| Term 3 | Week 8  |
Kia ora e te whānau!
What a relief it is to be back at school and functioning in an almost normal fashion under the Delta Alert 2 regulations. It has been wonderful to visit the classes and see the students working towards their goals and settling back into the usual routines. We’ve discussed as a staff how good it feels to have the inter-personal opportunities brought back into our curriculum that can feel so sadly lacking in an online environment. Overall - welcome back, we’ve missed you!
Our students enjoy a relatively normal learning programme whilst at school. The key adaptations we have been required to make are around public health measures:- If you are sick, you must stay at home
- You are required to ‘keep your hands to yourself and ensure you aren’t close enough to any other person where you could feel their breath
- You will need to keep your spaces clean, and your hands clean
- Keep individual lunch boxes and drink bottles – no sharing
- If you are over 12, you should scan the covid tracer app on entry to school if possible
- Masks are not required but are recommended
Staff have raised concerns about students not always bringing full drink bottles (we can’t use our water fountains at present). We know that dehydration is a real issue for school students and their learning - please remind your child to bring along their full water bottle every day!
On a similar note of COVID restrictions, please ensure that when collecting your child on the school site (this includes grounds), that you endeavour to remain 2m distanced from other families. When visiting the school during the day it is essential that you sign-in and remain 2m distanced from staff and students.
Next week, the staff will engage with the Ministry of Education team for our first Master Planning Session for the new school build. This was postponed from its initial date, so I’m excited to officially start the process. In the first session, there will be a focus on how we currently use the site and how we would like to enhance and change our environment for the future. There will be sessions for the senior leadership, for the Primary teaching team and for the Secondary teachers who do not use specialist spaces in this visit. There are further master planning sessions regularly scheduled all the way to the end of the school year, each addressing a different matter and inviting different stakeholders to the discussion. We’re all looking forward to engaging with our appointed specialists and hoping to have information to share with the community as the process commences.
He waka eke noa,
Kate Staniford
Tumuaki | Principal
During our Alert Levels 4 and 3 the school distributed a significant number of our school owned iPads, Chromebooks and Laptops. We hope they assisted our learners in remaining connected to their learning programmes, teachers and peers.
As part of our learning about Te Ao Māori, Room 4 students have been studying whakataukī (proverbs), learning their meanings and then illustrating each one.
To celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, Mātua Karatī and head student Daniel Hunter have created a series of videos to bring together the Māori language and the place we call home, Te Manahuna.
Our school Exam Week has been ‘compressed’ into three days in order to reduce disruption to students following the COVID Alert Level changes and the dates adjusted to be in line with the NetNZ Online Learning Exams.
Students in Room 13 have been learning about different cultures around the world, How they celebrate and the important features of their countries.
NZQA have released information on changes to NCEA in 2021 based upon the current disruptions to teaching and learning. NCEA students should be made aware of the outlined changes.
Following the disruption to schools due to the COVID-19 Lockdown and subsequent alert level changes, the Student Representative Elections for the Board of Trustees has been extended.
Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week) has been recognised in Aotearoa since 1975. It’s an official week on our national calendar to honour, celebrate and promote te reo Māori.
Please see the following list of cancellations & hopeful rearrangements, due to COVID-19 Alert Level changes. This list will be updated as and when we have further information for individual events.
Please remind yourselves of the Delta Alert Level 2 information including the key differences from past Level 2 and general principles that we should all be aware of.
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