Term 1, Week 9, 2020 (Monday 30 March)

He mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa - warm greetings to all.

As we have said in earlier messages, teachers are continuing to work this week despite many schools moving the school holidays to start this week. We want to give children a good start with working from home and have our teachers available to offer as much support and structure in these first weeks. Thank you to so many of you who have taken the time to email us and show your support for what we are doing. We really appreciate hearing from you.

There are a few families who have older children at other schools who have decided to keep all their children on the same 'holiday' schedule. Flexibility is the key for us here and we can work around whatever works best for our families. Just to remind you, our holidays will start on 6 April and school will go back on April 20th, either on site or remotely depending on the lock-down. It's worth noting that holidays this time round are going to look different to what we are used to. None of us are able to go away and most parents are working from home throughout the holiday. You may find that if the children carry on with some school activities over the holiday break it may give you a chance to get some work done.

Over the next week, keep connecting with our Ridgway community either by emailing or contributing to our Ridgway Whanau Group facebook group. A wise Year 5 said to me last Monday 'this won't last forever'. Be kind to others and yourselves. Also Les Mills are doing live workouts on TV1 each morning at 9 and Jump Jam are releasing free videos each day. Remember if you get in your activewear in the morning you can stay in it all day! Unless you get too sweaty in which case you can get back into your pyjamas. Bonus!