24 April 2020
Newsletter No. 7/2020
Dear Parents, Caregivers & Whānau,
Thank you for the continued support of the school and for making the best of learning from home with your children under Covid-19. We have had an excellent response from families as to whether their child/children will be returning to school next Wednesday or continuing to stay in their bubble at home.
This newsletter has information that relates to students who are returning to school and information about further learning from home as well. Please read it carefully.
We have a few families that have been hard to contact, if you are reading this newsletter and you know you have not had contact from our school, could you please email your child’s teacher. Their email address can be found on the Puhinui School website (www.puhinui.school.nz). Please see the information about emailing teachers.
CONTACT INFORMATION: Parents please make sure we have up to date contact information. This includes your current address, home phone, mobile number and emergency contact details. Please email office@puhinui.school.nz with any changes and updates you may have.
HEALTH AND SAFETY: You will be aware we continue to take our guidance from the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Ministry of Health (MoH). This week in preparation for students returning to school we have been organising a number of tasks to ensure we are ready on Wednesday 29th April for some students returning to school. All health and safety measures are in place for next week. Not all teachers will be returning to school next week. We will keep a limit to how many staff members we have on site at any one time. The majority of teachers will be at home, just like the majority of students will still be at home under Level 3 of Covid-19.
STUDENTS RETURNING TO SCHOOL: Parents, it is important to remember that the Covid 19 guidelines say:
The first option for families and children is to Stay at home, work and learn from home.
For families who have indicated that their children will be returning to school please read through this section carefully.
This week teachers made contact with all families. We were able to gather information about how many students we can expect to have at school next week. We have approximately 80 students that we know of returning to school next Wednesday 29th April. Please do not send your child to school if you have not already told us that they are returning. We have planned for bubbles of ten and not all teachers will be coming back to school next week. Only the necessary number of teachers will be at school next week. Most teachers will still be in their home bubbles working off site. We are limiting the number of teachers who will be onsite to keep it as low as possible. If your circumstances have changed and your child can not learn from home, please give us at least one days notice if you are planning to send your child to school. Please do not send your children to school, because they are bored, or because you want them to have a break from home. If you have indicated your child will return to school and they are sick, please keep them at home. We expect only well children to attend school. If you are unsure please call the school on 09 2788703.
RETURN DATE AND ARRIVAL AT SCHOOL: The return date to school will be Wednesday 29th April. If your child is returning, we ask that your child arrives after 8.20 a.m. and before 8.45 a.m. This will help us manage the school and the Health and Safety guidelines we are working under. If possible walk your child to the school gates and then let them walk through on their own. The drop off zone will operate, and please use the gate by Room 22 as your departure gate. When you come to pick-up your child at the end of the day, you may come into the school, but please wait on the grass areas outside classrooms. Your children will come and find you when the bell rings. Please space yourselves out evenly (2 metres apart). Children who normally walk to and from school will continue to do so. School will finish at our normal time of 3 p.m.
3 p.m. waiting areas for parents:
Rooms 9-14 on the grass outside these classrooms.
Rms 24 and 25, on the back field back near the classroom path.
Rms 18,19 & 20 on the grass by the Norfolk Pine outside Rm21 & Rm22.
Rms 1, 6 & 7 on the front field by the auditorium.
(reminder your child will come to you, please do not go to the classrooms).
When students arrive at school, they will be directed to the classroom they have been placed in for the next 8 days of learning. There will be lists on whiteboards and Team Leaders will help direct them to their classes. A reminder please leave your child at the school gate and let them walk in on their own, they will be looked after and will be safe on the school grounds.
NO AFTER SCHOOL CARE: Parents please be aware there will be no before, or after school care during Level 3. SKiDS will not be on site. All students returning will need to be collected from school at 3 p.m.
LEARNING FROM HOME: By now students will be familiar with learning from home.
READING AND MATHS LEARNING ORGANISATION THIS WEEK: Students will be ready to look at the specific learning tasks they are assigned for this week. Teachers will continue to plan and prepare lessons a week ahead and the school website will be updated each week on Mondays.
LEARNING FROM HOME: To access learning designed by our teachers please visit the Puhinui Website https://www.puhinui.school.nz. A reminder that there are a range of tasks and many do not require devices. Please note the MOE (Ministry of Education) have two websites which also have a range of learning tasks that can be accessed and may be of interest to you and your children https://learningfromhome.govt.nz/ and,
http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Archives/Assessment/Supporting-parents
EMAILING TEACHERS: Parents please note if you would like to make contact with your child’s teacher please go to the staff page on the school website. You will see your child’s teacher’s name and an email icon. Please click on the icon and write your message and send. They will do their best to reply to you as soon as they are able to.
POSTED DEVICES AND LEARNING PACKS: On Friday we sent out a second delivery of devices. These should be arriving early next week. We are also preparing to send out a second round of hard copy learning packs to families early next week.
NETSAFE ONLINE: Please see helpful information from Netsafe for parents below:
The existing ‘Netsafe schools tools and resources’ has been updated to reflect the current learning landscape, and a number of new resources have been created to help schools and kura support their staff, students, families and whānau as together they navigate this uncertain time. These resources have been made available free to all schools and can be found by clicking on our Netsafe Schools website (or, see actual website URL below). As always, the Netsafe team is there to help, whether with bespoke advice or guidance should an online incident occur. In this rapidly changing online world, Netsafe is there to support us.
Thank you parents, we hope your whānau remains well. Stay safe.