24 April 2022

Moving on with Orange

With the move to Orange schools were required to review their health and safety protocols for COVID-19.

We have made some changes in line with recommendations from the Ministry of Education and the requirements of the Orange traffic light setting of the CPF.  We are not sure how much COVID is still circulating in Wellington but we do know that a large number of our community had not had it by the time we finished Term 1.  We are aware that this could mean we continue to have some children and staff at home with COVID or isolating because a family member does during Term 2.  COVID may be on the wane in Auckland, but we are not sure about the south of Wellington, so we'll be maintaining our key precautions of mask wearing inside and keeping windows open for now.

We have prepared infographics to keep you informed about our Health and Safety precautions for COVID 19 during Term 2 and these have been shared with you and are also posted around the school. 

Increase home - school connection

Over the last 3 years we've asked parents to stay out of classrooms.  The downside of this is that parents of younger children especially, have felt disconnected from what is happening at school.  On the other hand, teachers have noticed that children settle more quickly into learning routines and are less likely to be upset at the start of the day when parents leave.  It is really important for teachers and parents to work together and understand each other, and when this is the case children do well at school.  As we move into the orange traffic light setting we are looking for ways to increase the connections between home and school especially for those families whose children first started school during the "COVID years" since the start of 2020.  We are looking forward to providing more opportunities like this for parents to come into the school in the future.

The first of these opportunities will be trialed this term in the form of some open mornings when parents will be allowed to come into the classroom before school as their child's 'guest'.  Children will escort their parent around the room and show them what they've been working on.  Teachers will help children prepare for this so that they know how to be a good host.  You'll hear more about Open Mornings directly from your child's teachers as well as other events planned for the future.

Keep the new routines that really work

There has been considerable discussion among educational thinkers and influencers about using COVID disruption as an opportunity to make changes for the better and to question how we've always done things in the past.  Our teachers have identified that having parents say goodbye to children at the door works better than having them do this inside the classroom. Teachers have observed that quick good-byes at the door make it much easier for children to settle into the day.  This is also the case for highly anxious children who benefit the most from this routine.

Unfortunately COVID is not over for us, but we are doing our best to keep everyone safe as well as providing excellent learning programmes.

Kathryn Smith

Principal