There will be 3 student bubbles onsite to begin with - one bubble in each team. These bubbles may grow, and second bubbles will be created once we have more than 10 children in one team. Children will stay in the same bubble - the bubbles will not be mixed at any point. All break times will be separate, and both playgrounds on school grounds will remain closed to all children, to avoid cross-contamination between bubbles. We will have staggered start and end times to the day for each bubble, to avoid bubbles merging inadvertently.
Here are the school day times for students in the three hubs:
Koru students: 9:10am - 2:50pm
Harakeke students: 9am - 3pm
Pōhutukawa students: 8:50am - 3:10pm.
We need to know in advance if your children will be attending school. Please ensure you have completed the registration form if your child will be onsite at school during level 3. We ask that students do not arrive too early for school, and that they go straight inside their hub when they get to school. The library cannot be accessed by students during level 3, and as such it can't be used as a space for students to wait if they arrive at school early. Once students leave their hub at the end of the day they need to leave the school grounds as soon as possible, rather than staying and playing. This will avoid student bubbles merging at the start or end of the day. Please note that before or after school care is not able to run during alert level 3.
For parents dropping children off or picking them up, we ask that you do not come inside the school building. We appreciate that this is different from our usual approach, and we do not wish to appear unwelcoming. However, it is important that we keep students, staff and parents safe, and look to maintain bubbles as much as possible.
Here are the drop off and pick up points for hubs:
Koru = children enter and are picked up via the blue matting area next to the field beside Koru Hub.
Harakeke = children enter and are picked up via the sliding doors in Mawhero, next to the library.
Pōhutukawa = children enter and are picked up from the main school entrance into the hall.
When parents are waiting for children, please stand back away from the doors while maintaining a 2 metre distance from other caregivers. In the case of inclement weather, all three pick up areas have some shelter. We recommend coming as close to the pick up time as possible, to avoid needing to wait around, close to others.
There will be no lunch orders running during level 3, and no co-curricular lessons or any learning that brings students from different bubbles together. We will be not using any shared spaces with children, such as the library or the commons. Students will stay in their respective learning spaces (Koru = two end suites in Koru Hub - Kakariki and Karaka; Harakeke = both suites - Kikorangi and Māwhero; Pōhutukawa = hall). Each team will have two ‘bubble teachers’ - teachers who will do the face-to-face teaching with children. Teachers will not cross between bubbles or teams. Each bubble will have a small set of shared equipment that will be cleaned as regularly as possible. This equipment will not be shared between bubbles.
Please note that there is an information poster about learning onsite at the bottom of this article.
The learning the students will have at home is the same as the learning that will be given at school. The difference will be that, at school, the teachers will present the tasks face to face, whereas for home learning the tasks will be presented through the distance learning hub sites. Teachers will be using video or presentation form with verbal instructions as much as possible.
Thank to you to people who have given us feedback about the home learning that we have had in level 4. Between the feedback and the noticings from teachers of how children have interacted with the learning, we have adapted and adjusted the learning packs to move to a system that can now begin to move learning on a little and begin to present some new learning, as well as maintain current learning.
Each team has created a Google Site for their home learning. As we are looking to create more resources and videos to help children interact with their learning more independently, there will be more items to navigate. Each team has carefully thought this through and housed all learning in a purpose built website. The sites will contain no information about students.
Each child will have the option to sign up for a weekly individual video conference with their core teacher via Google Meet (they will be sent a link if they choose to sign up), and they will also be invited to a weekly group discussion online meeting with a small group of students from their hub. These online meetings are optional, and teachers will not follow up if students choose not to join. All students and parents will also continue to receive a weekly individual email from their core teacher, as another way to check in with them.
The home learning sites will contain all of the learning tasks, videos, snapper presentations and all other learning tasks and resources needed. This site will be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all of the content needed for the home learning, in a clear, orderly overview. Hopefully this will make it easy for parents and children to navigate the learning.
Now that teachers can be back onsite at school, we have access to a wider range of resources for students. In your initial email with the first learning pack in level 3, your child’s teacher will ask you if you would like a pack of reading books (for younger readers). Older readers have a larger selection of readers online and/or exercise books to complete learning away from a device. If you choose this, teachers can organise a pack of books (using gloves and a mask, to avoid contamination) and leave the pack at the pick up area at school. Parents will be able to then pick up these packs in a staggered, contactless way. If you already have some school reading books at home, we ask that you return these when you pick up new ones. These returned books will then be sanitised and put back into circulation, to ensure we have enough books to send home.
Our first weekly pack of learning in level 3 will be sent home on the morning of Wednesday 29th April. The teams have put a lot of thought and careful attention into how to present the learning in a way that is accessible for everyone. We appreciate that we may not get everything right to begin with; thank you for being patient with us as we all work through this together, adjusting and adapting as we go.
Ngā mihi nui,
Urs Cunningham
