Author Archives: Sandy Hastings, Principal, Beckenham School

Returning to school on Monday – Important information

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Kia ora e te whānau


We are in Alert Level 2 and preparing for school restarting again on Monday.

Thank you to the 280 families who have completed the 'Returning to school at Alert Level 2 Survey". We are still waiting to hear from around 50 families, so if you haven't yet completed this survey, there is still time to do this.

Today we had ALL of our staff back on site for the first time since 23rd March! What a lot of happy faces and excitement about getting out of their Lockdown bubbles, and seeing one another in person again. We all spent the day working very hard on planning and preparing for the return of children on Monday.

We were excited to welcome Sophie Mulligan who joined our staff today. Sophie will be our newest teacher in the New Entrant, Koru Team, with Jo, Elizabeth and Stacey.

We have had more information from the Ministry of Education since I last communicated with you on Monday. They have clarified that ALL visitors past our front gates MUST sign a contact tracing register every time they come on, including whānau. This means that we are going to be asking you to drop your children at the gate from Monday. Please watch the two videos below, one just for caregivers, and the other for you to watch with your children, about getting ready for school starting on Monday.

At this stage, we have not heard from LunchOnline, so there will be no lunch orders next week.

As our Drinking Fountains will be shut off during Alert Level 2, please ensure your child has a full water bottle at school each day. We will be sending them home for cleaning every day. 

We would love you to sit down with your child(ren) and watch this video together, to help prepare them for the return to school on Monday.

Special thanks to Shirley Serban, Principal at Lake Brunner School, for the 'Moist Breath Song' featured in this video.


Caregivers, we encourage you to watch this shorter video yourselves, about how our arriving and leaving school will work at Alert Level 2:



Please remember that we will be operating at Alert Level 2, which is not 'back to normal'.

Ngā mihi nui
Sandy Hastings
Principal - Tumuaki


Returning to School – Please read and respond

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Kia ora e te whānau

As the Prime Minister has just announced, schools across the country will be re-opening on Monday 18th May.

Hooray!

We are all very excited about the prospect of seeing all of the children again, and returning to some level of routine at school. We hope you are looking forward to being able to send them back!

What will ‘school being open’ look like at Alert Level 2?

  • Everyone will go back to learning in their usual learning groups and teams
  • Everyone is expected to stay apart i.e. ‘not touching, or getting into another person’s ‘moist breath zone’
  • Playtime and lunch breaks will happen at the normal times
  • Regular handwashing and hand sanitising.
  • Playgrounds and sports equipment will be able to be used. 
  • Caregivers can come on site but not go into learning spaces. Please keep away from entrance areas and maintain 1m physical distancing from one another. 
  • Children should be dropped at school after 8:30am and collected by 3:15pm, as usual
  • Office on site will be OPEN. 
  • All staff will be working on site.
  • We will have LOTS of education in place for our children around safe distancing and healthy hygiene practices.
  • We will be allowing time throughout the day for handwashing and hand sanitising. Sports equipment will be cleaned after each use. 
More detailed information will also come out later this week.

The big question for you all is - Should we be sending our child(ren) to school?

The Ministries of Education and Health have given us excellent guidance on the health and safety measures we need to take to ensure that our school is a healthy place for your children to be.

Their overarching message is: "Schools are open for all students to attend, and it is safe to do so."

Here is a flow chart to help you with this decision:



Please complete this survey below as soon as possible, so that we have a clear picture of our numbers for starting school again on Monday. This has implications for us on our staffing and our planning, and your support is very much appreciated.

Please click on this: Survey Link for ALL Families to complete 

Ngā mihi nui
Sandy and the team.

Quick update – moving to Level 3

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We hope you all had a lovely weekend and managed to get out in the fabulous weather that we are currently having.

Please do not come into the school grounds between 9am and 3pm, Mon-Fri, during Alert Level 3

As we re-open school tomorrow, for the small number of children who need to attend, please can I remind everyone that the school grounds will be off-limits for everyone else between 9am and 3pm Monday to Friday. This is important to keep the integrity of the bubbles we have created here at school for our school attendees.

Using Zoom for Learning meetings with students

We have today opened up Zoom to our Google Suite for students. Our teachers have been using Zoom for their meetings, and find this platform to be far superior to the similar option of Google Meet which they have been using with the children.

Please be aware that your child's security is a top priority for us. To that end, we have the following procedures in place, and we ask you to monitor (as always) what your child is using their school account for at home.
  • All Zoom meetings with staff and students will be recorded by the staff member. 
  • Staff have enabled Zoom 'waiting rooms' meaning that students cannot begin a meeting without the teacher who created the meeting being in the room.
  • Students should ideally be in a room where you can at least see them, when they are in a zoom conference. (Bedrooms and bathrooms are not appropriate places for children to be when using social / meeting platforms.
  • Please remind your child that their google accounts are for school and learning use only. This means that they should not be using their student accounts to engage in Zoom or Google Meets with one another for social purposes. 

Ngā mihi nui
Sandy and the team

Please respond to this survey today

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We need you to carefully consider the information sent out yesterday, and attached again below, and then to complete this questionnaire, to ensure we know where your child(ren) will be learning from next Wednesday when we shift into Alert Level 3.

If you have any questions, please phone Jacky in the (virtual) office in the first instance, on 03 337 1404.

Thank you
Sandy and the team







Moving to Alert Level 3 next week…

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Please find below information about what it will look like at school as we move, with you, into Alert Level 3.

Tomorrow (Wednesday 22nd April) you will receive a brief questionnaire that will ask you to confirm if you are keeping your child(ren) at home during Alert Level 3, or if you need to register them to attend school.

This email is to give you the information you may need to help you make that decision.

Ngā mihi
Sandy and the team.