Dear Parents/Caregivers
I hope this newsletter finds you and your whānau safe and well. We are delighted to be able to welcome more children back onsite under Alert Level 3 from next Wednesday 17 November. There is a lot of information to share with you today so please take the time to read through this.
Even with the Delta variant, the risk of COVID-19 transmission in schools is low because of all the public health measures we will have in place. What this will look like:
- we will need to limit the number of children and staff onsite each day
- we will keep those onsite in separate groups
- we will ensure our classrooms are well ventilated
- we will continue to practice physical distancing where possible
- we will have a range of strong health and safety measures in place to keep everyone safe
In addition to this, all staff and children in Years 4 and above are required to wear face coverings indoors (unless they have an exemption). We will also ensure all staff (and external contractors) who are on site are fully vaccinated (98% of MBS staff) or will have had at least one dose of the vaccine and they must then return a negative weekly test.
Further information will follow regarding health and safety protocols however today I wanted to share with you our overall school organisation for a safe return to school. Planning has been based on both Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education guidelines as well as the Public Health Order. While I understand that the return to school plan may not suit every family, the health and safety needs of both students and staff have been at the forefront of all decision making.
Parent Survey Results:
Thank you to all the families who filled in the return to school survey sent yesterday. We had an excellent response and the results are as follows:
235 families responded for 346 students (77%) of our school roll
303/346 (88%) indicated their child will return at this stage
- Junior 101/139 (73%)
- Middle 82/128 (64%)
- Senior 61/95 (64%)
- Intermediate 59/82 (72%)
The survey will now be left open until tomorrow morning. If you have not yet responded or wish to change your answer then can you please do so to further help with our preparation. Please access the survey here.
School Organisation:
We are excited to have the children returning but need to do so in a safe manner that ensures we meet all requirements. The following school organisation has been based on both Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education guidelines and because of this we are unable to support all students onsite at the same time. Guidelines are clear that all schools from Year 0 to 8 should keep students and staff in stable groups and wherever possible distanced from one another inside and out. Starting from Wednesday 17 November students may attend on the following days:
- Monday and Tuesday - Junior & Senior students onsite (beginning week 6, Monday 22 November). All students will be in their class with their teacher. They will not mix between year groups and will have separate play areas as well as gate entry and exit at the beginning and end of the day.
- Wednesday and Thursday - Middle & Intermediate students onsite (beginning next week Wednesday 17 November). All students will be in their class with their teacher. They will not mix between year groups and will have separate play areas as well as gate entry and exit at the beginning and end of the day.
- Friday - whole school distance learning until 12pm. As per the Primary Teachers Collective Agreement teachers are entitled to classroom release time (non contact time) every week. From 12.00pm each Friday teachers and support staff will have their non contact time. I’m sure you will agree that our teachers and support staff continue to work extremely hard and deserve time to ensure they can continue providing the high quality onsite and distance learning programmes that will be offered.
This will mean every student has 2 days onsite and 3 days learning from home for all students who choose to attend. When students are off-site, distance learning programmes will continue. Please note that on the days staff are physically at school they will not be responding online to students. Hard packs will still be made available to all families in Year 1-4.
Kidzclub (before and after school care) will not be running.
We will have a Teacher Only Day on Monday 15 November. This will be an opportunity for us to set up classrooms for returning students. No distance learning will run on this day.
Full time school bubble:
As you are aware schools have been essentially closed at Alert Level 3 with the exception of those few children whose parents and carers must go to work as there has been no appropriate caregiver at home and there were no alternative care options available. For those of you with no other option, we will continue to provide this option. Due to the requirement to keep to stable groups all students who are in this full time bubble will not have an option to return into their classroom or play with classmates once other students return. All students will continue to take part in their class distance learning onsite. As in previous weeks a survey will be sent home soon from Mr Harper-Travers. We do want to continue to limit the amount of children in this bubble.
Thank you for your continued support. We are doing our best to ensure a safe and smooth transition back into school. I know we will have many excited students (and parents) who are looking forward to being onsite and we are too. There will also be some students (and parents) who are feeling nervous and that is understandable. Our school SENCO Rebecca Norrish will be providing some information on how best to help with this.
Further information outlining our school protocols will be sent out before the return to school next week.
Kind Regards

Mark Keenan
Principal