2021 – Starting Soon and a Covid-19 Update

Nga mihi o te tau hou – Happy New Year.

The first day of school this year remains Wednesday, 3rd February. School starts at 9am and we look forward to welcoming everyone back. We will begin with a powhiri for our new Room 5 teacher, Ramari Pirihi, and all children new to our school.

Safety is always our top priority and we are very mindful of the recent Covid-19 case in Northland.

We are advised by the MoE and MoH that we continue to be at Alert Level 1 and, as a result, our school is getting ready to open as normal. The good practices we have been following in 2020 continue to apply in 2021. PLEASE:

  • Keep children at home if they are sick (and seek advice on getting tested);
  • Maintain physical distancing while out and about, where possible;
  • Maintain good hygiene (washing hands thoroughly and frequently with good cough and sneeze etiquette);
  • Regularly clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces;
  • Check in using the NZ COVID Tracer App (or keep a track of where you have been through another means).

In school, we will follow this advice and our Covid notices will remain posted for use around school.

If there are any students or staff who are close or casual contacts of the recent case in Northland, they will need to follow the advice provided by health authorities:

  • For casual contacts (people who were at the same place and at a similar time as the person who has tested positive) they are to stay at home and contact Healthline (0800 358 5453) to arrange for testing and isolate away from others, and remain isolated until their test comes back negative.  See ‘Locations of interest’ for places, dates and times
  • For close contacts – they have already been identified and tested, and will need to remain isolated away from others until 14 days from their last contact with the confirmed case.  The local Health authorities will provide any further support to these individuals as needed.

Go to COVID19.govt.nz for regional advice. Further information about contact tracing more generally is on the Ministry of Health website – Contact tracing for COVID-19 | Ministry of Health NZ

We will continue to monitor the current situation and  provide further information should it change. Most importantly, we very much look forward to welcoming all our children back to school on Wednesday, 3rd February at 9am.

Nga mihi

Simon McGowan

Principal

RETURN TO ALERT LEVEL 1

Kia ora koutou

You will be aware that we are all now back at Covid-19 Alert Level 1 [except the Auckland region which is at Alert Level 2]. This is great news. 

At Alert Level 1, the most important points to make are:
A. All children are expected to attend school. We will, under MoE and MoH guidelines, manage a safe teaching and learning environment. We will still encourage safe practices especially around hand sanitising;
B. Any child exhibiting any cold or flu-like symptoms should stay home until they are well. If children present with even mild cold or flu-like symptoms, we will isolate them in the First Aid room and ring home for them to be collected;
C. All parents can come onto the school site for purposes of dropping off and picking children up. We will still have the Covid-19 government QR Code displayed around school. We encourage everyone to use this as track and tracing is still an important preventative measure;
D. School will finish at 3pm for all children under Alert Level 1. So, no staggered finishing times.
 
Other points to note:
1. There will be the resumption of morning assemblies, kapa haka and Friday Sharing Assemblies from the start of Term 4;
2. Children are expected to hand sanitise on entry to and exit from classrooms;
3. All trips / events outside of school during Alert Level 1 are now OK to pursue. Term 4 Camps and day trips are all OK and the teachers are actively planning for them. 
4. Unfortunately, we have no time now to resume our Wednesday Clubs’ sessions. We will do these again in Term 3 2021. 
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to telephone me at school.

Nga mihi

Simon McGowan

Principal

RETURN TO ALERT LEVEL 2

Kia ora koutou

You will be aware that we are all now back at Covid-19 Alert Level 2 [except the Auckland region which is at Alert Level 3] until at least Wednesday, 26 August. We have made some minor changes for being under Alert Level 2 this time around. There are also some school activities and procedures that our parents and community will wish to know about. Please find below, our decisions about how we will manage the school at Alert Level 2. Please also feel free to read our updated Covid-19 Safety Plan which you will find under our BoT tab at the top of our website. You will need to click on ‘Important Documents’ and scroll down.

At Alert Level 2, the most important points to make are:
A. All children are still expected to attend school. We will, under MoE and MoH guidelines, manage a safe teaching and learning environment;
B. Any child exhibiting any cold or flu-like symptoms should stay home until they are well. If children present with even mild cold or flu-like symptoms, we will isolate them in the First Aid room and ring home for them to be collected;
C. All parents can still come onto the school site for purposes of dropping off and picking children up but everyone must sign in using either the posted Covid-19 government tracer App. with their smartphones or by going via the Main Office and filling in the log sheets provided if they don’t have a Smartphone or the government App. on their phones;
D. School will finish at 3pm for all children under Alert Level 2. So, no staggered finishing times this time around.
 
Other points to note:
1. There will be no assemblies, ballroom dancing, kapa haka or Sharing Assemblies while we are at Alert Level 2;
2. Children are expected to hand sanitise on entry to and exit from classrooms;
3. Our Caretaker will return to the sanitising of high impact areas [such as door handles] after each break;
4. There will be no trips / events outside of school during Alert Level 2. Our fun soccer/netball event in Russell this Friday has been postponed. Russell School will contact us with new dates when it is practical to do so. Our Year 8’s visit to Bay of Islands College [scheduled for this Thursday] has also been postponed until later this term. So far, the only exception to this is that Moerewa School has informed us of their extra safety measures under Alert Level 2 and so our Year 7 and 8s can still attend their Technology lessons on Mondays.
5. Our Wednesday Clubs’ sessions during this Alert Level 2 period are postponed until we return to Alert Level 1. We have already received notification from some Clubs’ leaders that they would not be comfortable continuing with their Club until we are all back at Alert Level 1.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to telephone me at school.

Nga mihi

Simon McGowan

Principal

 TERM 3

Kia ora koutou

After all the dramas and disruptions of Terms 1 and 2, we are now planning for and very much looking forward to a much more settled and productive Term 3 which will begin at 9am next Monday, 20th July and run for 10 weeks through to Friday, 25th September.

We have many exciting events on the Term 3 calendar already not least of which is the return of our Wednesday afternoon Clubs sessions. This is a wonderful opportunity for children to learn skills that are outside of our normal curriculum and we are so grateful again to ‘tap into’ the wealth of talent in our parent community and our staff. We also have our Year 7s and 8s doing Technology each Monday for the whole of Term 3 and 4 at Moerewa School. A bus has been organised to transport the children on day 1 of the new term [please refer to our information letter that went out during the last week of last term for further details].

We have also restarted our Kapa Haka tuition with the wonderful Matua Horrace and lined up other exciting events such as a P.T.A. disco, a fun soccer and netball tournament over at Russell School and our school Photo Day [Tuesday, 8th September]. 

Enjoy the remnants of the mid-winter holiday!

Nga mihi

Simon McGowan

Thursday, 11 June, 2020

 ALERT LEVEL 1

INFORMATION FOR ALL PARENTS AND CAREGIVERS AND CHILDREN

Kia ora koutou

We are delighted to be back to ‘almost’ normality.

For us, this means that:

  • It is safe for all children now to be at school and we would expect all children to be in attendance unless unwell or for other justifiable and notified reasons;
  • We will cease our staggered finishes and all children will now finish school at 3pm from Wednesday, 10th June;
  • We are instructed by the government to ‘stay vigilant’ and maintain safe practices so we will:

[a]  continue educating children about Health and Safety best practices and continue with our ‘Hand Sanitising’ expectations on entry to and exit from classrooms;

[b] continue our extra sanitising of high-use areas [e.g. door handles] after each playtime;

[c]  continue to request parents to collect their children from the school gates and not come onto school premises unless absolutely necessary or there is a scheduled meeting as “Physical Distancing’ is still ‘encouraged’ at Alert Level 1;

  • We will begin restarting our whole school events. Our whole school morning assemblies and our fitness programme are running again. Our first Sharing Assembly will be on Friday 19th June from 2 to 3pm. Kowhai House will be sharing their work. Our Kapa Haka tuition with Matua Horrace will also begin again as soon as possible.

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR HELPING US MANAGE OUR SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT SAFELY 

DURING ALERT LEVELS 3 AND 2.

Nga mihi

Simon McGowan

Wednesday, 13 May, 2020

RETURN TO SCHOOL UNDER ALERT LEVEL 2

VITAL INFORMATION FOR ALL PARENTS AND CAREGIVERS AND CHILDREN

Please read all the information below and help us to keep everyone safe

Kia ora koutou

We are delighted to hear that we can restart school again on Monday, 18th May and we very much look forward to  managing our children’s return to school safely, effectively and efficiently. 

With safety as our top priority, I have worked closely with our team to ensure all Alert Level 2 expectations are met and our reopening of school is as safe as possible. Following are a series of measures designed to make this happen. These measures are only for Alert level 2 and, potentially therefore, might only be for 2 or so weeks. The P.M. has talked of her team of 5 million; similarly, we now need everyone’s help and co-operation to make the following plan work effectively. Please read the following points very carefully, share them with everyone who is connected to Opua School and assist us in ensuring that our return to school is completely safe.

Main Details of our return to school:

  1. The government’s 2 key Health and Safety principles at Alert Level 2 are [a] MINIMISE RISK THAT SOMEONE GETS INFECTED; and [b] ENSURE WE CAN TRACE / IDENTIFY / CONTACT ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN IN CLOSE CONTACT WITH SOMEONE WHO IS OR BECOMES INFECTED. We will have these as our mantra;
  2. All parents are encouraged to send their children back to school. They will be safe. Online teaching and learning programmes will stop on Sunday and be replaced by in-school teaching and learning programmes on Monday morning;
  3. Our first week or so will be characterised by activities to guide and assist children’s readjustment to school life and work and to support their personal well-being. Any child who remains away from school will miss these important activities;
  4. If a child presents with any symptoms of illness, however low-level, we will isolate the child immediately and ring parents to collect them. PLEASE: there should be no child sent to school who is unwell. Please help us with this all-important expectation;
  5. In general: At Level 2, parents and visitors should avoid coming on site [as they have been used to doing]. If they do come on, they must have made a previous telephone appointment and sign in and out at the Main Office. Dropping off and Picking up times are to be viewed as slightly different from this general rule [See below].
  6. Dropping children off: All parents are to drop their children off at ‘age-specific’ gates [Main Office gate for Rms 1 and 2] and Field gate for Rms 3, 4 and 5]. If there is child anxiety, then parents can come on site with their child but they must come on via the Main Office gate, sign in at the table in the Main Office, use the provided hand sanitiser and record where they are going [to drop off their child]. On leaving, they must go out via the Main Office, fill in who they have been within 2 metres of, use the hand sanitiser and leave via the Main Office gate. 
  7. Picking children up:

    This is to be staggered and we really need parent ‘buy-in’ with this.   

    At 2.30pm: 

    Rm 1 children will be lined up and taken to the Main Office gate where they can be collected;

    Rm 2 will be lined up and taken to the Field gate where they can be collected;

    At 2.45pm:

    Rm 3 will be lined up and taken to the Field gate where they can be collected;

    Rm 4 will be lined up and taken to the Main Office gate where they can be collected; 

    At 3.00pm:

    Rm 5 will be lined up and taken to the Main Office gate where they can be collected.

  8. If raining: At 2.30, Rm 1 will line up under the archgola outside Rm 5; Rm 2 will line up under archgola outside Rm 4. Teachers will look out for parents at gates and send their child off when a parent indicates their readiness to receive them at the gate. The same process will happen with Rm 3 and 4 but Rm 3 will line up outside their classroom between Hall and Rm 3 and Rm 4 will line up outside their own room. Rm 5 will also line up outside their own room.
  9. Older children [who collect and go home with younger siblings] are allowed to leave at the same time as the youngest in their family. The older child should collect their younger siblings, join that room’s line and leave at the earlier time when the teacher says it is safe to do so.
  10. Mr McGowan and Ms Ridge will manage the gate / crossing from 2.30pm to 3.15pm. There will be no Room 5 children on crossing patrol until Alert Level.
  11. It is vitally important that these times are adhered to and that we don’t have parents dropping their children off late in the mornings and, particularly, that all parents help us by collecting children at these times in the afternoons and are not late in doing so.
  12. The playground and field are all out of bounds from 3pm and children need to be going home not ‘hanging around’ at school;
  13. All children will be taught to and expected to use the available hand sanitisers on entry and exit to classrooms;
  14. We will be disinfecting and cleaning surfaces daily including table tops, chair backs, computer screens, keyboards and all handles. Our bathroom areas [specifically, taps, handles and high touch zones] will be disinfected and cleaned after playtime, after lunchtime and after school each day;
  15. All children will be educated about ‘Moist Breath’ zones and we will do our best to keep children one metre apart [this, though, can’t be guaranteed];
  16. Children will be in their normal classrooms and, during Alert Level 2, there will be no assemblies, no whole school kapa haka, no ballroom dancing and no Friday Sharing Assemblies;
  17. Children will not do their Fitness Programmes as Houses all at the same time. They will do Fitness as a room with their teacher at different times and/or in different areas of the school;
  18. We can and will make some sports equipment and outdoor play areas available but children must wash hands after use. The selection of sports equipment made available will be put in our special bin or left by the Sports Shed mural if too large to go in the bin and monitors will use disinfectant to spray the equipment after each use;
  19. We encourage all children to use only their own Water Bottles, not the school water fountains. Please help us by sending children to school with their own named water bottles;
  20. The importance of contact Tracing: we don’t need contact details from parents who have made an appointment and who have to come on site other than their name [because we have your details on our school system] but we do need to have everyone who enters the school site to sign in and we must have a record written down of who they’ve been in contact with and where they have been. So, to save hassle and just for Alert Level 2, please only come onto the school site if you absolutely have to and if you have given us advanced warning by ringing and setting up appointment time.

Opua School Moving from Alert level 3 to 2 soon

Friday, 8 May, 2020

Kia ora koutou

Re. Preparing for Alert Level 2

Like me, I am sure you have followed with interest the announcements made by the Prime Minister. It is reassuring to hear how well our country has done at minimising the impacts of COVID-19. Alert Levels 4 and 3 have not been easy and I thank you for your ongoing support for the work we are doing regarding the remote teaching and learning of Opua School children.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister advised that in Alert Level 2 schools are safe environments for children, young people and staff and that additional public health control measures are in place to prevent the spread of disease and to support contact tracing. The good news is that when we are able to, we will be ready to welcome all students and staff back to our school site very soon. The exact date will be confirmed on Monday by the Prime Minister.

Most importantly then, next week [Monday 11th – Friday 15th, May], we all need to remember that school is still at Level 3 and no new children should be attending the site.

 The key Public Health approach is to minimise the risk that someone gets infected in the first place, and, secondly, to ensure we can identify and contact anyone who has been in close contact with a person, if someone in a school is infected. As we have done in Alert Level 3, you can be assured that in Alert Level 2 we will know who is at school, who our staff and students have been in close contact with and take appropriate measures to keep everyone safe.

The key principles for Alert Level 2 are to:

  • reduce the risk of someone getting infected in the first place;
  • ensure we can identify and contact anyone who becomes infected;
  • understand that Level 2 is not business as usual.

Physical distancing is a good precaution to prevent the spread of disease. We do however know it is challenging in schools, so good hygiene practices and regular cleaning are even more important here. This includes staff and students coughing into their elbows, handwashing and drying and regular cleaning of commonly touched surfaces.

Under Alert Level 2, we advise any students and staff to stay at home if they are sick, and we will send anyone home immediately if they show any symptoms.

 Our school has safe and sensible practices to maintain the health and safety of everyone on the school site. As described by Dr Payinda in his NZ Herald article, “Covid’s not measles or chickenpox, it doesn’t hang in the air for hours waiting to infect passers-by. It travels on invisible drops of spit. You don’t have to cross the street to avoid anyone. Just avoid getting in their ‘moist breath’ zone”. We all just need to remember to have some breathing space at Alert Level 2!

 It’s important however that not just at school but at home, safe hygiene habits are practised by everyone, as this is essential to minimise the risk that someone gets infected with Covid-19.

For more information about the public health measures at Alert Level 2, you can visit the covid19.govt.nz website: https://covid19.govt.nz/

I have put our current Health and Safety Plan for Covid-19 on our website under the BoT tab and then the Important Docs link. Here is also a direct link to it:  Covid-19 Safety Plan . This plan could be modified on Tuesday, 12th May after the latest news from the P.M. and after our staff have discussed the way we will manage moving from Alert Level 3 to 2. If you have any questions about our health and safety plan, please contact me.

We will be in touch again soon to update you on our plans.

Nga mihi

Simon McGowan

Principal

Opua School Moving from Alert level 4 to 3

Kia ora koutou

We hope that Term 2 and our distance learning programme has been a success for you so far. We know there will have been any number of challenges for you to deal with but we have been getting some great feedback about the learning that is happening and thank you for all your support.

Yesterday the Government decided that we will move into Alert Level 3 on 28 April. That means we will be open to receive a very small number of students from Wednesday, 29 April. We are starting to prepare our site from today.

The key message for you is that, if you can, you should keep your child at home still. You should only physically send your child to school if you absolutely need to and have no other alternative arrangements. If your child has a health condition that means they are at a greater risk of a severe illness you must keep them at home. If your child is sick you also must keep them at home.

In order to ensure the safety of those children and our staff who do come to school, we will be operating with strict enforcement of health and safety measures.

I want to assure you that we will continue to support your child’s learning at home as best as we can.

Please send us a message or ring us to confirm whether your child is staying at home from next Wednesday or if you absolutely have to send them in to school. If we don’t have a message from you by Friday morning, we will start contacting you to find out what your decision is for your child [ren].

For now, we will continue to support your child’s learning by distance while we progress our planning for what Alert Level 3 will mean for you and for our school. We will be in touch again soon with more information. As you have been doing, please keep connecting with your teachers with any questions you might have.

Signed:
S McGowan
Principal

Find Out More…

For the latest information please visit the government’s Covid 19 website covid19.govt.nz