Welcome back everyone to what is today, a cold and wintry Term 3!
Please note that the MOE and MOH are now ‘strongly recommending’ a return to the mask wearing policies that we used earlier this year. Therefore, we will return to requiring all students to wear masks in all indoor situations unless they have an exemption. Exemptions can be easily accessed by parents if needed for their students, by visiting the Covid website. We will load these, once presented to us, onto our Student Management system and issue the student with a purple pass. Students who used these in term one will not need to apply again. Our teachers will follow the same guidelines as our students to enable us all to keep as well as we can and to keep our school open. This rule will remain in place at least for the first 4 weeks of term.
Please assist us by encouraging your students to comply with this for the benefit of all. We do not want to create conflict situations that distract from our main purpose.
Deborah Hohneck
Principal
Update from MOE
The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education strongly recommend that all schools and kura amend their mask policy for the first four weeks of Term 3 to require mask wearing in all indoors for students Year 4 and above, where it will not have a significant impact on teaching and learning.
Examples of situations where mask wearing may not be practicable include:
while eating and drinking
playing certain musical instruments
playing indoor sport
singing or drama performance on stage, and PE.
In these situations, particular attention should be paid to ensuring good ventilation, and physical distancing where practicable.
This approach attempts to balance the benefits of mask wearing with the primary purpose of school’s education across curriculum areas and ensure students with particular learning needs that may be hindered by mask wearing are considered.
