COZVID-19 Update: May 8

Kia ora koutou

No doubt you followed with interest the announcements made by the Prime Minister yesterday. With a likely move to Level 2 soon, here is a quick update for you with more to come after Monday’s announcement from the Prime Minister.

Under Level 2 there are some key messages regarding schools;

1. Early learning services, schools and tertiary education facilities are all open.
2. Schools and early learning services are safe environments for children, young people and staff. Additional public health control measures are in place to prevent the spread of disease and to support contact tracing.
3. Distance learning is available for those unable to attend school, for example who are self-isolating.
4. When the decision is made to move levels, schools won’t open midweek – whenever the decision is made – they will open at the beginning of the following week.
5. Where possible physical distancing is a good precaution. We know it is near impossible in an early learning environment and challenging in schools. So good hygiene practices and regular cleaning are even more important here.
6. In schools, physical distancing means children, young people and staff maintaining enough distance so that they are not breathing on or touching each other. And maintaining good hygiene practices, and regular cleaning. As is regular cleaning of equipment.
7. And all schools and early learning services will collect information about who’s there, so Public Health can contact people quickly if they need to.

We continue to implement effective health and safety approaches here at school and we will be ready to welcome all students and staff back to our school site. The earliest possible date that we will be might able to accept students back is Monday 18 May, apart from the ones who are already attending under Alert Level 3. We will all await Monday’s announcement with anticipation!

If you have any questions about returning to school, or have a child who might be vulnerable to serious illness and would like to discuss a plan for them, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

We will send out more information next week to update you on our plans and also get an indication from you whether your children will be returning to school under Level 2 or not.

Ngā mihi nui

Nick