Kia ora WAS whanau and students,
Level Two is approaching! Congratulations for making it this far and for making it work in your respective bubbles. It’s timely to say well done and to pass on our gratitude to the WAS community. It’s been outstanding the way people have rallied together to help others and to support the learning and wellbeing of our students during this time of Lockdown and isolation.
Our Facebook page has been kept busy with happenings that our students and staff have shared during these unprecedented times. We have all really enjoyed seeing your child’s/ family journey. The staff have also appreciated the dedication, effort and time which has gone into caring for one another throughout the Lockdown period. It’s not an easy task trying to educate your own children and integrating this into other home
routines.
On that note, I would like to extend a huge thank you to all our WAS staff for supporting each other through this time. Hopefully you have appreciated the time and effort the teachers have put in, to ensure the communication and school work has continued in your child’s life through a distant learning forum. Again, your partnership from home has been very much appreciated.
Term 2 – Return to School
Monday 18th May is the day for NZ schools to open under Level 2 conditions and WAS is ready for your child’s return. The Prime Minister has advised that at Alert Level 2, schools are safe environments for children, young people and staff. Additional Public Health control measures are in place to prevent the spread of the disease and to support contact tracing.
This week, our staff will be preparing for the return of our students. As a result, there will be no new distance learning online tasks set from Thursday and some teachers may no longer be available during Thursday and Friday.
The Ministry of Education has provided all schools with detailed information about what school at Alert Level 2 will look like. Many activities will resume i.e. sport (more details to come), use of playgrounds, assemblies, no more bubbles, to name a few. WAS will display their Covid19 Action Plan in the office and have it displayed on its webpage. Every school may have slightly different approaches as to how they structure their school day and to whom (visitors/parents) they allow into the school.
New Normals
One of the major changes is around physical distancing. While there does not need to be a specific measurement, where practicable, 1 metre distancing, should be used as a guide. The wording from the Ministry states: “Children, young people and staff should be far enough away from each other so that they are not breathing on or touching each other, coupled with good hygiene practices and regular cleaning of commonly touched surfaces.”
In preparation for a return to school it would be advisable if you could discuss this with your child as well as reinforcing the need for regular hand washing and the correct coughing/sneeze etiquette. The key Public Health approach is to minimise the risk of infection in the first place and secondly to ensure we can identify and contact anyone who has been in close contact with a person, if someone in a school becomes infected.
Monitoring Movements and Visitors
You can be assured that in Alert Level 2 we will know exactly who is at school, who our staff and students have been in close contact with and take appropriate measures to keep everyone safe. To this end we ask that if you are a visitor to the school for any reason, that you use the main office and sign the contact register using our ‘Vistab’ device please. We are not allowing our senior students to leave the school grounds to go to the shop.
Sickness
Under Alert Level 2, we advise any students and staff to stay at home if they are sick and we will send anyone home immediately if they show any symptoms of being unwell. Our school has safe and sensible practices in place to maintain the health and safety of everyone on the school site. It is important that safe hygiene habits are practised by everyone, not just at school but at home as well. This is essential to minimise the risk that someone gets infected with Covid-19.
Transition back to School
Please be patient with the re-opening process. We are all aware of events that have been missed and the trips that have been put on hold. We will endeavour to discuss and work out how these things can be put back into the calendar where possible whilst understanding that the students will need time to settle into school and classroom education once again. Our NCEA students will need additional support along with others.
The staff and I will continue to plan for the best possible transition approach to ensure your child returns to WAS with a flexible, responsive and adaptive approach to learning in a seamless ‘new normal’ way. If for some reason the ‘distance learning’ approach hasn’t worked out for your family or child, then so be it. We’re all learning together and for some, there have been other priorities to deal with. Rest assured, students will return to WAS with a fresh start with an upwards and onwards approach. There is no need for students to be anxious about returning to school.
Student Readiness
As we ease the students back into basic school routines and timetables, it will be conducive to student learning for them to be prepared with their own personal stationery, eg. pencil case, ready for another day at school (there’s no excuse for not having a pen!). Older students, please bring your normal subject books/refill etc.
Stationery handling: Each teacher will advise their classes on material usage and management. Students are encouraged to use their own stationery equipment at all times and discouraged in sharing pens, felts, rulers etc with others. Teachers may allocate extra necessary materials or equipment to the students. In this instance, the individual is tasked with the responsibility to look after that gear.
Teaching Spaces
When your child returns on Monday, please drop your child off at the school gate as we’re encouraging parents and caregivers to stay away from the classrooms. The point is to minimise the risk of contact during Level 2.
Classroom spaces are as per normal, except for a slight change with the Yr 9/10’s. Yr 9/10’s-Mrs Redhead/Miss Quinn/Mr Hendy- the Library is now the Homeroom (at Level 2- more space).
Stay Local
We do encourage you to stay local and treat Level 2 with a positive and cautious mindset. It’s ok to visit friends and family. The PM has clearly stated gatherings should be less than ten people. The main concern is people travelling to go to larger gatherings and with strangers. As a community we need to respect these Level 2 restrictions / guidelines and adhere to these. The health and safety of us all remains paramount and we can not afford to get complacent.
Self-Isolation
If for various reasons you have decided that your family will continue to self-isolate and your child will not be attending school during Level 2, please inform me by text message straight away, thanks.
Specific to W.A.S
- Children bring water bottles to school as the drinking fountains will be out of use.
- Bus times are as per normal and are running starting Monday. Miss R (she is WAS’ bus controller) will be in contact with you if your pickup or drop off times have changed.
- No assemblies will occur for the first two weeks.
- All chromebooks and resources need to be returned by Friday this week.
- Breakfast club starts up straight away.
- Food in schools programme will start up soon and I’ll let you all know when that starts.
- Senior Students will not be allowed to leave the school grounds to go to the shops.
- Uniform is to be worn as per usual. We’ll let you know when our new one starts up.
- Ensuring your child that WAS is doing everything they can (like all schools) to have in place hygiene practices that follow the health guidelines.
For more information about the public health measures at Alert Level 2, you can visit the covid19.govt.nz website here
Keep active and warm,
Andrew PB.
0224759607
Tuesday 12th May 2020
Kia ora WAS whanau and students,
Level Two is approaching! Congratulations for making it this far and for making it work in your respective bubbles. It’s timely to say well done and to pass on our gratitude to the WAS community. It’s been outstanding the way people have rallied together to help others and to support the learning and wellbeing of our students during this time of Lockdown and isolation.
Our Facebook page has been kept busy with happenings that our students and staff have shared during these unprecedented times. We have all really enjoyed seeing your child’s/ family journey. The staff have also appreciated the dedication, effort and time which has gone into caring for one another throughout the Lockdown period. It’s not an easy task trying to educate your own children and integrating this into other home
routines.
On that note, I would like to extend a huge thank you to all our WAS staff for supporting each other through this time. Hopefully you have appreciated the time and effort the teachers have put in, to ensure the communication and school work has continued in your child’s life through a distant learning forum. Again, your partnership from home has been very much appreciated.
Term 2 – Return to School
Monday 18th May is the day for NZ schools to open under Level 2 conditions and WAS is ready for your child’s return. The Prime Minister has advised that at Alert Level 2, schools are safe environments for children, young people and staff. Additional Public Health control measures are in place to prevent the spread of the disease and to support contact tracing.
This week, our staff will be preparing for the return of our students. As a result, there will be no new distance learning online tasks set from Thursday and some teachers may no longer be available during Thursday and Friday.
The Ministry of Education has provided all schools with detailed information about what school at Alert Level 2 will look like. Many activities will resume i.e. sport (more details to come), use of playgrounds, assemblies, no more bubbles, to name a few. WAS will display their Covid19 Action Plan in the office and have it displayed on its webpage. Every school may have slightly different approaches as to how they structure their school day and to whom (visitors/parents) they allow into the school.
New Normals
One of the major changes is around physical distancing. While there does not need to be a specific measurement, where practicable, 1 metre distancing, should be used as a guide. The wording from the Ministry states: “Children, young people and staff should be far enough away from each other so that they are not breathing on or touching each other, coupled with good hygiene practices and regular cleaning of commonly touched surfaces.”
In preparation for a return to school it would be advisable if you could discuss this with your child as well as reinforcing the need for regular hand washing and the correct coughing/sneeze etiquette. The key Public Health approach is to minimise the risk of infection in the first place and secondly to ensure we can identify and contact anyone who has been in close contact with a person, if someone in a school becomes infected.
Monitoring Movements and Visitors
You can be assured that in Alert Level 2 we will know exactly who is at school, who our staff and students have been in close contact with and take appropriate measures to keep everyone safe. To this end we ask that if you are a visitor to the school for any reason, that you use the main office and sign the contact register using our ‘Vistab’ device please. We are not allowing our senior students to leave the school grounds to go to the shop.
Sickness
Under Alert Level 2, we advise any students and staff to stay at home if they are sick and we will send anyone home immediately if they show any symptoms of being unwell. Our school has safe and sensible practices in place to maintain the health and safety of everyone on the school site. It is important that safe hygiene habits are practised by everyone, not just at school but at home as well. This is essential to minimise the risk that someone gets infected with Covid-19.
Transition back to School
Please be patient with the re-opening process. We are all aware of events that have been missed and the trips that have been put on hold. We will endeavour to discuss and work out how these things can be put back into the calendar where possible whilst understanding that the students will need time to settle into school and classroom education once again. Our NCEA students will need additional support along with others.
The staff and I will continue to plan for the best possible transition approach to ensure your child returns to WAS with a flexible, responsive and adaptive approach to learning in a seamless ‘new normal’ way. If for some reason the ‘distance learning’ approach hasn’t worked out for your family or child, then so be it. We’re all learning together and for some, there have been other priorities to deal with. Rest assured, students will return to WAS with a fresh start with an upwards and onwards approach. There is no need for students to be anxious about returning to school.
Student Readiness
As we ease the students back into basic school routines and timetables, it will be conducive to student learning for them to be prepared with their own personal stationery, eg. pencil case, ready for another day at school (there’s no excuse for not having a pen!). Older students, please bring your normal subject books/refill etc.
Stationery handling: Each teacher will advise their classes on material usage and management. Students are encouraged to use their own stationery equipment at all times and discouraged in sharing pens, felts, rulers etc with others. Teachers may allocate extra necessary materials or equipment to the students. In this instance, the individual is tasked with the responsibility to look after that gear.
Teaching Spaces
When your child returns on Monday, please drop your child off at the school gate as we’re encouraging parents and caregivers to stay away from the classrooms. The point is to minimise the risk of contact during Level 2.
Classroom spaces are as per normal, except for a slight change with the Yr 9/10’s. Yr 9/10’s-Mrs Redhead/Miss Quinn/Mr Hendy- the Library is now the Homeroom (at Level 2- more space).
Stay Local
We do encourage you to stay local and treat Level 2 with a positive and cautious mindset. It’s ok to visit friends and family. The PM has clearly stated gatherings should be less than ten people. The main concern is people travelling to go to larger gatherings and with strangers. As a community we need to respect these Level 2 restrictions / guidelines and adhere to these. The health and safety of us all remains paramount and we can not afford to get complacent.
Self-Isolation
If for various reasons you have decided that your family will continue to self-isolate and your child will not be attending school during Level 2, please inform me by text message straight away, thanks.
Specific to W.A.S
- Children bring water bottles to school as the drinking fountains will be out of use.
- Bus times are as per normal and are running starting Monday. Miss R (she is WAS’ bus controller) will be in contact with you if your pickup or drop off times have changed.
- No assemblies will occur for the first two weeks.
- All chromebooks and resources need to be returned by Friday this week.
- Breakfast club starts up straight away.
- Food in schools programme will start up soon and I’ll let you all know when that starts.
- Senior Students will not be allowed to leave the school grounds to go to the shops.
- Uniform is to be worn as per usual. We’ll let you know when our new one starts up.
- Ensuring your child that WAS is doing everything they can (like all schools) to have in place hygiene practices that follow the health guidelines.
For more information about the public health measures at Alert Level 2, you can visit the covid19.govt.nz website here
Keep active and warm,
Andrew PB.
0224759607