1 May, 2022 A return to school at Orange Term 2

Update on COVID-19 at Lauriston School

Kia ora Koutou ma whanau o te kura Kotoku ko Lauriston,

You’ll be aware that Minister of Education Chris Hipkins announced the move to Orange on the last day of Term 1, 13 April.

The decision to move to Orange has been made on public health advice and reflects that NZ is moving past the peak of cases and our health system is able to cope. We are seeing that cases are declining due to high levels of vaccination and natural immunity after infection.

I wanted to give you an update on what the move to Orange means for our school.

At Orange, face masks are no longer required at school. However public health advice is that masks continue to be strongly encouraged when indoors. Wearing a mask is a key health measure that slows the spread of COVID-19 in indoor settings.

For that reason, we ask that visitors to the school, including parents and whānau, wear a mask whenever they are indoors on school grounds.

Our staff will continue to wear masks indoors to protect themselves from COVID-19 as we attempt to mitigate the risk of multiple staff being absent from school to ensure as much as possible that ‘normal’ school life can continue for students and whanau.

We also ask that your child (if they are Year 4+) continues to bring a mask to school every day. There may be times that we’ll ask them to wear a mask, too – for example, when we are having an assembly in the hall. If there are a high number of cases at school or in the community, we may ask that masks be worn in classrooms for a time.

At Orange, students aged 12 and above are still required to wear a face mask on school or public transport.

We will continue to keep all the other health measures in place at school that we know slow the spread of COVID-19. These include ensuring our indoor spaces are well-ventilated, maintaining good hand hygiene and cough and sneeze etiquette, appropriate physical distancing whenever we can and, most importantly, staying home if we are sick.

We are looking forward to a few less restrictions and returning to school life that is a bit closer to normal.

Nga mihi nui

Colin Brodie

Principal