Letter to families – 13 October 2021

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Whānau, 

The following letter contains the most recent information and guidance provided by the Ministry of Education (MOE).

The Government has kept with their cautious approach when responding to COVID-19 and as a result, we will stay at Alert Level 3 for a bit longer.

At full Alert Level 3 you legally must stay within your household bubble unless for essential personal movement, including going to work and going to school. We are therefore preparing to open once more on Monday for only the small number of children who need to attend. All our usual safety precautions for Alert Level 3 will be in place which includes all the recommendations from the public health experts. This means students will be kept in bubbles of no more than 10.

If you need to send your child to school at Alert Level 3 – PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Our staff on-site will also have been tested for COVID-19 before they get back to work and we are moving toward having 100 percent of our staff vaccinated – so we are all playing our part in keeping our community safe.

You can also assist everyone’s safety by keeping your child at home if they are feeling unwell and please do contact your GP or Healthline, to seek advice about getting tested.

We will continue to support all children who remain learning from home through our distance learning programme. As usual, all online resources will be posted on HERO.

If you require a hard copy pack of resources instead – PLEASE CLICK HERE. 

While we know how difficult it is trying to work from home as well as support your child’s learning, please keep your child at home if there is an appropriate carer available. For those of you with no other option, we look forward to seeing your child at school next week. 

It is now legally required that we hold a COVID-19 vaccination register for all eligible students and staff.

If we were to have a case of COVID-19 in our school, public health authorities will want to know if we are a school with a high vaccination rate. This information will then be used as part of the local health authority’s risk assessment. The more highly vaccinated we are (staff and eligible students), the less likely it will be that we will have to close down for a long period of time, or we might not need to close at all.

We will therefore need to know if your child (aged 12 and over) has had their first or second vaccine dose or is exempted from being vaccinated. This information will be held by us in accordance with the Privacy Act and will only be shared with public health authorities.

We are therefore getting our data collection system in place and will get in touch with you again very soon. 

We are proud of how our community has responded to this outbreak, but the mahi isn’t yet done. Please continue to follow all the alert level requirements including staying at home and getting tested for COVID-19 if you are feeling unwell, and for your own sake and for the health of your whānau, please get vaccinated. I have included some information about vaccinations to support decision making. 

These are the very best things we can do to keep our community as safe as possible and get everyone back to school.

We will keep you informed as the MOE releases further information and guidance.

 

Ngā mihi nui,

Raewyn Matthys-Morris

Principal