Dear whānau,

From our school vision: We look at ourselves as being the hands and feet of Jesus and we ask ourselves ‘What would Jesus do?’ We also treat everyone we come across as being ‘Jesus’.

Wishing you all a very warm welcome back to school, and there really is a sense of déjà vu as we start the school year 2022.

New Zealand is fully into the traffic light framework and as you can all imagine we are working on what this looks like at school for your children.

At red settings we continue to work together onsite, however there maybe some changes to events and activities that we are used to having at this time of year.

We are taking every precautionary measure advised to keep students, staff and our community safe.

Providing fresh air is one of the most important things we can do. We will make sure windows and doors are open. We will have regular breaks outdoors. For the older children this will be every half hour to allow the children a break from mask wearing (for students in Year 4 and above).

In regard to masks, as you will have seen or heard on the news, masks are required for all children in Year 4 and up, this applies to the teaching staff too. The year 3 children in Room Ruru and Piwakawaka will have a family choice to wear a mask or not. Masks for children can be made of fabric. Of course, there will be some exemptions, and remaining kind and understanding will help. We are sure some students are not used to wearing masks, therefore they will be supported to wear these correctly. The change to timetabling will allow regular breaks from mask wearing, we are aiming for a break every half hour.

I will have more information as it comes in, and as usual I thank you for your support. Please feel free to keep in contact with me, I really appreciate the trust you place in us all, and I take the responsibility very seriously. Please continue to contact me directly with your questions and suggestions - we are all in this together.

I will send another message after the teacher only day on Monday which will be more detailed about sickness, processes and how the days will look. Please know that you are welcome on site to settle your child, but please do your best not to hang around, we won't be having whole school events like assemblies together, but we will share our zoom links so you won't be missing out.

In answer to our vision question we can only imagine what Jesus would do, He would be kind, considerate and patient.

Kia kaha, Annie