By Simon Clarke | Posted: Wednesday September 1, 2021
Without wanting to get ahead of ourselves we are beginning to make plans for the whole school return at Level 2. Fingers crossed and all indicators remaining the same, this may be some time next week.
I was reading this unscientific poll from radio personality and Invercargill City Councillor Marcus Lush on the age and amount of face-to-face contact students have had in New Zealand. It would appear that our teachers would have been delivering at the upper end of direct contact in a primary school with our 30 min daily meeting and 90 min 1:1, small group, or whole-class teaching. Many, many extra hours from the teachers have gone into upskilling, planning and preparing resources for working in an online environment. It has been pleasing to see nearly everyone attend the class meets and approximately half of the students actively taking part in face-to-face lessons. I am sure you join with me in thanking the teachers at Kaikorai for going above and beyond what has been expected of them.
Providing students normality and consistency is very important for good mental health and well being and we hope that the students have benefited from seeing their teacher and classmates so regularly, even if it was online.
The Government will make an announcement on Level 2 next Monday. If the decision is to return the South Island to Level 2 next week, we will not be running any online meets or learning programmes on Tuesday the 7th as teachers will be returning to their classrooms to prepare for the opening of the school at Level 2. Students who want to, are able to continue with their learning tasks.
The school will remain open for those children who have been attending at Level 3. I would also like to publically thank Mr Bish, Mr Reid, Mrs Cleland and Mrs Garden for working on-site. This has allowed our teachers to focus on and deliver the online learning programme.
We will send more information about Level 2 expectations once the Government makes a final decision on Monday the 6th.
Finally, as you would imagine the teacher only day scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled and online and on-site learning will take place as normal.
Kind regards
Simon Clarke