Covid 19

By Simon Clarke | Posted: Thursday March 19, 2020

Three important points. Self Isolation, Phoning in for Absences, Letter from the Ministry of Education

This email is to inform you that due to a change in the advice given by the Government, that I have had to ask Courtney Dunn to self-isolate.

The new requirements are for all people who have been overseas are to self-isolate for 14 days, even if they were in New Zealand before the mandatory time,  Courtney was in Melbourne the weekend of the 7th and 8th and arrived back in New Zealand as planned well before the mandatory cut of date and time.

Courtney is asymptomatic, is well in herself and had no contact with any suspected or confirmed cases of Covid19.

This is purely a precautionary matter as described by the Ministry of Health.

Her class will be covered by Emma Wiffin tomorrow and for the remainder of next week. Please contact me if you have any concerns.

Yesterday we had 50 children absent and today we were closer to 100.  It is taking up to two hours for our office team to contact people who haven't contacted the school.  Please make sure you leave a message each day your child is sick as it is an important part of our health and safety plan to know where students are. 4640065 or use the Skoolbag app.  It only takes you a minute but us several hours to ensure your child's safety.

Letter from the Ministry about school closures

With so much information and misinformation swirling around about COVID-19, I wanted to share with you what will happen if we were to have a case in our school community. We have been planning for this and are in a position to respond quickly.

• As soon as a case is confirmed in our immediate school community (eg. a student, staff member, or member of their household), the Medical Officer of Health and Ministry of Education will inform me about this, and we will work together to get quick and clear messaging out to you

• If there was a case confirmed of someone in our school, we will likely be asked to close temporarily by the Medical Officer of Health. This will allow time for close contacts to be traced, appropriate testing to be undertaken, and a careful clean of the school to be undertaken.

• If our school does need to close temporarily, we have a plan in place to support student’s learning.  We will be releasing this tomorrow in the newsletter
  

We know COVID-19 feels scary and of course people are concerned for the wellbeing of our children. Please be assured that with no case confirmed in our school, your children are safe here.

Good hygiene is a priority at our school, and we are reinforcing this regularly with all students and staff. We know that practicing good hygiene is still the best thing we can all do to prevent illness.

We are getting the most up to date advice and guidance so that we can confidently make informed decisions about the safety and wellbeing of our school community.

Stay safe and well everyone,

Simon Clarke