Newsletter T1W6
Tuesday 8 March 2022
School Notices
Tēnā koutou katoa (hello everyone),
Despite the complexities with COVID beginning to spread in our wider community, we have noticed that the students are very settled and school is a happy, safe, vibrant place for them to be in during these uncertain times. Research shows that it is important for children’s well-being and learning to remain at school, if possible, and stick to their regular routines. Please note that children need only isolate at home if there is a confirmed COVID case in their household, or they have COVID themselves. This document addresses many of the questions you may have regarding when to stay home, and please feel free to contact Cheryl or the office for any queries you may have.
As the letter emailed out and on the school app on Friday 25 Feb stated, in New Zealand public health teams on the ground have seen that even though cases pop up in schools, there has been very little onward spread through the school because of the protective measures we have in place.
So far we have been fortunate in that we have had only a few confirmed cases associated with school, however no doubt this will change as COVID moves through our community. As we are informed of a child or staff member either having COVID themselves or being a household contact, the classes concerned are notified via the School App and email. We will only do this once as from then on it is expected that you are extra vigilant keeping an eye out for symptoms and getting your child/ren tested if they are unwell.
If or when a teacher gets COVID and needs to isolate for 10 days, this will impact on how school looks for your child(ren). We will attempt to find relievers for the class, but sometimes may not be able to and so will need to be more flexible with how we teach the children eg doubling up with their buddy/team class, and the teacher (if only isolating and not sick), zooming in from home; using our teacher-aides to help; etc. A last case resort would be asking you to keep your child at home for a period of time although we are hoping we won't need to do this.
Caretaker News
Congratulations WSS Cricketers!
Thanks also to Clive who helped to coach and accompanied them on the day, s well as Jordan and Courtney who helped on the day. Clive said they were a great bunch of kids! The team consisted of Zander Walker Rowe, Reon Holdaway, Paetyn Collins, Roohi Patel, Miller Hocquard, Ezael McKenzie, Kobe Stewart-Smith, and Zihan Hong.
Welcome! We warmly welcome Jacqui Stevenson as a new Teacher-Aide joining our wonderful team.
School Vision and Values
Now that we are well underway with the school year, it’s a good time to talk to your children about living our vision of ‘The Whitney Way - The Way We Learn’ at home and out in the community, as well as at school. The vision is what guides us in our words, actions, thoughts, beliefs, learning and the choices we make in our everyday lives. It is what we aspire to as Whitney Street students. The vision is made up of two parts:
‘The Whitney Way’ encompasses our core values and Tikanga of being Honest, Caring, Respectful, Learners.
‘The Way We Learn’ is our core business. At Whitney Street School, we learn by being self-managing, thinkers who are collaborative and connected. We explore the qualities and skills that we want our children to possess so that they can thrive in their ever-changing and exciting future.
At the start of the year we talk a lot about following the rules outlined in the vision, as the more we talk about what it means to be honest, caring and respectful in everyday life the more the children’s behaviour will reflect this. At home please continue to discuss what this looks like and sounds like with your children, and praise them when they use these values.
Please note that our pool is now closed and all pool key holders are asked to return their pool keys to the office by the end of this week at the latest. Thank you.
Whitney Street School CURRICULUM
We have recently updated our School Curriculum for our Whānau & Community, and tried to simplify it to make it more user-friendly for you all. It is still in draft form as we begin our consultation phase. In the meantime here is a sneak peek and if you have any initial feedback please let Cheryl or your child's teacher know.
Wheels
We encourage all of our students to seek active modes of transport to and from school. This is an important part of leading a healthy lifestyle and learning road safety rules. Besides walking, active transport to and from school includes bicycles, scooters, skateboards, and rollerblades. A lock is vitally important!
Students know to walk their bikes and scooters in the school grounds during the busy times (between 8:30am-9:00am and 3:00pm-3:30pm). Please take the time to remind your children about the reasons behind this.
The police recommend that no child under the age of ten should cycle to school unless accompanied by an adult. Parents are responsible for ensuring their children get safely to and from school.
We recommend you read our policy on SchoolDocs about wheels to make sure that everyone is nice and safe on their way and from school. To access the documents please login to the SchoolDocs website, https://www.schooldocs.co.nz/ and find Whitney Street School. Our username is: whitneystreet and our password is: learners and the search term is Wheels
COVID -19 Update
Refer to the introductory section of this newsletter.
Having to Isolate - Confirmed Case or Household Contact
If your child is having to isolate and not come to school because they are a household contact or are awaiting a COVID test result please let school know. If you want your child to do some learning from home, you can go on our school website and click 'The Way We Learn' tab, then Online/Home Learning, and finally the Hub Isolation Plan button that your child/ren are in (link here or see photo below).
Please read the information relevant to your child's Hub/Class which explains the learning activities your child/ren can complete. If you have any queries feel free to email the class teacher bearing in mind they may be teaching, so will reply as soon as they get a chance.
Also please note that if you choose to keep your child at home and they are not a household contact or a confirmed case, they will have to be marked as not justified because the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health both recommend students come to school. We understand you may be anxious, so please be aware that school will do everything they can to keep your children in a normal routine, happy, and as safe as possible at school with their friends. You would still be welcome to access the Home Learning if you choose, although teachers may not be able to drop off hard copy packs.
You can refer to this document for further information on COVID Protocols and explanations of the various terms at Phase 3.
If you have any queries or concerns, please contact Cheryl on 027 321 8022.
The Whitney Way - The Way We Learn
Quick Links
Automatic Payment Option
The Whitney Street School BOT bank details are: 03 0599 0305934 00
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Suggestions Box
School App
We encourage all parents to download our school app from the Playstore or Apple Store, as we find this the most effective way of sending out Alerts to parents/caregivers. You can also access a wealth of information from the app as it has links to the school calendar, newsletters, etc.
Please subscribe to Alerts from the classes/groups that your child belongs to. If you want to subscribe to groups later on, you can do this via the ‘Alerts Subscriptions’ which is in the Menu (top left). Please do this to ensure you are subscribed to the classes and Teams that your child or children are in for the 2022 school year.
This is also the way we would like you to inform us of absences. This system streamlines the morning routine for Adele and Michelle so that they can easily see who is away and why.
Please ask the office or your class teacher to help with this if you are unsure of what to do.
PASSWORD: learners
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Contact Us
Email: principal@whitneystreet.school.nz
Website: https://whitneystreet.school.nz
Location: Whitney Street, Blenheim, New Zealand
Phone: +64 3 578 3028
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WhitneyStreetSchool/