Dear Parents and Caregivers
Welcome back to the new school year. We are really looking forward to meeting all of our families at next week’s teacher/whanau meetings on Monday 31 January, as this will be a great time to share what’s important and set the scene for the year ahead for your child. Children are encouraged to attend these meetings with you.
As we start this year we have the added challenge that NZ is now at RED level of the traffic light system, which is designed to slow the spread of COVID-19. Schools and families are all grappling with a lot of information and a lot of decisions are being made as we try to work out just what this means for each of us.
I would like to start off by saying that the staff at Rewa Rewa School are absolutely determined to do our very best to support every student and their family as we negotiate our way through this together. We totally understand that there will be concerns, possibly anxiety and that each of us will be handling this in our own way.
During these times it is our intention to make sure that even though some of our usual practices, such as parents coming into the office and classrooms will pause for now, we are still accessible to you. All of our classroom teachers will be contacting their home class parents with information about the best way of keeping in touch with them. Likewise, I encourage you to telephone or email me ANYTIME with any questions/concerns or just to have a chat (04 939 0186 or 021 215 8000, principal@rewarewa.school.nz). We want to assure you that we are here for you, as you try to make sense of the new parameters that we are now living within. Frequently asked questions or queries that arise which may be of interest to our wider school community will be published on the school’s closed Facebook page so that you can see the responses that the Ministry or our Covid Response Team (CRTeam) have given.
Something that seems to be on top for some parents the moment is the wearing of masks, in particular, by your children. The new mandate is that students who are Year 4 or above are to wear masks when indoors at school. However, at present, in accordance with the MOE School Framework, for Yr 4 students in a composite home room with younger students (as both of our year 3 & 4 classes are) it is optional as to whether they wear a mask. Likewise, if any Yr 1-3 students choose to wear masks, that is fine. Year 5 & 6 students will wear masks indoors. Current information available is that if this is an issue for a child (e.g. it would cause high anxiety), an exemption may be applied for. If you would like to discuss this further, please get in touch with me.
For staff working with students Yr 4 and above, wearing a mask is mandatory. However, we have decided that all of our staff (unless medically exempted), will wear masks when indoors or in close contact with children. This action will hopefully give us the greatest chance of keeping our school open for learning. In addition, only essential visitors will be permitted and if aged 12 years or older must wear a mask when entering the property.
As you will appreciate, we are receiving a barrage of information from the Ministry of Education and other school organisations such as NZEI, NZSTA and it is taking us time to work through this. We will continue filter this and pass on any information that will affect us via our website and email. Local principals are also working closely together and sharing ideas, although each school will have different ways of managing their Covid-19 environment.
One thing that we all need to remember is that things can change very rapidly, So, we all need to be ready to respond quickly to any decisions and guidelines that no longer suit a changed environment.
Our CRTeam will be regularly monitoring issues such as when online learning needs to begin for some or all of our students and we expect that this will be very dependent on how many of our staff may be isolating at home at any given time.
Following this letter, you will receive Covid -19 Bulletin #2 (see the website for Bulletin #1 from December 2021). Please carefully read and familiarise yourself with this information, regarding what RED will look like at our school as from Wed 02 February 2022.
It would be a good idea to have a chat with your child/ren before starting back on Wednesday 2 February, with just the key things they will need to know to reduce any anxiety e.g. your teacher and friends will be there at school to greet you, most things will be the same as they were last year although you will notice more people wearing masks inside, make sure you use the sanitiser each time you go back into your classroom and wash your hands regularly.
Finally, all we can say with certainty at the moment is that school is open and we will do our utmost to keep your children safe, secure and happy in their learning. We look forward to working with you in the year ahead to ensure that our children only receive the best!
Nga mihi
Jan Otene, Principal (04 939 0186 or 021 215 8000, principal@rewarewa.school.nz)
Mark Williams, Board Presiding Chair
Your teaching team: Charlotte Hills (Yr 5 & 6)
Liz Martindale and Frances Reilly (Yr 3 & 4)
Avi Jayasekara and Helen Pine (Y1 & Y2)
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