FRIDAY 11 MARCH 2022

Kia ora, Talofa Lava, Greetings, Malo e Lelei, Kia Orana, Bonjour, Nǐ hǎo, Hallo, Hola, Kon'nichiwa, Namaste, As-salāmu ʿalaykum

 

Welcome to Libby Harty Rm 5, Matilda Harty Rm 1 and Flynn Harty Rm 14 who have recently joined us all at Muritai School

 

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Kia ora Muritai Whānau, 

I hope this email finds you safe and well - I realise we have some of our readers currently isolating and/or covid-19 positive, and it may have been a very challenging time in your household this week.  We are thinking of you all and offer our support should there be anything that we can help you with. 

This week our small amount of daily covid-19 case numbers across our students and staff have been slow and steady, which is exactly what we’ve been working so hard to maintain.  We’d certainly prefer to have no cases at school whatsoever, but I’m pleased to report that our first students and staff who tested positive for covid-19 are now returning to school fully recovered and eager to be back.  

I’d like to send an enormous thank you to all families who have been keeping us up to date with your covid-19 testing results and trusting us with this private health information.  It really helps us plan ahead for teaching and learning when we know who will be at school each day.   

I would like to acknowledge the incredible work of our Muritai staff team who have been working separately and distanced from one another since the school year began, to enable continuity of teaching and learning, and care for our learners each day.  They are simply superstars and as a school community, I know you’ll be feeling as grateful as I am that every one of our staff are helping towards our successful community covid-19 response.  I can’t express to you enough what a privilege it is to lead this amazing team. 

Much like you may have experienced in your own workplaces, we are experiencing a small number of our staff being unwell or needing to isolate themselves as household contacts.  Some of these staff are symptom free and are able to work from home, whilst others will have a period of being unwell.  Due to this, we are seeing more relievers than usual at school, and sometimes your child will have a different teacher, or the students may even be combined with another class where the numbers of present children allow.  

We have been expecting this, and the children have been adaptable and resilient around visiting a new class or having a new teacher. We equip our learners to handle change by teaching them about having a growth mindset and being resilient.  We will be continuing with this flexible approach over the next weeks where our staff continue to be adaptable and care for children beyond their usual classes. 

We all do need to be prepared, should we unexpectedly have many staff and students away at once, that we would move to online or hybrid learning for a period of time.  This would mean that your child was learning from home similar to a ‘lockdown’ just as we’ve experienced over the past two years.  We are ready for this should the need occur, however with our health and safety measures in place of tracking cases, mask wearing, excellent ventilation, our CO2 monitors, air purifiers now installed in every classroom and along with our usual hand hygiene and cough and sneeze etiquette, we are doing all that we can to keep learning as ‘normal’ as possible under the current conditions. 

Thank you all once again for keeping a very close eye on your children, and not sending them to school if they have any symptoms.  Please, if symptoms develop, get your child and your family tested and do let us know if you are isolating.   

New isolation Timeframes - 7 Days

You may have seen in the news that the isolation timeframe is now shorter, with a 7 day isolation period now required.  Anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19 will be required to be away from school for the following seven days.

Day 0 is the day symptoms began or the day the test was taken (whichever came first). Cases isolate for a full seven days and are free to return to school on Day 8, if they are symptom free. Household contacts are required to isolate for the same seven days as the positive case. Household contacts take a rapid antigen test (RAT) on Day 3 and Day 7 of the isolation period. 

Household contacts can return to school on the same day as the first case in their household, so long as all test results have been negative, and they have no symptoms.

Also remember to check out our FAQ COVID-19 Website link, which will have our most up to date Covid-19 information.  https://www.muritai.school.nz/covid-19

Remember - we are here to support you in any way we can, please don't hesitate to connect if you need us. 

Take care, and kia kaha!

Ngā mihi

Bec Power

Principal