Well what a week it has been! We want to thank you so much for your diligence with testing when symptoms arise, and reporting the cases to us. This has made a huge difference in our ability to manage the covid situation at school. We are really grateful for your support. At the moment we currently have eight student confirmed cases and twenty two families needing to isolate due to being household contacts. The donations of food have been so gratefully received from our families that are unable to leave the house. Thank you so much!

My household has caught covid through our Mount Maunganui connection, and have been isolating since the start of last week. Watching my two children become sick and then myself, has been a little tough. What I do know is that the symptoms are different in everyone, and they escalate so quickly, within hours. So if your children complain of a scratchy throat, headache, little cough or a bit of a runny nose then make sure you keep a good watch! My saving grace has been cold and flu tablets, tissues and orange juice! I would like to thank the staff for working so hard and keeping school ticking along while I have been offsite behind my computer (and resting as well). Please keep notifying me at principal@stjoes.school.nz if you need to isolate, have positive cases in your household or need help or support in any way.

We have our School Swimming Sports (year 4-8) this Wednesday. It is going to be a great day! Unfortunately spectators are unable to attend (due to limited numbers) but we will post as many photos as we can. Make sure the children wear a house coloured t-shirt and PE shorts to school, pack towels, togs, hat, sunscreen, water and lunch.

God Bless you. Keep safe, keep well. May your light shine.

Andrea Colebourn

Principal

Rapid testing is available at the Recreation Grounds, entrance off Avenue Road South , 9:30 am - 12 noon, seven days a week.

Please make sure that you report your RAT results. A reminder that for under 12's, you need to ring 0800 222 478 and choose option 3.

Please see below the information your need regarding when to test. A reminder that if your child is a household contact and has been negative, a ten day negative result is required before returning to school on day 11.

We will continue to let each class know when a new confirmed case develops in the class (meaning that they could have been infectious while at school). We will do a school update every few days so that you can get an overall picture of what it looks like at St Joes. We won't be reporting student cases where the child has developed covid while being a household contact and hasn't been at school.