Kia ora koutou

We are so excited and looking forward to students returning to school next week. We have missed all of their smiling faces and fun times we have. This is a brief bit of information to read over. Tomorrow, we will send out our procedures for level two, including ‘drop off’ and ‘pick up’ information. Please keep an eye on Skool Loop!

“Tīkarohia te marama” ‘ (take out the moon)

This whakataukī comes to mind at the moment. Although traditionally a fighting tactic meaning take out the leader/chief of the people you are fighting. The aim being that instead of wasting time, and lives, fighting others you aim for the ‘boss’ and take the head of the group. I’m not suggesting you take me out, in terms of our school however!!!! These days, the phrase is more commonly used to represent knowing what truly is important in all you do and not being distracted. I think this time in lockdown has yet again proved that looking after one another, our families and our faith is the most important thing.

Caring for one another has been what the last seven weeks has been about. Moving to Alert Level 2, will see this continue. As a school we want to be a safe environment and you can help in this by following our expectations.

The key Public Health approach is to minimise the risk of infection to others in the first place, and second, to ensure we can identify and contact anyone who may have come in contact should an infection be identified at school.

As we have done in Alert Level 3, you can be assured that in Alert Level 2 we will know who is at school, who our staff and students have been in close contact with, and to take appropriate measures to keep everyone safe.

Physical distancing is a good precaution to prevent the spread of disease. We do however know it is challenging in schools, so good hygiene practices and regular cleaning are even more important here. This includes staff and students coughing into their elbows, handwashing and drying, santising, and regular cleaning of commonly touched surfaces.

Under Alert Level 2, any students and staff must stay at home if they are sick, and we will send anyone home immediately if they show any symptoms.

Our school has safe and sensible practices to maintain the health and safety of everyone on the school site. As described by Dr Payinda in his NZ Herald article, “Covid’s not measles or chickenpox, it doesn’t hang in the air for hours waiting to infect passers-by. It travels on invisible drops of spit. You don’t have to cross the street to avoid anyone. Just avoid getting in their ‘moist breath’ zone”. We all just need to remember to have some breathing space at Alert Level 2!

It’s important however that not just at school but at home, safe hygiene habits are practised by everyone, as this is essential to minimise the risk that someone gets infected with Covid19.

For more information about the public health measures at Alert Level 2, you can visit the covid19.govt.nz website: https://covid19.govt.nz/

If you have any questions about our health and safety plan, or have a child who might be vulnerable to serious illness and would like to discuss a plan for them, please contact me after tomorrow’s notices! (Hopefully around the same time tomorrow)

Dallas Wichman
Principal