Masks

We have been really proud of how well the tamariki have adjusted to mask wearing and thank you to our school whaanau for being supportive of the guidelines that were put in place under the Covid Protection Framework. We have seen that the Roopuu Maahuri and Roopuu Puaawai students are developing good habits of bringing their masks each day. We are happy for the students to arrive and leave the school grounds without their masks on now and can just put them on once they enter an indoor space. We ask whaanau to please continue to support the students by making sure they have them in their bags and bringing them home for washing. Thank you!

Non Essential Visitors to Avoid Coming Onsite (including parents)

Thank you to our families who have avoided coming on site during our RED settings. We appreciate this as it reduces contact with others and gatherings. As said previously however, if your child is upset in the morning for example, then that is a good reason to come onsite. If you need to pick up your child outside of the normal school day, please come to the office first. We recommend talking with your child about where you will be waiting at the end of the day for afternoon pickup. Some of you may find the Community Hall car park has more space. 

Managing Covid Cases in School and Potential Staff Shortages

We unfortunately realise that Omicron will at some stage start affecting our community. As I stated in our communication sent out last week, we have good contact tracing systems in place and we will keep our community informed the best we can.

Current Process if we have a Positive Covid Case at School…

The Senior Leadership Team will be alerted by the Ministry of Health that we have a positive case who was infectious while at school. We will let our Community know that we have a confirmed case and we are investigating it (we will likely send it out as a text message, followed by an email). In the following hours, we will be working with the MoH to decide on who is a 'Close Contact' and a 'Casual Contact'. As soon as we can we will send emails out to let families know if their child is a Close Contact. Close Contacts need to self isolate at home. If your child is a Casual Contact that means they didn’t have enough contact to have to self isolate but are advised to watch for symptoms. Casual/ Non Contacts can come back to school. 

If your child does test positive for Covid, please also email us as soon as possible as this could speed up the process if we don't need to wait for the Ministry of Health to make contact. You can email nyreeo@puketaha.school.nz

Staff Shortages which could impact the school being open for onsite learning…

There is potential for schools to experience staff shortages due to Covid. To be prepared for possible staff shortages, our Senior Leadership Team and our Board of Trustees have been working together on a ‘Business Continuity Plan’. We have some things we can put in place in order to keep the school open for onsite learning if we experience reduced staff. However, if we reach a point where we do not have enough staff to safely operate the school, learning will move from onsite learning to distance learning where children will need to be cared for at home. This could happen at short notice and we will text you and follow up with an email from the Board of Trustees. We suggest having a bit of a plan in mind for how your children can be cared for if they can’t be at school. Hopefully this doesn’t happen to us but it is worth being prepared.