What will level 2 look like at Amesbury School?

By: Urs Cunningham | Posted Monday May 11, 2020

We will be moving to level 2 at school on Monday 18th May. This means that school is considered to be a safe place for students and staff, and all students can return back onsite. The following information outlines what this means for daily routines and learning programmes at school.

Useful links or numbers:

COVID-19 Site

COVID-19 Symptoms and testing

* Healthline 0800 358 5453


Daily routines

Our school day times will remain the same for all teams - 9am school start time, and 3pm school finish time for everyone. All break times will also remain the same, we will not have separate break times for different teams. On the first day of returning onsite, all teams will talk through, and consistently revisit, physical distancing expectations based on not touching other students and not getting into the ‘breathing space’ of other people. Both playgrounds will be open for all students during level 2.

Dropping off and picking up from school

All visitors onto school grounds need to sign and register. This also includes all parents. As such, we are asking that parents do not come onto school grounds during school hours (8am - 3:30pm). This includes dropping off or picking up your children, unless your child is new to Amesbury School in term 2. We understand that for children who are new to the school, they may well need a parent or caregiver to bring them directly into school. In this instance, we ask that only one adult accompanies a child into school, and that this only happens for the first couple of days at school. Once your child is settled, please drop them off at the edge of school grounds and a teacher can walk them into school. 

Please note that this means no cars will be able to come into school grounds to drop off or pick up children. If you need to drive your children to school, you will need to park on the roads around school and walk to the edge of the grounds to pick up or drop off your child/ren. Please note that the areas with yellow lines marked on the roads around school are not drop off areas; no parking or stopping at all is allowed in these areas. This no-car rule also applies when it is raining - we may all need to check we have a good umbrella on wet days!

We understand that, given that our school grounds are very open, it can be difficult to tell where the grounds actually begin. We view our grounds as: starting after the public pathway that leads between Romaine Road and Amesbury Drive; after the council playground that backs on Amesbury Drive; from the grassy bank that slopes down from Amesbury Drive; and from the top of the steps that lead down into the car park. All other ground moving towards the school from these areas are considered school grounds, including the car park. 

We understand that parents may be nervous about having younger children walk into school themselves. The arrangements to ensure the safety of students are as follows:

Koru Hub students: A Koru Hub teacher will be based on the edge of the car park area each morning between 8:30 - 9am. A member of the school leadership team will also be based around the school field and council playground area. Parents can walk their children to the edge of the school grounds and watch their child walk over to a staff member. The staff member will then direct the children in towards their hub. After school all Koru whānau teachers will bring their children out to the edge of the car park / road sloping down into the car park from Amesbury Drive. They will keep their group with them until a parent or caregiver has come and collected each child from them - as the teacher sees you they will send your child over to you. Please note that, on occasion, a different teacher may be with your child's group instead, if the whānau teacher is away sick or is on release from the classroom.

We will have an adult supervising the crossing on Amesbury Drive every day before and after school, as usual. A member of our leadership team will be based at the top of the driveway sloping down into the car park before and after school, to ensure no cars come onto the site. We wil also rope off the driveway at these times.

Harakeke and Pōhutukawa students: Before school, students can be walked to the edge of school grounds, if necessary, and can then be left to walk into school themselves. After school students will leave the hubs themselves and either walk home themselves (if this is the usual practice in their family) or walk to a designated meeting spot off school grounds where they can meet a parent or caregiver. We encourage older siblings at Amebsury School to collect younger siblings and they can walk together to a designated meeting spot off school grounds.

Along with a member of the leadership team standing at the top of Amesbury Drive each day from 2:50pm, another member of the leadership will be based around the school field and car park area, to help children head off school grounds safely or find their appropriate adult. 

There is a photograph attached to this article that shows where you can drop off and pick up students.

An important point to note here is that children cannot stay and play on school grounds directly after school. All students must either go to Kelly Club After School Care, or leave school grounds to go home or go to the home of a caregiver. Once children have been home and got changed, they can come back onto school grounds and play, under the responsibility of their caregivers or parents. 

In order to make this managaeable, parents must ensure that children are picked up in a timely manner at 3pm. Children cannot be left until after 3:15pm before being picked up. 

Visitors coming to the school generally will sign in at the office. Parents who need to enter a specific learning space with a child who is new at school can go directly to their child's hub and sign in with a teacher in the hub. Teachers will keep a sign-in register to log the name of each parent and the date and time of the visit. We do understand that there are times when parents need to communicate with their child's teacher or with the school office; we are asking parents to communicate with teachers through email rather than coming onto school grounds.

Learning programmes

Students will work in their usual hub groups, and will work across all hub teachers, as usual. We will not run programmes and activities that mix hub groups together, such as singing, Kapa Haka and electives. We will begin these programmes when we move to level 1. However, a smaller version of these programmes may well still happen within separate teams.

For the first couple of weeks after coming back onsite at level 2, all teams will place a lot of focus on transitioning students back onsite. We are aware that students have been through significant upheaval and change, and this will affect how our children are feeling and behaving. A lot of time and focus will go into reconnecting and rebuilding social connections, and talking through what has happened for them. Time will be spent early on establishing strong hygiene practices around regular handwashing and hand sanitising, safe coughing and sneezing practices, and maintaining safe distances from others. Given that our students are still young and 1-2 metre distancing is hard for young children to maintain in settings such as school, our focus on distancing will be around leaving ‘breathing space’ between you and someone else, and not touching each other, where possible. We will talk with students about not getting into other people’s ‘moist breath’ zone, meaning if you can feel or smell their breath you know you are too close to them.

Co-curricular lessons will run for a smaller module of sessions this term. They will start at least one week after our level 2 start, giving children time to settle back into routines. All lessons will be held in spaces where reasonable distancing can occur, and all co-curricular teachers will follow the school’s level 2 protocols. All group lessons will contain students from the same hub, no cross-hub groups will be formed in level 2.

We will retain our distance learning websites that you have been using for home learning. These sites will be used to house the core learning that will be done onsite at school, meaning that if any students need to learn remotely at any point, they can continue using these sites. Please be aware that the content on these sites will look different from level 3, because teachers will be spending much of their time teaching in the hubs. However, learning content will still be housed and accessed on these sites.

Students in Harakeke and Pōhutukawa hubs all need to bring their devices back to school either on Friday afternoon this week (15th May) or on their first day onsite in level 2. There are no spare devices for students to use, so it is very important their devices are returned to be checked, cleaned and then returned to their hub for ongoing use.


Cleaning and hygiene

Our main cleaning practices will remain the same as at level 3. All hard surfaces will be cleaned daily using cleaning spray and disposable cloths. A new cloth is used for each new surface. All toilets will be cleaned twice daily, as per usual, and high touch areas such as all main door handles will be cleaned twice daily. Drinking fountain water spouts will be cleaned daily, and fountains will be available for student use. However, we recommend that students use their own water bottle, where possible, as this is the safest practice.

There are sanitiser units next to all sinks in learning spaces, and pump bottles of sanitiser in all areas of the school. Routines will be set up to enable regular hand washing throughout the day, including at all eating times and coming back into learning spaces after break times and using shared sports equipment. Sanitiser will be widely available for regular use.

All learning spaces will be kept at a temperature of at least 18 degrees Celsius, as per Ministry of Education guidelines.

We ask that students do not come to school if they are showing any signs of sickness. Teachers will actively monitor students for signs of sickness, and we will ask for any children showing signs of sickness to be picked up as soon as possible. For all cases of sickness we will be recommending that parents call Healthline or their GP straight away. You will need to bear with us about this, as we may well need to call parents more often than usual about signs of sickness in children. In order to ensure the health and safety of all people on site we need to move quickly with any signs of sickness.

In the event of a case of Covid-19 within our school community, school will be closed for 72 hours for cleaning and contact tracing. School could then be closed for up to two weeks, (although distance learning would continue for all students), depending on the particular circumstances.

Please be aware that this pandemic is a continually evolving situation. As such, protocols and practices onsite at school may change as we learn more about the situation. We will keep you all updated of any changes.

Warm regards,

The Amesbury team

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