Latest Update 5pm 25/3/2020

State of Emergency declared

A nationwide message will go out to all of New Zealand between 6pm and 7pm Wednesday evening 25th March. It is vital that all our community understand how crucial it is to self-isolate within their group, minimise travel, practice physical distancing when outside their group and outside, and practice very good hygiene for the next 4 weeks.

There will be no tolerance for people who don’t self-isolate.

Schools are closed

After 11.59pm Wednesday evening, no one is to go on site to schools during the lockdown. If there is an emergency Police and/or Fire services will respond.

Government announcement about children aged 0 – 14 of Essential Workers

Further to our Bulletin content about self-isolating groups (circles of care), Government has confirmed the following arrangements today. You may wish to forward this to your community immediately.

Where possible, essential workers need to make their own arrangements for childcare from Thursday 26 March until the end of the lockdown, due to limited capacity.

Where this is not possible alternative arrangements have been made so essential workers can continue to work.

What essential workers need to know when making their own arrangements

Essential workers will need to use their existing networks for in home care, for example a neighbour, relative, friend or current carer/nanny who can come to their house, or provide childcare in their own home. There are Public Health rules that must be observed:

• The person caring for your child becomes part of your self-isolating group
• This group must remain the same for the whole period
• The carer must not care for children from other households (other than their own) over the same period
• If a child or carer becomes unwell, they must stay at home

If essential workers do not have access to childcare through their own networks

If essential workers are unable to access childcare to perform their essential service, the government will fund other licensed childcare providers (for example through PORSE, Barnados and Edubase / Home Grown Kids) to provide in home care to the children aged 0-14 of essential workers. The carer would be subject to the same Public Health rules as set out above.

For the purposes of providing care to children of essential workers, the in home carer will be classified as an essential worker in both cases.

Initial list of contact details for providers

• Barnados website - email covid19enquiries@barnardos.org.nz or call 0800 BARNARDOS (0800 227 627)
• Edubase / Home Grown Kids website or call 0508 44 54 37 or email info@hgk.co.nz
• PORSE website 0800 023 456

24/3/2020

Dear Parents

Firstly, to quote Prime Minister Jacinda Adern’s words, “be kind, keep safe, and look after each other.”

As you know, we have been dealing with ever-shifting circumstances and a continuous flow of information. Here is an update.

There have been significant changes to school Term and Holiday dates.

Holidays will now begin from Monday 30 March to Tuesday 14 April inclusive (a reminder that the Tuesday after Easter Monday is always a closed day for schools). For the remainder of this week, class websites will be in the process of being updated and there may already be work there for students to carry on with. Some students may already have work they have begun to complete which can be finished and sent to teachers for marking if applicable. This will look different for each class and each teacher will have sent out an email with specific details.

At the end of the school holidays, schools will be open for distance learning but not physically open for staff to work at the schools, from Wednesday April 15th which is the first day after Easter. Please note the instruction to stay home (Alert Level 4) will continue beyond the new school holiday period but schools will be technically open for distance instruction. Teachers will be working offsite.

Methods for online learning:

Our first port of call is our School website which links to class sites for class work and learning activities: link here https://www.makaraka.school.nz/

Please see class sites for examples of apps suitable for each age group e.g Steps Web, Mathletics… Work will be rolled out at a steady but realistic pace and students are not expected to complete more than what teachers provide on their website.

Children in the junior classes have been sent home with a pack of learning activities.

We will continue to stay in touch around what this means for our students and keep you updated with information as it becomes available.

At the end of the holidays there will be a schedule sent out to all parents with times that you will be able to contact your child’s teacher to discuss their online learning.

Hayden Swann

Principal

0275554116