Newsletter Wednesday 13 May 2020

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

School at Level 2

As we prepare to go back to school on Monday 18th May there are some ways that school will be different. You can find the full information about this here but there is also a summary below.

There will be sanitiser at the door of each entrance into a school building. Your child will need to sanitise their hands before they enter a building. If at all possible, we ask that parents and caregivers do not come inside. When this is necessary, please sign in on the clipboard at the entrance to the room (in case contact tracing is necessary). You will also need to sanitise your hands.

We would like to make it as easy as possible for adults who come on to the school grounds to maintain social distance both in the school grounds and outside on the footpath. One of the ways to do this is to limit the time that adults spend at school. Please be as quick as you can when dropping off and picking up in the school grounds. Unfortunately this includes leaving school quickly after 3 o'clock and not letting your child play in the playground after school. Another way to help adults maintain social distance is by having staggered start and finish times for some of our children. This can be extended to siblings in the senior school too.

• Year 1 children in Kōtare, Tūi and Ruru will start at 9.30 and finish at 2.30.

• Year 2 children in Tūi and Ruru will start at 9.15 and finish at 2.45.

We are going to be adaptable and flexible in these times to try to make them work for everyone. Please remember that the purpose of this is to help make it easier for the adults in the community to keep social distance. Email sarah@ridgway.school.nz if you have any questions about this.

As mentioned in our last newsletter, our focus is on the wellbeing of our students. Children will be supported to feel reassured, welcomed and safe back at school. Through a strong PE and Arts programme we will acknowledge their experiences, create fun activities and transition them back to school.

Returning of stationary/devices/library books

We will be continuing aspects of the distance learning programme for the rest of the term so if your child has a device, they need to bring it. They also need to bring back to school the stationary they took home with them as well as any library books they borrowed.

The office

Our office staff are going to continue to work from home when possible. Please phone or email instead of coming into the office. Our eftpos machine is not contactless so please if you do need to pay for anything, please use internet banking ASB 12 3141 0104464 00.

Lunch online

Sushi and Pita Pit are able to resume from next week.

4 R videos

Thanks to everyone for sending in your clips of how your family showed the 4 Rs during the lockdown. Keep them coming!

Bottle holders for bikes - any lurking around?

If anyone has any spare bottle holders for bikes we would love to have them. We want to use them to store our hand sanitiser outside classrooms and would screw them in to the wall. If you do have any and can drop them off outside the office that would be great.

Ngā mihi,

Sarah Taylor

Deputy Principal

Ridgway School