23 March- 7pm
Kia ora KSS Whānau
With today’s announcement by the Government, we are implementing with urgency our plan to support your child’s learning from home. We appreciate this is a sudden and significant change, and will be heavily disruptive to many people in our community.
For children of essential workers, we look forward to seeing your child here at school tomorrow morning at 8.50am in the Rūma Kaimahi. You may wish to check if you are considered an essential worker – https://covid19.govt.nz/government-actions/covid-19-alert-system/ however those roles include doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and police. Please notify us if you are in this category and are planning on attending tomorrow – office@knightsstream.school.nz
We continue to ask that children who are not well, do not attend school.
For all other children, we will be supporting their learning from your home in the following ways:
- through online learning (Google, Seesaw, Blogs, Zoom Conference, online reading and maths tools)
- teachers will be posting video’s to connect with the children. This will be a lighter version of daily programmes to support learning.This should not be a burden to parents.
- teachers will also provide a range of optional ideas (daily fitness, baking, chores etc)
We will be working hard to best support you in this new learning platform.
If your child develops COVID-19 please notify the school at principal@knightsstream.school.nz so we can contact health authorities to map the infection. The school phone will be directed to my cell phone. If urgent, you can contact me on 027 357 8428.
If you need to have your child cared for by someone else you will need to identify that person or people as part of your self-isolated group. This will need to be done by midnight Wednesday and the group must remain the same for the whole 4 week period. The caregiver’s own group (eg, their partner and children), your child and your own group (eg, your parents and other children) become one group. This group needs to be limited to minimise any risk of spread and should be no more than 20 people.
School holidays brought forward
School holidays are being brought forward so that they are completed within the 4 week period. Holidays will now begin from Monday 30 March to Tuesday 14 April inclusive (a reminder that the Tuesday after Easter Monday is always a closed day for schools).
At the end of the school holidays, schools will be open for distance learning but not physically open for staff to work at the schools.
Please note the instruction to stay home (Alert Level 4) will continue beyond the new school holiday period but schools will be technically open for distance instruction. Teachers will be working offsite.
Your child will be looking to you for guidance about this decision. Parents, caregivers, whānau and teachers will have a particularly important part to play in reassuring children at this time. If you haven’t already done so, you may wish to read the information put together by the Ministry of Education to support your conversations with your children – Talking to children about COVID-19
As noted by the Prime Minister these restrictions are our best chance to slow the virus in New Zealand and to save lives. We all have a clear role here to slow the spread of COVID-19.
We will continue to communicate with you over the coming days. Thank you for your ongoing support of our school staff and school community.
Ngā mihi
Mike
By Mike Molloy
