Welcome back to school for the 2022 year. A very warm welcome to any new families to the Sacred Heart community. It has been great to see all the children back engaging with friends and getting back into the learning environments they are so used to.

Thank you to everyone for complying with the Red Traffic Light setting procedures over the first weeks of school. Mask wearing, vaccinations and COVID can stir up big emotions, strong beliefs and opinions within a community. This is okay and completely normal. What we don’t want is for these beliefs to cause division and angst for everyone. So once again, thank you for getting on with it so we can concentrate on learning.

We continue to carefully follow the advice from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health. This includes that there is adequate ventilation in classrooms, children learning outside as much as possible, and following the normal hygiene guidelines of handwashing and cleanliness. We do ask that parents do not enter the school grounds. If you need something please contact the office on ph: 3383247.

In the past week we have had to send a number of children home who have arrived at school with a runny nose or a cough. Please do not send your children to school unwell.

We are looking forward to being able to invite you back into the school in the near future and are all hoping and praying for a good year ahead once we get over this first hurdle.

Covid Information

New Zealand remains at the Red Traffic Light setting and everyone is doing the right thing to prevent the rapid spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, so we’re pleased to say it’s business as usual, well sort of.

Unfortunately, we have to expect COVID cases to emerge but we can be reassured by the speed, breadth and depth of the health response. We continue to have a large amount of control over how we can prevent the rapid spread of COVID. It is well documented that vaccination is the leading public health prevention strategy in managing the pandemic and having your child vaccinated can help schools reduce the risk of outbreaks and potential school closure.

For our school we will:

• limit visitors to the school.

• keep our visitor register, attendance register and timetables up to date

• be monitoring for illness and asking anyone who is unwell to remain at home, or to go home

• encourage people with relevant symptoms to seek medical advice through Healthline or their GP and get tested for COVID if recommended to do so

• reinforce the importance of good hand washing and drying

• reinforce good cough and sneeze etiquette

I can reassure you that we will continue to regularly clean all parts of our school and sanitise hands at the gate in the morning.

Things to think about to prepare for possible isolation at home

• Be ready at short notice should your child/ren need to isolate.

• Keep your employer/employees informed how Covid and our school response could impact your work.

• List of things that could be handy during isolation:

Stationery, playdough, plain paper, whiteboards & whiteboard pens, games, playing cards, tennis balls, sport equipment, recipes and ingredients/baking, keep a stationery pack at home, renew library books regularly, several jigsaw puzzles stacked away, booklets and resources your child/ren could use during isolation, etc. Places like Kmart, Warehouse & Stationery Warehouse could be useful to visit.

Kia ora whanau

Due to the Covid-19 situation we are unable to gather together in the church for a beginning of the year school Mass. However, we are going to be virtually present at a Mass alongside St Peter’s School and Our Lady of the Assumption school for a Mass to be held on Friday 18th February at 11am. The Mass will be celebrated by Fr Phil and Fr Ben in the church. This will be live-streamed to all classes in the 3 schools via Zoom, enabling the children to still participate.

We are using the same means to “attend” Mass on Ash Wednesday.

Our school communities are fortunate to have priests who are willing and able to accommodate all 3 schools in this way.

God Bless our families

We welcome all new children and their families to Sacred Heart School

Sophie - New Entrants

Xai - New Entrants

Tracy - Year 2

Adriel - Year 2

Dean - Year 4

Sophie - Year 5

Aaron - Year 5

Bradley - Year 7

Keely - Year 8

We have a very supportive parent community here at Sacred Heart School and we appreciate the open relationship that we have with you. As a school, we do our best to communicate with you in a range of ways and to inform you early about what is happening at school. We make use of meetings, Seesaw, our App, newsletters, website and emails to keep you up to date about what is happening and engage you in your child’s education. In recent times email, Seesaw and social media have meant that teachers, staff and parents are more accessible to each other. While this is a positive for communication it can create the perception that we are all available to each other 24/7.

In an effort to further improve communication between home and school and to assist with staff and student wellbeing we have put together the following guidelines.

• If you email or Seesaw message staff after 5.00 p.m. or on the weekend, please do not expect a reply until the next working day. We have asked teachers to respond to emails within 24 hours or the next working day.

• If staff are away sick, they will reply to your email when they return to work.

• Teachers and staff do their best for our children. On occasion, you may be upset about something that has happened regarding your child. In these instances we encourage you to make a time to discuss this with staff face to face as emails can be misinterpreted. We are all normally available for a chat at the gate at 3.00 pm.

We thank you for your consideration on this.

It is crucial that we have the correct contact details for you as we may need to contact you at any time. This is very important during this time of the pandemic. If you have any changes of addresses, email addresses, contact phone numbers or parenting orders we do need to know.

A form will come home with your child/ren today. Please fill this in as clearly as possible and return it to school as soon as possible.

There are currently no sports teams participating out of school due to the restrictions of the red traffic light.

Junior students will take part in sport every Friday morning. Please ensure they have sports shoes for this.

Students in the middle and senior teams will participate in PE on Thursday afternoons. They need to have their sports shoes and shorts for this.

Fitness is currently happening as part of the class daily programme.

• Wednesday 2 March - Ash Wednesday

• Monday 7 - 11 March - Walk n Wheels Week

• Thursday 31 March - Board Meeting 5.30 pm Senior Classroom

• Thursday 14 April - End of Term 1

• Monday 2 May - Start of Term 2