#1 Covid-19 Community Newlsletter

Covid-19 Community Newsletter #1

Friday 20 August 2021

Dear Parents and Whanau/Families

I was SO looking forward to being back at school this week, but this was not quite the welcome I had in mind. As you know, NZ went into Level 4 lockdown as of last Tuesday 17 August and will remain at this level until at least midnight next Tuesday 24 August. All primary schools in NZ have been instructed by the Ministry to begin offering learning programmes to support their students.

For those who experienced last year’s lockdown, you will hopefully be feeling a little less apprehensive about how the Rewa Rewa School online programme is delivered. For those of you who are experiencing this for the very first time, including some of our teachers, please be reassured that we are working very hard behind the scenes to help you support your child/ren through these times of change.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

 SCHOOL COMMUNICATION

1.  Numbered Covid-19 school newsletters (eg. #1, as above), will be emailed to you as we pass GENERAL information on to you. We will try to ensure that these only include essential information until we are safely back at Level 1. Copies of these newsletters can be found here on the school website within the Covid-19 Updates box on the home page.
2. Our Board of Trustees care very much about the hauora/wellbeing of our families. If Level 4 continues beyond next week we will endeavour to make contact with you to check how things are going for your family. If you would prefer not to be telephones, please let them know when they call. Equally, if you need support, please let us know so that we can assist. Our Board members are: Mark Williams, Naomi Godfrey, Ambresh Kapoor, Angela Schleif, Charlotte Hills and Jan Otene. Email addresses are available on our website.

ONLINE LEARNING / OFFLINE LEARNING

 1. Class teachers will be responsible for communication between themselves and their own students/whanau and the delivery of their online learning programmes each Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. On Wednesdays all teachers will be attending staff and team meetings.

2. As parents, it is your choice as to how you manage this time in lockdown to support your child/ren’s learning, as you will be right there with them and best able to judge what their needs are. You can choose to:

• Opt-out of all online learning, instead providing your own learning opportunities
• Opt-in to online learning sometimes for your child
• Opt-in to online learning most/all of the time for your child
• Other – you may wish to discuss this with your child’s classroom teacher

Note: We found last year that this approach worked really well. As parents you will find that you learn what works best for you and your child/ren on a day-to-day basis.  If they are tired or distracted – do something different, like kicking a ball outside!  Please be aware of the amount of time your child spends online – we will send more tips soon!

3. All parents will be able to contact their child’s teacher by email. If you need to talk with the teacher, leave your contact details and they will respond as soon as they can. Please remember that they will be working with other families, as well as their own!

VERY IMPORTANT

 This week – please expect to receive via email the following fliers:

1. A very quick online survey was emailed to you on 19 August. Please update the eLearning requirements for your family. If you choose not to respond, we may not be able to help you at a later date. With the current lockdown period now only extending until next Tuesday, we will hold off distributing IT equipment until we know if this situation will continue for longer.

2. Students can currently access offline home learning opportunities via our school website. Please follow these steps to access the learning tasks:

• https://www.rewarewa.school.nz/
• On the Home Page page, hover over or click the Our Learning tab and a dropdown menu will appear
• Click on Home & Online Learning (here)

3. For MONDAY 23 AUGUST you will receive an emailed invitation to a ZOOM meeting from your child’s classroom teacher. The purpose of this session will be to give parents who would appreciate some guidelines on what to expect in a Level 4 learning environment. There will be opportunity to ask questions directly before we open online learning to our students the following day on TUESDAY 24 AUGUST.

• MONDAY 23 AUGUST: 10:00 am   Avi Jaysekara for parents of students of all Yr 1 – 3 Wai classes
• MONDAY 23 AUGUST: 11:00 am   Charlotte Hills for parents of Yr 4 – 6 Ahi students

4. Please take the time to read the Online Home Learning Guidelines attached to this email.

Kind regards

Jan Otene (Principal)       

Mark Williams (Board Chair)

Charlotte Hills (Deputy Principal)