Easter next week will bring the end of the term and what a term it has been. We thank you for your understanding and perseverance in helping us deal with Covid across the school and in the community. The greatest thing about you as our community is the trust you have put in us. Daily, our attendance rates have been in the mid to high 80%, until this week, with very few families keeping children home by choice. This week Covid has had a real impact on the staff, with 6 staff members out due to Covid and a couple who have returned after recovering.

There is still work to do. What we have been seeing this week is that quite a number of our household contacts have been ‘Dads’. This is a change from having secondary school siblings as household cases. We thank you for keeping us updated as to what the status of you home is when you have a case. We thank you for respecting our wishes by dropping off and collecting children from the gate. We look forward to having you back in the school in the near future.

As of today we have 13 children positive from the school and 21 at home isolating as someone in the house is a positive case. We have had 26 children return to school after recovering from Covid. As we look forward to the holidays we hope you have a good break with your children and keep an eye out for any symptoms as we encourage you to get them tested.

A big thank you to the staff and our reliable relievers who have been flexible by teaching larger than normal classes, in different levels than they are used to and keeping as positive as can be to make the school as ‘normal’ as possible for your children.

Happy Easter everyone.

A summary of an article from New Zealand’s Science Media Centre Could NZ limit long Covid? – Expert Reaction

Based on research to date Long COVID is thought to affect 10 to 20 per cent of people.

The WHO definition of Long COVID is symptoms after 3 months.

Fatigue is a common symptom of many viral illnesses and a feature of both acute COVID-19 infection and long COVID.

If you have fatigue, muscle weakness, etc, do not ‘push through’. Do not think that you can exercise your way out of this. Commencing exercise too early may increase the risk of long COVID.

If you do have symptoms of Long COVID (ongoing, or newly developing symptoms), please seek help.

Caution must be taken to be mindful of new or ongoing symptoms that can fluctuate and affect people in different ways at different times.

The main advice for recovering from Long COVID appears to be:

• Don’t overdo it – if you feel you need rest, rest.

• Begin with a very low level of activity, and very slowly increase – interspersed with regular planned breaks throughout the day.

• Begin with some fun things, and things that won’t matter if you stop for a break.

• Maintain a healthy diet.

• Ask for help from friends and family.

• The current consensus is that exercise should not be undertaken until the individual has been completely symptom-free for at least seven days.

• When exercise is restarted it is advisable to ease back into it slowly.

• Adequate sleep, good nutrition, hydration, and social connection are also vital to help you recover well.

It is likely that with further research in NZ and overseas that measures to reduce the impact of Long COVID will become available.

Next term we are looking forward to learning the skills based around winter sporting codes. Students across the school will be developing their large ball skills in a variety of game settings.

We are looking forward to being able to enter the winter basketball competition again with a year 5/6 team playing each Wednesday and a year 7/8 team playing in the Friday competition.

Students wanting to be considered for the zone cross country are encouraged to train over the holidays so they are fit and ready to run the 2km (year 5/6) or the 3km course (yr 7/8). We are looking forward to the traffic light settings changing so we can host this year's colour run with a twist. More information about this will be shared in term 2.

This term the tamariki from Muriwai learned about what life may have been like when Jesus was a child. They learned about the presence of Jesus in our daily lives and how we can think of Jesus as an older brother within God’s family and our hoa (friend).

These photos show children sampling food Jesus probably would have eaten and dressing in clothes He may have worn.

The following is from Pope’s homilies and speeches during the past year and is advice for building stronger relationships—with God, with our neighbors and with the earth.

The importance of prayer to missionary life.

Prayer, said the Pope, plays an important role in the missionary life, since it “allows us to be refreshed and strengthened by the Spirit as the inexhaustible divine source of renewed energy and joy in sharing Christ’s life with others.” Make prayer part of your daily routine.

• Thursday 14 April - End of Term 1

• Monday 2 May - Start of Term 2

• Wednesday 11 May - Life Education (1 Week)

• Friday 3 June - Teacher Only Day - School closed

• Monday 6 June - Queen’s Birthday - School Closed

• Monday 27 June - Keeping Ourselves Safe (2 Weeks)

• Friday 8 July - End of Term 2

We have all our policies and procedures on School Docs. At present we have policies that we would appreciate your feedback on. Please follow the link below and review these policies.

1. Visit the website

http://sacredheartchch.schooldocs.co.nz/1893.htm (note that there is no “www”!)

2. Enter the user name (sacred) and password (heart).

3. Follow the link to the relevant policy as listed.

4. Read the policy.

5. Click the Policy Review button at the right-hand top corner of the page.

6. Select the reviewer type "Parent".

7. Enter your name (optional).

8. Submit your ratings and comments.

We are able to share the Totstoteens Magazine so you can access some great info and prizes over the holidays.

https://issue2203.totstoteens.co.nz/

Due to the on-going pressures on our health system from Omicron, we will be providing limited dental care at 2 of our clinics over the upcoming school break. Most of our dental team continue to be redeployed to support the delivery of essential health services.

The Community Dental Service will be providing urgent and relief of pain appointments during the school break at:

Aranui Community Dental Clinic, 240 Breezes Road, Christchurch

Hornby Community Dental Clinic, 2 Hei Hei Road, Christchurch

You can access these appointments by calling our Contact Centre on 0800 846 983.

For any dental advice please call the Contact Centre on 0800 846 983 or email

commdental@cdhb.health.nz