Newsletter - Week 5 Term 1

Greenmeadows School 3 March 2022

PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

Tēnā koutou kātoa,

As I write this, Mr Johnson is powering his way south through the central North Island on his bicycle in an exceptional feat of endurance. Like me, many of you are following his journey via our Facebook page, and I have enjoyed chatting about his progress with those of you I meet on road patrol before and after school. Some of you have asked for a reminder about how to donate to Brain Tumour Support New Zealand, his chosen charity:

12-3144-0207207-001 and use the reference 'TA ride'

Closer to home, I would like to thank all those parents who have recently been in touch with the office to advise of reasons for absence when their child is away from school. This is particularly important at the moment with a number of local schools now experiencing COVID-related absence. I have provided a summary of recent changes to the COVID response below and hope that these details will give you some peace of mind in a rapidly changing landscape.

Ka kite anō,

Darren Holloway

Deputy Principal

WELCOME TO GMS

A very warm welcome to Luis Bilkey, Jack Penberthy, Aadi Pinto and Leola Bosman, the newest members of our Greenmeadows School community. Our roll is currently 436.

COVID-19 INFORMATION

The recent explosion in Omicron cases nationally has thrust the country into Phase 3 of the government's reponse. As outlined in our brief update last week, the main change here is how we deal with close or household contacts. The graphic below is very helpful in explaining that it is only household contacts that need to isolate and that other contacts simply need to monitor for symptoms.

What do we need you to do?

Should someone in your household become COVID-positive, please advise the office and keep any children that live in your household at home for 10 days, monitoring for symptoms. Should your child become COVID-positive, please advise the office and keep them at home for 10 days, along with any other sibliings (who will be household contacts). Please keep children with any sniffles or coughs at home and consider whether a COVID test might be appropriate.

What will we do?

Distance learning programmes will be initiated for any child who is isolating as a household contact, or if they are COVID-positve themselves (although clearly they will only do any work when they are well enough).

At present we have several children who are isolating as household contacts, but are not sick (with COVID) themselves. Should this situation change, we will let you know via our normal communication channels (e.g. Facebook, School App). Any queries that you may have related to our COVID response should be directed to myself, Ally Ross or Ali De Lange.

PARENT INTERVIEWS

In any normal year we would've held our initial parent interviews by now. This is usually a chance for parents and teaching staff to share information about how your child has settled into the new school year. This initial meeting is much briefer than the interviews we run at mid-year when we focus more on your child's current learning goals.

Unfortunately, with the measures we have in place to safeguard children and staff in the current climate, we have had to consider an alternative way of making this work. Rather than holding onsite meetings over two evenings, teachers will make some form of contact over the coming weeks (if they haven't already) to discuss how your child has settled. If you have pressing concerns, please feel free to initiate contact with your child's teacher.

BUILDING WORKS UPDATE

Last Friday a small but hardy group of staff gathered in the early hours with Chad Tareha (Ngāti Pārau) to offer karakia and lay mauri stones beneath the foundations of our new admin block. Later that morning the concrete was poured (providing mid-morning entertainment for keen onlookers from Rooms 1 and 15) and it is becoming much easier to imagine what this space will look like now that we can see the outline of the new buildings emerge.

It's become even easier to imagine what our new hall will look like now that the major steel is up and the scaffolding has appeared. We look forward to the day when we can fill it with singing children!

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CANTEEN NEWS

Just a reminder, if you havent already - please update your child's new class number in Kindo. We have had a lot of lunch orders going to the wrong rooms!

CHILD ABSENCES

If your child is going to be absent from school, please let the school know before 9.00am on that morning.

The absent text service is NO longer available. Please do not text.

To report your child being away please use the school app. Find the absence button then use the email function.

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REMINDER ABOUT PICKING YOUR CHILDREN UP DURING THE SCHOOL DAY & THE REQUIREMENT OF FACIAL COVERINGS

If you need to pick up your child during the school day, please call the office and let the office staff know you are here and at which gate you are waiting.

Carolyn or Sara will ring through to the classroom and have your child sent out to meet you. The office staff will sign your child out on your behalf.

If you do need to come into the office to collect your child from the sickbay or for some other reason, please make sure you are wearing a mask and have scanned in. Many thanks.