COVID-19

Sunday 17 May

Kia ora koutou

Todays mark’s the last day where you children need to stay home from school due to Covid 19. Our staff are very much looking forward to welcoming everyone back to school tomorrow.

We do understand that children will return with some mixed emotions – excited to see friends, apprenhensive about the virus, keen to reunite in person with their teachers and pleased to be in a fairly “normal” routine. We are aware of ways that they might react and will do everything that we can to ensure that they remain safe and have a great day!

We have considered almost every aspect of school lfe as we prepare for school tomorrow. Newsletter 22 outlined all of our procedures so I urge you to revisit that and share it with your children today so that they are ready for tomorrow. Please note that I have made just two changes to our systems for tomorrow morning, these are:

• Children who bike or scooter to school will put their bike or scooter into the bike cage and then move out through the gate into school, they DO NOT need to go back out on to the Nayland Road footpath and enter through their syndicate gate. This should make less congestion at the gates.
• Initially teachers will be at the entrance gates to welcome your children and once several children have arrived they will return to their classrooms and those staff who do not have a class will remain at the gates to welcome your children. This will really help with supervision of children once they are in the school grounds.

Please remember that from now on school lunches can only be ordered through Kindo, which you can access on our school website. https://www.naylandprimary.school.nz/lunch-orders

Tomorrow children can arrive at school from 8.30 until 9.15 and children will be going home as follows:

• Room 8 and siblings: 2.30pm,
• Rooms 14,15 and 16 and siblings: 2.40pm and
• everyone else at 2.55pm

If your children usually come to school by themselves they can continue to do this tomorrow.

And just a friendly reminder: so that we can manage contact tracing and social distancing parents and whanau are asked to not enter our school grounds before and after school. If anyone needs to come into school for any reason during the school day you must enter through the school office.

For those families who have opted to keep their children home for a bit longer, on line learning will resume on Tuesday for them. Please be sure to support them to join in and complete the learning tasks daily.

Remember: if your children have a cough, cold or runny nose they must stay at home.

Remind your children about how to stay safe at school. This video from you tube called “The Most Breath Zone” is well worth sharing with them and then discussing together:

https://youtu.be/yZvtoVrykb8

Thank you for supporting your children during Covid 19. We look forward to seeing them all tomorrow.

Nga mihi nui

Janice

Wednesday 13 May - Preparing for Level 2

Kia ora koutou

Well done on surviving seven weeks in lockdown. What an interesting, sometimes challenging and special family time for everyone. You will have created many memories during lockdown and we really appreciate the support that you have provided for your children.

Distance learning has had both rewards and challenges. It will have given you some time to think about what really works for your children and what you value in learning. We want to know your thoughts about distance learning and so early next week I will send you another rsurvey to fill in. It will take no more than five minutes and we appreciate your time in doing this to help us to improve what we do at school.

There is much excitement for many of our children with being able to return to school next week. For others there will be some anxiety. To support your children please be positive about school being a safe environment. We have many procedures in place to comply with hygiene requirements and social distancing.

This newsletter has a lot of information about returning to school. Please read it carefully and if you still have any questions please do get back to me by email or a phone call.

Start and Finish Times

Start times: For the next two weeks children can come to school between 8.30am and 9.15, This will ease the congestion at the school gate, allowing parents to remain the two metre social distancing. All children will go to their classroom when arriving at school. No children can come on site before 8.30 am.

Finish Times: for the next two weeks to ease congestion at the school gates finish times are as follows:

Room 8 students and their siblings will leave school with an adult via the Dental Clinic gate at 2.30pm

Rooms 14, 15 and 16 students and their siblings with an adult will leave via the dental Clinic Gate at 2.40 pm

Everyone else will leave school via the gate through which they came to school at 2.55pm.

Break times

To support social distancing during break times these times will be staggered as follows:

Whenua and Maunga Syndicate will have morning tea from 10.15 to 10.45 and lunch from 12.15 to 1pm

Moana students will have morning tea from 10.45 to 11.15 and lunch from 12.45 to 1.30pm

All students will eat their lunch inside.

If needed classes can take up to a 15 minute break during the afternoon.

When to stay home

Students who are unwell must not come to school. This includes children with coughs, colds, sneezes and runny noses. If unsure please seek medical advice before sending your child to school.

First Aid and illness

Students who need first aid will be supported in the classroom. If any child is unwell they will be isolated in the classroom and a parent/caregiver will be called to come and pick them up quickly. When you are asked to collect your child from school you will need to come in through the office or you can request that we take your child to the gate to meet you.

Entering the leaving our school grounds

When coming to and leaving school each day students will use the following gates:

Whenua Syndicate: Rooms 8, 14,15 and 16: the gate beside the dental clinic

Moana Syndicate: Rooms 7, 9, 10, 11 and 12: the gate beside the Pataka Kai stall

Maunga Syndicate: Rooms 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5: the gate beside the letterbox.

On Monday morning staff will be waiting in these areas from 8.30am to welcome students.

Please note that parents/whanau are not able to come onto the school grounds due to sign in and sign out restrictions except in an emergency. Please tell your children this and please prepare them for leaving you at the gate.

Bikes and scooters

Those children who bike to school will need to enter the bike cage through the Nayland Rad entrance, park their bike and then leave through the same entrance and enter school though their class gate. Again, please discuss this with your child if the will be biking or scootering to school.

Canteen

The Canteen will be open from Monday however lunch orders can only be made on Kindo. Access to Kindo is on our school website. https://www.naylandprimary.school.nz/lunch-orders Please call us of you have any questions. Lunches will be delivered to each classroom. Children will not be able to purchase any food or have food heated at 12.30pm. Our students will not n=be helping Carol in the canteen.

Breakfast Club

Breakfast Club will not operate until later in the term. For those families who need some breakfast food for their children there will be a table at the bike cage entrance on Friday where you can help yourself to packets of weetbix and milk from the Milk in Schools programme. We encourage you to come and help yourself.

The exciting news is that during the lockdown a kitchen has been installed in Room 6 for Breakfast club to use!

Drink bottles at school

Our drinking fountains will not be used so it is essential that all students bring a full water bottle to school each day.

Hand sanitizer

There is hand sanitizer in every classroom and teaching/office space. Students must use this when entering their classroom and before using books, devices and sports equipment. We have a large supply of this.

Hand washing will also be used where most appropriate. Your support in teaching your children how to ensure hand sanitizer is rubbed all over their hands and how to wash and dry hands properly is much appreciated.

School devices

Please ensure that those children who received devices from school return the device, and the battery charger, in the box it was sent to them in on Monday. These devices have to be processed before being allocated to classrooms. This is a time consuming task and we want to get devices back to classrooms as soon as. Thanks for supporting your child to remember to return their school device on Monday.

Please do not bring personal devices to school, we are not set up for this.

Reading books and Library books

Students will not be bringing library books or reading books home during the first two weeks. Reading books will be used for instruction at school and there will be some access to the library.

Please read to or with your child daily. Talk to them about the stories and share lots of ideas together.

Playgrounds and sports equipment

Our playgrounds will be open during school hours only. Students will use hand sanitizer before using any sports equipment.

Students and parents are not allowed to use our playgrounds out of school hours at the moment.

Kapa Haka and Choir

These will not start until later in the term or in Term 3

After School Care

The YMCA will be contacting parents whose children are at usually at after school care. I have seen their protocols and am very satisfied that they meet health and hygiene requirements.

Be prepared

Start moving waking and bedtimes closer to those of a regular school day. Ensure uniforms or school clothes are washed and ready to wear on the first day of school. Remind children of the school day routines that they will be returning to shortly. You could spend some time reflecting on the new routines that they have enjoyed during the Level 4 lockdown. Consider whether some of these could be carried over into the going to school routine.

Uniform

Children are expected to be back at school in full uniform. This is a great opportunity to check that all of their uniform is named!

Finally, please don’t hesitate to contact me, 027 726 7267 or the school office, 03 5477399 or email office@naylandprimary.school.nz if you have any question or need anything clarified for your particular situation.

Nga mihi nui

Janice Gulbransen

Tuesday 12 May

Click here to complete Learning at Alert level 2 Survey

I really look forward to seeing many of you again in person when school returns!

Nga mihi nui

Janice Gulbransen

Monday 4 May

Kia Ora Family and Whanau

With the wet weather in the weekend I trust that everyone is your bubble was able to enjoy some indoor games, reading and some TV watching. I was pleased to be able to get out in my garden yesterday afternoon once the rain cleared and thank goodness the green waste section of the dump is now open!

This week we welcome a few more children to school, most days we expect about 35 students. If your children are returning please make sure that they bring their school device if they have one, a drink bottle, and toys from home all the food that they will need for the day. A staff member will welcome them at the gate with hand sanitizer to use before entering.

Like you all I am keen to hear next week when we will move to Level 2 and what this will look like for schools. Whatever the plans made by the Government please be assured that we will follow them and will be doing everything we can to make our school safe for your children. We have a very good supply of hand sanitizer and staff are well versed in supporting students to maintain social distancing.

Over the weekend I have enjoyed reading and seeing children’s online learning. Thank you for supporting your children! There are some amazing videos made to record learning activities and there have been some fabulous photos taken. Teachers are really pleased to have your support both for supporting your child to complete learning tasks and having them ready to attend their online meet ups. Staying connected through this pandemic is important and will help to make the transition back to school smooth.

I hope that you have a good week ahead and if we can help in anyway please contact me or your child’s teacher.

Nga mihi nui

Janice Gulbransen