Government's Announcements for Education

Over the past week, parents will have heard reports about what the government is doing to support education as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact us. There remain unanswered questions, and we'll inform our community as soon as we know anything that is relevant to us.

These are the key points (relevant to Ridgway School) from recent government announcements:

1. Cabinet will decide whether or not to move out of Alert Level 4 on 20 April

   1. The Government will give some guidance on what life at Level 3 looks like by Friday 17 April

2. Not all schools will reopen at Alert Level 3

   1. The Ministry of Education is planning for "various scenarios"

   2. The difficulty maintaining physical distancing is a key consideration at Level 3

   3. A hybrid model of both distance learning and on-site learning is very likely

3. If a school is going to reopen - school staff will have time onsite to prepare for reopening (likely to be) on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 April

4. Not all children will return immediately at Level 3

   1. Wednesday 29 April may be the first day back for some children (if our school is to be open)

Supports for Learners

Last week the Minister of Education announced the package of support that the government would be providing to schools and individual learners as we head into Term 2 while still in lock down. Chris Hipkins said, "The ministry has surveyed schools and about half say they are well set up currently for distance learning using the internet. But we are taking action to support new connections and resources for students at all schools." Ridgway School is "well set up for distance learning using the internet" and will continue to provide learning at home programmes that use online tools for communication and learning. Our children won't be receiving devices or hard copy packs from the Ministry of Education.

I've written more about this in my COVID-19 Diary - Monday 13th April.

COVID-19 Diary

I have been keeping a diary during lock down which you can read here. It's not exciting or entertaining, but for those that are interested, this is where I have been gathering my thoughts and explaining what we (leaders and staff at Ridgway School) are doing and why we are doing it as we all grapple with the impact of this pandemic.