COVID Level 2 & Triathlon POSTPONEMENT

Kia ora Everyone,

We have been lucky to have a lovely Covid free summer holiday and enjoy the long weekends. Sadly, as you are probably aware the country will move into Level 2 COVID restrictions at midnight tonight Sunday -14th March 2021.

What does that mean for your children and school? – Well it’s back to parents dropping and picking up your children from your selected gate. I think most families are pretty sorted for this now. Our youngest five-year-olds may need a day or two to get this sorted. Puriri 5 and Harakeke 18 only have half numbers in these classes at present, so these parents may come and drop your child into the classroom – please ensure you sign the class COVID register. Please keep your distance from others. Other five-year old’s needing support may have their parents drop them to their classroom door and sign the class register to show you have been on site. All other parents, unless your child has special needs, please socially distance outside the school gates. For new families we have 10 clearly marked gates plus our Bus gate.

Thank you once again. Our children showed great resilience last year and stepped up with their self-management skills. I am sure they will be just as amazing this year, if not more so as we have normalised many of the behaviours.

If you have older students who catch their bus from our school can you please remind them to use the bike racks at the TCC and not enter our grounds but walk around.

We will be keeping up a regime of hand sanitising and hand washing.

Triathlon:– Due to the forecast rain and going into Level 2, we are postponing the Triathlon. We still plan to have it later this week but may have to run the event without parents on site.

More detailed information:

Level 2:

Firstly here are the main Government messages.

Play it safe

These are the most important things that you can do:

  • COVID-19 is still out there. Play it safe.

  • Keep your distance from other people in public. (Ideally 2 metres).

  • If you’re sick, stay home. Don’t go to work or school. Don’t socialise.

  • If you have symptoms of cold or flu call your doctor or Healthline and get tested.

  • Wash your hands. Wash your hands. Wash your hands.

  • Sneeze and cough into your elbow, regularly disinfect surfaces.

  • If you have been told to self-isolate you must do so immediately.

  • Keep a track of where you’ve been and who you’ve seen. Use the App with Bluetooth on.

  • Social Distancing & Contact Tracing:-

    • Gates:- All gates will be open and available for students to access their classrooms to allow greater spread.

    • Before school – Students need to go straight to their own classroom areas, rather than having everyone mixing across the school.

    • Choose your gate so your children know where you will be meeting them after school. Teachers may have students spread out near the gates to ease any congestion.

    • Please stay in cars if the area is too congested and students can stay on the inside until you are ready.

    • The bus will be operating as normal with our usual register being taken, hands will be sanitised before entering.

  • Onsite – staying out of moist air zones:-

    • Three mini schools will be operating on site; Taupiri, Pirongia and Maungatautari.

    • To avoid unnecessary mixing of big numbers, we will be allocating different play areas amongst the three Syndicate groups.

    • As per usual there will be no sharing of food.

    • All children please bring their own water bottles to school.

    • Children will have their own table/desk space and floor space to help keep a reasonable spacing.

    • Library Books and Readers:- We will have a 72 hour stand-down period for all library books and readers before they are re-issued to other students.

  • Itinerant Teachers:-

    • Music Tuition and other extracurricular activities will continue once each provider is checked for their plans and systems.

  • Before & After School Care:-

    • Please text or ring in advance if you will be dropping your children in at the gate for Before School Care.

    • Pick Up. Please ring or text and your child will be signed out and join you at the usual gate.

Thank you everyone – kia kaha. We can do this.

Kind regards


Waveney Parker

Principal