Rātū / Tuesday
Tomorrow online learning will continue as it has done during Level 3 and 4 lockdown. This day will be just as it has been for each student over the last three weeks.
Rāapa / Wednesday
There will be no school or online learning on this day. Everyone has the day off before school starts on Rāpare / Thursday. Teachers and staff will be at school attending meetings, organising, setting up protocols and making sure everything is ready to go.
For those who have had to attend school so far during Level 3 due to parents being essential workers, we will try to accommodate your children again on this day. We are asking though that if you can employ another option we would appreciate this. There will be no learning on this day and we are not opening this up for further students sorry. Most schools are having a teacher only day on this day.
Tomorrow morning the Ministry of Education are briefing schools on detailed protocols that might be different from last time we were in Level 2. My aim is to send out a newsletter via email on Rāapa / Wednesday morning to outline what this means for your children before they return to school on Rāpare / Thursday. The first change that has been highlighted so far is that students who are aged 12 or older are now recommended to wear face masks while at school. Other students are allowed to wear masks however we are not yet recommending this unless your child knows how to wear one properly and is unlikely to wear it inappropriately during the day. If there is a risk of wearing a mask inaccurately it is known to do more harm than good.
Finally, on behalf of our staff we want to thank you for all the work you have put into helping our online learning work with your children. We know this has been challenging, as it has been for our teachers too. We are pleased with the effort many students have put into this as we tried to help them keep learning and achieving over the last three weeks.Please remember, if there is anything you think our teachers need to know about your children before they come back to school please either get in touch with me or their teachers over the next two days.
Please look out for our newsletter outlining what you and your children need to know before returning to school. This will also be available on our school website.
Yours in Christ
Alistair PatersonPrincipal