FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK
Kia ora Koutou,
What a start to 2022 it has been, despite the power cuts, Cyclone Dova, the ” Covid Red Level” requirements, the changes to staffing with Mr. Ng being stranded overseas, every morning I am greeted with a stream of happy faces ready to learn, engage with their friends and teachers. That is why we all love coming to school!!!!
I sincerely hope there was not too much damage to your properties with the cyclone and you have the power back on by the time you get to read this!!
Areas of Focus:
- Life Education
- Learning Conversations
- Buses
- EOTC – Year 7&8 Surfing
- Covid Red Level update
WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING
Life Education- 
Thank you to Cindy Barratt the wonderfully positive Educator with the Life Education Classroom. What a challenge it has been to operate in Red Level and then have all these power cuts !! Hence we were only able to have our senior students years 5-8 have a full program, then the year 3 & 4 students were able to have some of the program. Our focus has been on relationships and team building.
Life Education – Inspiring tamariki and rangatahi to make positive choices.
They are New Zealand’s largest health education provider, supporting the health and wellbeing of children for over 30 years. This was the reason we wanted to start with the experience to bring as much positivity into our classes, enable teachers and children to explore and begin their new relationships, build teams and respect for each other.
THIS WEEK
Learning Conversations On ZOOM – These will go ahead now we have the power back on! You will receive a time slot from the teacher to join the ZOOM meet. When it is your turn you will be admitted into the “ZOOM waiting room”. These ZOOM times are replacing our usual meet the teacher evenings and first learning conversations we would usually do in person on site. BUT we want to enable you all, to meet your child’s teacher. This begins the learning journey, the partnership with home and school. Each family and teacher has 10 minutes to get to know each other, talk about what’s going well, what you as parents/ caregivers would like to know. In the future, we will welcome everyone back in person!! There are time slots as well if you wish to chat with me.
Buses – Thank you for your patience and help with getting the new bus runs and timings sorted. Mel Ludwig and I met with Go bus on Friday to sort the times and the changes to routes and hope to have those for you by the time this newsletter goes out. I really want to thank everyone for their patience and help. Here are the links to the updated Bus Routes timings:
EOTC Surfing Year 7&8’s – It was great to be able to continue with our EOTC program, as we have in other years, and start the year for the Year 7&8’s with a surfing experience with The New Zealand Surf Academy. At this level of the school each term we engage in a new experience outside the classroom that can be often very challenging or lead to a new life interest. We were so fortunate yesterday to have the cyclone over.
Covid Red Level update – The Omicron numbers are increasing at a faster rate, New Zealand is about to enter into another change at Red Level as a result. The Ministry of Education keeps school principals and Boards very well updated weekly, sometimes twice-weekly with MOE Bulletins full of the procedures and supports available. Once a week the Ministry officials also run a Q & A session for Principals, plus our local Hibiscus Coast Principals group also meet online to ensure we are all managing our school environments.
Thank you to everyone for supporting the procedures in place at Wainui School, all designed to mitigate the spread of Covid. At times we all find it frustrating but we will get through this and be able to put this behind us and have events together again, mix more freely, run sports games etc.
These are some of the main areas we continue to improve/change as required by the Ministry of Education:
1. Keeping the teams of children in their groups, not interacting at playtimes in activities or having an event that mixes children. We have tightened this further to enable us to know who are close contacts if there was a case in our community.
2. Keeping all visitors on-site to a minimum, ensuring they sign in, adhere to the mask culture of the school, and are purposeful and only on-site if they need to be. (Many meetings are now on ZOOM again, for this reason, the BOT meeting will be next week as will be the FOWS meeting.
3. Keeping our hygiene and sanitizing practices strong, keeping food and drink bottles managed, and eating in well-supervised situations. The children are actually amazing at this!!
4. Keeping our rooms well-ventilated, windows open and doors for air to replenish and circulate. We now have a CO2 monitor provided by the MOE to ensure all rooms are well ventilated and have good levels of Oxygen.
4. Keeping Drop off and Pick up manageable and spread out. Thank you everyone for continuing to drop off and pick up as much as you can Those of you coming in please keep up the practice of not mingling with other children. We understand that some need to come in especially with our 5 years olds!
5. We are finalising our procedures for if/when there is a case of Covid at school or after hours. This will reflect the new Red Level procedures whereby the isolating times have decreased. If there is a case all close contacts will be informed as soon as practically possible, we will, of course, be very mindful of the privacy of the person and / family affected though. If your child does contract Covid please ensure you inform us either in or after school hours as soon as you can. We will then action who are the close contacts that need to isolate using an extensive Ministry of Education spreadsheet. We have letters set up if this occurs to be dispersed using MOE templates. We will communicate with you at all times as fast as we can.
Distance Learning
Mrs. Blackburn has been preparing a distance learning program. Each week we will have the program ready for you as a family to connect to if you were isolating.
- If you are a close contact and have to isolate, please inform us as we have a distance program for you to access. Your child will be marked with a special code on the attendance register.
- Each team will provide further communication on the online learning program for our school.
NEXT WEEK
Virtual Assembly – We will have our first full assembly with certificates, it will have to be on ZOOM (between the teams). Time to award some certificates and join together as a whole school. Each class will have two “Respect” certificates to present and we will also be able to introduce our Year 8 leaders !!
FINALLY
Generator’s – A generator has enabled us to keep our school functioning when we lose power. We would like some advice or expertise if any parent/caregiver does work in this industry, please let me know. Thank you to those who did offer for us to borrow one. We now have one on a long-term loan but would like more advice.
Art Boards at the gate – Aren’t they great. This is the result of a very persistent and driven Year 8 student counsellor in 2021, Bella Browne Hale. Bella’s art competition was won by Maya Ledger (past Year 8 student) and Oliver Bell (current Year 6 student). Their art was printed onto art boards, what an awesome outcome!!
Ka kite ano,
Gillian Bray
FOR YOUR CALENDAR
- Tuesday 15th & Wednesday 16th February – Learning Conversations (see above information as they are via ZOOM)
- Monday 21st February & Thursday 24th February – Tui Team – EOTC – Goat Island Marine Reserve snorkeling and water safety
- Monday 21st February & Thursday 24th February – Takahe Team – EOTC – Sailing at Manly Sailing Club
- Tuesday 22nd February – BOT Meeting – 6.30 pm — ZOOM
- Wednesday 23rd February – FOWS Meeting – 7.00 pm – ZOOM
- Monday 14th March – Friday 18th March – Swimming at Northern Arena
- Monday 21st March – Friday 25th March – Swimming at Northern Arena
- Monday 28th March – Dance Curriculum (whole school)
- Thursday 14th April – End of Term 1
- Friday 15th April – Good Friday – Public Holiday
COMMUNITY
