By Simon Clarke | Posted: Sunday August 23, 2020
One of the many issues that COVID19 presents is uncertainty.
This uncertainty affects people in a wide range of ways. It is hard to see the effect it is having on our students and make a direct link to COVID19 but after talking to a few parents about their children's response when they thought we might be going back into lockdown our students stress levels are obviously bubbling under the surface.
This week the Hills Cluster of Principals worked with the Ministry of Education to develop new initiatives to support our students with their mental health, engagement and learning at school. We look forward to sharing the outcomes with you as we move into Term 4.
As we move up and down through the levels this uncertainty causes stress in many forms and makes planning for the future very hard.
COVID19 doesn't respect the school's plans either ánd we are in a constant state of flux. We have had the O'Mathalon cancelled while EPro8 has gone ahead. We will have to wait and see what happens with the Cross Country which is scheduled in a couple of weeks time.
A lot of energy, time and money goes into planning some of our bigger events and we have put in a set of criteria based upon levels whether they go ahead or not as they need a long lead time to organise parents, volunteers and contractors. Unfortunately, we have decided to cancel the Middles camp this year and the following will be COVID19 Level dependent.
Street Party - We will review the Street Party on September 21 and make a decision on whether it will go ahead then. For it to go ahead we would need to be in Level 1 or look like we will be back to Level 1 not long after this date. We would need to stay in Level 1 from this date until October 17.
Year 6 Camp - We need to be out of Level 2 by October 12 for it to go ahead and stay in Level 1 until November 23.
Whatever happens, it is important to keep talking to your child that 2020 is an exceptional year, it has nothing to do with them and that the whole world is going through this. There will always be more camps and events in the future and that together we will all get through this.
Kind regards
Simon Clarke