The Connection Week 6 Term 3
Huapai District School 2nd September 2021
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
I know character is both formed and tested through adversity, but no one would wish on anyone (or even think it could happen to that many of our families) being tested with the flooding of Monday night and into Tuesday. I can’t fathom what it must feel like to have to deal with evacuation and response without warning. Our support and admiration goes out to the number of families impacted. We want to be able to help you and your children. Please reach out if we can.
To our families and community in general, thank you for the responses and offers to help. We have not been called upon to offer the school as an evacuation centre but are more than willing to do anything for our community and our families. On the other side of this dramatic and challenging time, there’s the knowledge that your children can rise through and above this with character, strength and resilience. That said, we have enough challenging times already without a flood!
Take care and be very proud of yourself and our community.
Regards,
John Petrie
Lockdown Update
Today marks the twelfth (12) school day working from home. We know we will have at least twenty (20) school days working online before we can even hope to see a shift down in Alert Levels. We have a plan in place for Alert Level 3 (essential workers only), and will be seeking confirmation of numbers once likely time frames are clearer.
There has been a great level of engagement online from our students. We have gone through the entire school seeking to identify what we can do for the 4.6% (28 children) who have not yet participated online. We have a 95% engagement and participation rate, a fantastic result. We are regularly reviewing this, looking for next steps and improvements.
It has been really exciting to see the connections happening through zooms, the school virtual assemblies (held every Friday), and the school wide challenges students have risen to. Great to see great activities beyond the screen happening also. Well done and thank you.
Virtual Assembly
WOW the virtual assembly last week was great!
We had nearly 180 families join our assembly. This is fantastic. We will run another assembly tomorrow (Friday 3rd September) at 2pm. Please find the link below, as well some screenshots taken during the last one. Who can you spot?
Student Of The Week
Camryn says: "I like Huapai District School because it’s fun. There are lots of opportunities for us to do cool stuff. I especially like the Performing Arts Academy. During Lockdown I am really enjoying being able to spend more time with my family."
Getting To Know...
Kelly Hancock
Hi, I’m Kelly and I’ve been a Teacher Aide at Huapai for the past four years. I’m lucky because as well as getting to work with two very special young girls, I also am a Teacher Aide in many different classes. Not only did my father attend Huapai District School as a student, but I did too and so have my three children. Something I love about lockdown is that I don’t have to rush anywhere at 6am, such as hockey training. I also love being able to see all the children on Zoom.
Camps
Unfortunately, earlier this week we had to let the members of our Year 6 Motutapu Island and our Year 7&8 sports camps know that these camps are unable to go ahead this term due to Covid. We would like to thank everyone again for all their effort to date to help the children get to camp. We hope that these are the only camps this year that are affected. We will continue to keep you informed.
Flooding Response
A huge thank you to everyone who offered support to our families affected by the flood. It is a testament to the HDS family community that we have had so many emails and texts with offers of food, shelter and labour.
School Grounds Update
School grounds are very soggy but there is no damage. Please let your children know that everyone’s gear is safe and dry inside the classrooms.
Sport Under COVID
We appreciate that many of you are wondering about sport once the Covid levels begin to lower. As always, we put the safety of our students first. There is no school sport at level 3. Following a shift to level 2, NZ Sport releases guidelines that clearly outline three phases that each code must work through before play can resume across NZ. Most Auckland school sports do not begin again until level 1. We will monitor this carefully and keep you informed.
Touch rugby registration of interest will be linked to next week’s newsletter.
What's Been Happening At Home?
Colour Challenge
So great to see everyone’s entry for this school wide challenge. Tune in to tomorrow’s virtual assembly to see the next challenge.
HERO Notifications
We use HERO to send classroom updates and to share regular learning posts. HERO sends push notifications or emails. You can now choose how you receive HERO notifications as well as manage devices that receive them.
To set your own notification preferences:
Click on your profile image
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Scroll down to My Devices and select your preferences.
Or please see the full instructions linked below.
Contact Us
Email: office@hds.school.nz
Website: https://www.huapaidistrict.school.nz/
Location: Huapai District School 40 Station Rd, Kumeū, New Zealand
Phone: +64 09 412 5042
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/huapaidistrictschool