Covid-19 Bulletin #9 – Mask Wearing in Term 3 2022 URGENT NOTIFICATION

COVID-19 BULLETIN #9: Mask-Wearing Policy Update

Monday 25 July 2022

Kia ora whanau                        

The Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health announced last week that they strongly recommend all schools and kura amend their mask policy for the first four weeks of Term 3 2022 to require mask wearing in all indoor settings where it will not have a significant impact on teaching and learning (see below), for students in Years 4 and above.

Our Covid-19 Response Team (CRTeam), Board and staff have worked together since this announcement to review our current mask policy. The following resolution and policy updates have now been made and this email is to inform our community of these changes.

Rewa Rewa School – Mask Policy Resolution

“That we adjust our existing mask policy until 19 August 2022 to enable us to follow MOE & MOH recommendations (21/07/22). These policy adjustments will come into effect as from Tuesday 26 July 2022. We will review these temporary policy changes before the end of week 4 of term 3 to determine if they need to be extended/modified/cease to apply and notify our community accordingly. This policy is in addition to requirements for mask wearing at Orange under the Government’s COVID-19 Protection Framework.”

MASK WEARING POLICY

26/07/22-19/08/22

Rewa Rewa School

For our students this will mean:

• A mask must be worn by students in years 4 and above in all indoor settings where it will not have a significant impact on teaching and learning.
• This policy does not include any situation where mask wearing might not be practicable, such as while eating and drinking, playing certain musical instruments, indoor sport, where it will have a significant impact on teaching and learning (for example, students with particular learning needs), certain activities such as singing or drama performance on stage, and PE. In these situations, particular attention will be paid to ensuring there is good ventilation during the activity, and physical distancing where practicable.
• We know that some of our students/ākonga are exempt from wearing a mask. If they have an exemption card or a letter from their health provider, or we have agreed that mask wearing is not practicable for them, we will continue to support them to not wear a mask.
• Parents and whanau will need to provide their own, preferably child-sized, masks. We are still awaiting provision of child-sized masks from the Ministry of Education.
• All visitors will comply with the current mask requirements in place at the time of their visit.
• We continue to regularly assess for risks in our school and community.

Policy updated: Monday 25 July 2022

In the meantime, we expect that child-sized masks will arrive in the week ahead from the MOE that we can distribute to students where necessary. Our staff are also very highly committed to supporting our students and community through this time. As such, all of our staff have agreed to also wear masks when indoors, unless they have an exemption.

We currently have no positive cases or close contacts, but we are aware that the flu and other viral illness still seems to be affecting those within our community. For this reason, we strongly advise that students in Years 1-3 also consider wearing masks during this period of time.

Thank you to all of our community. It has been good to hear from you and we hope that together, we can continue to achieve the safest environment that we are able to have for our tamariki.

Noho ora mai

Naomi Godfrey (Presiding Member, Rewa Rewa School Board)

Jan Otene (Principal)

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