MENPS News

Kia ora koutou,

With the evolving situation, information overload is a very real challenge for us all as we continue to recalibrate in real time.

With daily developments, we want to ensure you have access to the latest information we have available, so please see below for a few key messages.

Sickness

The most important point to emphasise is that if your child is sick with any COVID-like symptoms (sore throat and/or cough and/or fever), then it is essential to get them tested as soon as possible.

At this stage, it is simply too risky to assume that any COVID symptoms are 'just a cold', so you must test to rule out COVID before they return. With the recently-announced move to Rapid Antigen Testing, hopefully these will become a much easier option to access moving forward.

Absence Notifications:

Thank you to all those who have been using our absence form, which has helped to reduce phone wait times and process an increasing volume of notifications as efficiently as possible. Our apologies for some technical difficulties this morning for a few users. These are now hopefully resolved, so please keep up the great work and continue to use this as the primary notification of absence.

New COVID Admin Email:

If you have any other specific questions related exclusively to COVID, current case updates or any other COVID-related school queries/questions, we have now added a dedicated email address that you can contact at: covidadmin@mteden.school.nz - this will help us to resolve your query as quickly as possible.

Mask wearing:

Finally, please remember that the first thing we assess (currently) when a case is identified is whether they were wearing a mask in class or not. If they were not wearing one, the entire class will almost certainly need to isolate, so please support mask-wearing for your child in class at every year level over the coming days and weeks of surging case numbers. This not only protects them, but also those around them.

Phase 3:

Now that a move to 'Phase 3' has been announced (with an emphasis on self-notifying close contacts and prioritising high needs cases), we are awaiting an update on how cases in schools will be categorised. The information so far, however, is that isolation times will remain unchanged for the time being. If there are any further changes, expect another update tomorrow!

Finally, it's been great to see such a supportive, empathetic reaction from everyone regarding the sporadic cases and close contacts we have had so far.

If nothing else, we can be reassured that - even during such a challenging and confusing time - the wellbeing of all of our children continues to be at the forefront of everyone's minds while we work through the process together. It makes a huge difference to our response, and reflects well on the strength and character of our community.

Ka kite anō au i a koutou

Alan Jackson

Principal

• Student Cases Currently Isolating: 2 (Rm 6)
• Student Close Contacts Currently Isolating: 5 (Rm 6, 7, 18, 24, 33)
• Classes Currently Isolating: 1 (Rm 10) (ALL CLEAR - back tomorrow!)
• Teaching Staff Cases Currently Isolating: 1 (No close contacts) - parents of the class have been notified via email

• Please take pressure off our phone line and support our busy office staff by notifying us of absences using the online form on our school website
• If you are awaiting test results (or receive a positive test result), please inform us of this immediately

We have been busy getting to know each other and building social connections in the classroom. As part of our ‘Starting School’ topic, we have been sharing ideas about ourselves, discussing how we can take care of our belongings, exploring our favourite places around the school and thinking of how we can work together effectively as a classroom community.

Each of our classes has also been enjoying engaging in a range of creative maths and art tasks. It turns out we have a team full of budding young artists and mathematicians!

The shop won't be available onsite again until Traffic Light Orange. If you need anything from the second-hand uniform shop, please email us at menpspta@gmail.com with the details and we will try to organise a solution.

Donations needed

Uniforms can be dropped off at the school office by individuals during school hours - adults must wear a mask, scan in and only remain onsite for the drop off to the office.

We are hoping you've had a big summer clear out and we would welcome all quality items! Simply drive in the MENPS staff car park and onto the Top Courts to drop off any of the following:

• Books
  

• Toys - no soft toys accepted
• Clothing - no underwear or men's clothing/shoes accepted.
• Jumble Sale - which is everything else!

Please consider whether you would be happy to pay about $5 for it, and use the clothing bin etc for anything ripped, stained, or broken.

Many thanks in advance for your incredibly generous support of our school community,
The PTA Second-hand Stall teams

PS: we'd love a few new team members so please email us (menpspta@gmail.com ) if you'd like to help out with any of these stalls.

Save the date now for the next meeting - 7pm on March 8.
Representatives from the Board of Trustees will be attending to discuss the Strategic Plan for 22/23. We will share the agenda next week.

We always encourage parents/caregivers to turn up on the day, but with Covid restrictions please rsvp your interest to attend to menpspta@gmail.com.

We need help filling a few roles - please email us at menpspta@gmail.com for any of the following:

• Treasurer - Up to an hour a month when there are no functions going on. During event time - working with the Kindo administrator, running receipting money and reconciling.
  
• Kindo admin - helping set up and manage events in Kindo, an easy to use school payment portal.
  
• Poster designer/Facebook updater - suitable for someone with graphic design skills who can draft up adverts/posters for PTA events and keep our school Facebook page alive with photos and info about what’s happening.

By having a few additional roles this year we aim to increase caregiver engagement but also reduce the number of hours each caregiver needs to commit to each month.

Chairperson Aimee Chikunda

Deputy Chairperson Pam Clifford

Secretary Jane Cunningham

Treasurer Linda Waddington-Miller

Class Coordinator Leader Jane Cunningham

PTA Advisor Scott Optican

Email menpspta@gmail.com | PTA website

Follow us on Facebook and keep up to date with the PTA on Mount Eden Normal Primary School PTA page.

Understanding how important fundraising activities are for schools, Mike and Sarah Robson are delighted to be able to support the local primary school. Residents of Mt Eden for 25 years, they know and love all the neighbourhood and community offers and their two children are both past pupils of MENPS. In 2021 they became the Principal Sponsor of MENPS, supporting the school in its biggest fundraising event, the annual Food & Fun Fair and this support extends to other school fundraising activities.

Are you thinking about buying or selling?
As part of their sponsorship of MENPS, Team Mike Robson donates $1000 back to the school for any property sold within the school zone for MENPS families. Feel free to call Mike (021484288) any time you’ve got a real estate query - he’s always happy to have a chat and answer your questions.

Find out more about Team Mike Robson and why they love living and working in Mt Eden.
www.mikerobson.co.nz