Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Newsletter, Rāmere (Friday) 11 March

Hooray for warm and sunny weather! Doesn't life always feel that much better when the weather is great? It certainly makes life at school feel more 'normal' in these strange times, as we keep all the windows and doors open to support ventilation, kapa haka happens outside, and a variety of music and sport activities are able to be undertaken outside too.

We have had a further two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in our student/staff population since we reported to you yesterday. This brings our total number of school cases to 14. We are also seeing some  people returning to school having completed their isolation periods. Our staff continue to work hard to keep the school programme happening as normally as possible, whilst we make adjustments for the fact that the number of children and staff at school decreases a little bit more each day. Today we had 100 children out of 476 away from school, and four staff isolating at home as either cases or household contacts. The particular staff who are away can change on a daily basis and we don't always know if they will be away for a day or two, or a more extended time. We are fortunate to have a reliable group of relievers we can draw from who know our children and staff and do their best to keep learning going as per the plan. Thank you for keeping children at home when they are not 100% well. 

We have been informed by SIEPP Construction that they will be closing Sandwich Road from Tuesday 15th March for up to a week. This is to undertake work related to the ongoing main water pipeline replacement project that is happening at a variety of locations across the local area.

From Tuesday 15th March, Sandwich Road will be closed to traffic at the Norwood St end, and open ONLY TO RESIDENTS, STAFF and ACCESSIBILITY VEHICLES from the Eastern Tce end.

We understand that this may cause some disruption and change to your normal travel times in the mornings so please do plan ahead and allow extra time. We understand that this work is important to our local community and that it will ensure strong infrastructure going forward.

This is stage one of three upcoming stages of work around the school that will impact on our usual traffic access. All footpath access to school should be available as usual.

The Community Dental Service is suspending some of its services from 5pm Wednesday 9th March 2022 to provide support to the Canterbury health sector in response to Omicron.

They will continue to provide relief of pain clinics by appointment only from Thursday 10th March.  You can access these appointments by calling the Contact Centre on 0800 846 983.

For any dental advice please call the Contact Centre on 0800 846 983.

You can email the PTA at pta@beckenham.school.nz