Term 2 Week 5 update: Back to School!

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Kia ora e te whanau,

We're are really looking forward to seeing you all again on Monday! It's been such a long time. A special, warm welcome to all of the children, who are going to be starting school with us this week.

We're also welcoming Sophie Mulligan, who is our new teacher in the Koru team. Sophie will be the Home Group teacher for our newest children. We are so lucky to have you, Sophie, and all of the children are going to love getting to know you, and work with you this term.



See you at the flagpole:
Children, on Monday, Jo will be waiting at the flagpole to meet you, so once you arrive at school with your parent, you can give them a big kiss and a hug goodbye there. Jo will then make sure that Elizabeth picks you up and then helps you with your bag, and finding a cubby hole when you reach the veranda.
Parents, if you have to come on site for any reason during the day, there is a requirement that you sign a Contact Register, so please report to the school office for that. This includes any whānau who are bringing or collecting children for their school visits. Before leaving, please make sure that you sign out.

Please, if you haven't already seen this little video clip on Seesaw, view the Welcome Back to School video below, with your children. It's better to watch this clip, and the following clips, in full screen (click bottom right).

Here, also, are the two videos which Sandy sent out via our school newsletter yesterday.


A few little 'housekeeping' items:

  • please ensure that your child brings a named drink bottle to school every day, and this drink bottle needs to be taken home and cleaned again every day after school 
  • If your child has an older sibling here at school, it's absolutely fine for that brother or sister to bring their younger sibling to the veranda each morning, if that helps with the daily drop off
  • a reminder that for our Koru children, they will be ready to be picked up at the flagpole each day at 2:45 p.m. Once again, if you have an older child at school, or if your child is booked into BOSCO, then the school day will finish at 3:00 p.m., and they will wait in the hub until this time
  • our handwashing and hand sanitising routines have been very clearly outlined in Ministries of Health and Education guidelines. Please let your child's Home Group teacher know if your child has a reaction to hand sanitiser, and we shall ensure that they wash their hands rather than use hand sanitiser.
Our theme for next week:
You may have heard on our little video clip that we're going to be having a 'Superhero' theme next week. This will culminate in a 'dress up' day on Friday, so your children can be thinking about what they might like to wear on Friday. This can be as simple as a handtowel for a cape, or alternatively, as complex as your child wishes to make it!

We trust you all have a wonderful weekend, and we're really looking forward to seeing all of the wee ones on Monday!

Ngā mihi mahana,
Jo, Stacey, Sophie and Elizabeth


Welcome Back Everyone! 15/5/20

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ESSENTIAL VIEWING:  

NEW DROP OFF AND COLLECTION PROCESS: please watch this. If you have any questions please email your child's home group teacher. 

PLEASE MAKE TIME TO WATCH THIS THROUGH AND TALK WITH YOUR TAMARIKI. many families will watch it two or three times or re-watch parts of it to ensure their child/children feel confident about their return to school.


Students Personal Belongings

At the end of each day, we will be returning all your child's/children's personal belongings, including sunhats (these can stay at home), jerseys, jackets, lunch boxes, and drink bottles. 
NO one can use the drinking fountains at school. 


Hygiene

We will have rigorous handwashing and sanitation routines throughout the day. Please let your child's teacher know if your child has a sensitivity to any of these products. 

Drop off and Pick-up Routines

Teachers will take groups of students over to the flag pole at 2.45pm for you to collect. At 3pm older siblings can meet their younger siblings at the entry to our hub. Please let your child's teacher know if you want them to wait in the hub until 3pm OR if they are attending BOSCO. 


Bubble Celebrations 

We'd love to see some pictures and hear about your bubble time! If you have any gems to share please email them to your teacher or we can find them on Seesaw.


Community Calendar

We have had to postpone and/or cancel some of our events for the rest of the term. The community calendar has been updated accordingly. 





Welcome back to school Pōhutukawa – IMPORTANT INFORMATION!

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Kia ora whānau,

We are SO excited about seeing your children back at school on Monday! As I am sure you are aware, things will be a little bit different at school compared to "normal".  If you haven't already, please watch our Welcome Back to School Video (below) with your family, so you and the children know what to expect.


Also, in error, the wee video that Anne, Steve, Kerilea and Kate made was left out by mistake, so here it is!



Just a few important reminders for next week - your child will need a named drink bottle full of water at school each day. If your child arrives at school without a water bottle we will be phoning you and asking you to drop one in as there are no operational water fountains at school in Level 2. Drink bottles and lunch boxes will be kept in the cubbies with bags.

If your child has borrowed a school device for the lockdown period, please bring it back to school on Monday and take it straight to the verandah outside the library where you can sign it back in.  If your child uses a skateboard to travel to and from school, these will now be stored in the locked bike stand area on Sandwich Rd - they need to be there by 9am at the latest, which is when the area is locked. They will be stored there at your own risk.

If your child has any skin sensitivities or allergies and you are concerned about the use of hand sanitiser and / or school soap, please feel free to send your child to school with their own products to use. If you have any concerns, please don't hesitate to contact your child's home group teacher.

Here is a video outlining the drop off and pick up procedures at school for the time that we are operating in Level 2.  We appreciate your support with this.


Have a great weekend everyone!

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.