Dear Parents and Caregivers
We are delighted with the news that we will reopen and we are very much looking forward to welcoming your children back to school on Monday 31st August. Our health and safety plan is in place, as it has been under every alert level, and you can be assured we’ll continue doing everything we can to keep children safe.
This update contains important information to reassure you that we have the necessary health, safety and hygiene measures in place. Our Alert Level 2 response is similar to the previous one but with some alterations based on new advice from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health. We want to ensure that your child’s return to school is a positive one for all. Please read this carefully as school will be a different experience to that prior to this latest lockdown.
Kohimarama School will be following Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of Health (MOH) advice, namely;
● Enabling good hygiene practices – regular washing and drying of hands and good cough and sneeze etiquette remain fundamental to preventing spread of illness such as colds, flu and COVID-19. We will be reinforcing these practices at school and we encourage you to do the same.
● Hand Sanitising – We have purchased a large stock of hand sanitiser: learners will be asked to use it each time they enter and leave the classroom. Handwashing will be carried out throughout the day before food and after using the bathroom.
● Cleaning – Additional cleaning of table surfaces, high touch areas, handles and resources will be cleaned during the day and as much as possible.
● Physical Distancing – Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of Health (MOH) have advised as much as practicable, physical distancing is a good precaution to prevent the spread of disease. In an Alert Level 2 school environment, this means children, young people, and staff maintaining a physical distance so that they are not breathing on or touching each other, coupled with good hygiene practices (coughing into your elbow, handwashing and drying) and regular cleaning of commonly touched surfaces.
○ There are situations where physical distancing is not possible, such as some sporting activities. In these situations extra emphasis on handwashing and drying (or cleansing with hand sanitiser) before and after activities and regular cleaning of equipment is very important.
● Playgrounds – The use of school playgrounds can resume but in a managed way.
For more information about public health measures at Alert Level 2 you can visit the COVID-19 website
General Information
Along with the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health, we encourage all learners to return to school at Alert Level 2.
● If your child is not going to be returning to school during Alert Level 2 due to being vulnerable to serious illness or high health risk please email us – office@kohimarama.school.nz
● If your child/ren will be absent from school due to illness Please continue to use the school process for informing us; Ring our absence line 09 930 9826 or email the office – office@kohimarama.school.nz Please continue to provide a detailed reason for the absence.
In Alert Level 2 the key thing for us all to remember is that physical distancing is still a good precaution to prevent the spread of Covid-19. We would like to continue to practise social distancing as much as is possible within our school environment For us at school, this means our groupings will now be in Year groups.
If you haven’t already downloaded the NZ COVID Tracer app the Ministry of Health’s website has information to help you do that. We’ll also keep a visitor register for anyone who doesn’t have the app, and also for anyone who comes onsite for a period of time. This will help us with contact tracing in the unlikely case it is needed.
Below are some guidelines we have put in place to keep everyone at school safe.
Students will be required to bring;
● Full drink bottle – water fountains will remain closed
● Packed morning tea and lunch – it is important there is no sharing of food, this will also be reinforced by teachers
● We encourage students to bring their own ball to prevent sharing of equipment
● Students need to bring a hand towel for personal use
Face coverings
Your child doesn’t need to wear a face covering but if they want to, that’s fine. We have good practices in place to help prevent the spread including anyone who is not well, staying away from school. Good hand hygiene and keeping distance is the best means of stopping the spread of COVID. Please see the FAQs about facemasks from the Ministry of Health.
Arrival and Departure from school
● To minimise the number of people onsite, and maintain physical distancing, we encourage any parents dropping their child at School to say goodbye at the gate – ‘drop and go’.
● For the first week, myself and the Deputy Principals will be supervising at the entry points to support learners on arrival.
● On Monday and while we remain at Alert level 2, learners are to go straight to their classrooms on arrival, there will be no social gathering of children or before School play.
● There are to be no dogs in the school during Alert level 2
We ask you to use the entry points below. This has changed from last time in an attempt to limit congestion.
● Kiri Team and Hillary Team via Rawhitiroa Road entrance
● Cowley team and Snell Team via Kohimarama Road entrance.
Arrival and Departure times for Teams;
(older siblings to arrive and leave at the times of the youngest sibling).
Arrival and Departure: – It is essential that you adhere to these times and locations;
Teams Arrival time Gate Departure time
Kiri 8.40 am Rawhitiroa Road 2.45pm
Cowley 8.40 am Kohimarama Road 2.45pm
Hillary 8.30 am Rawhitiroa Road 3.00 pm
Snell 8.30 am Kohimarama Road 3.00 pm
For our Year 0 to 2 students, we know that they may want you to come into the school grounds. You must follow the process above using the NZ COVID tracer app. You may then accompany your child to their classroom door. If you do need to escort your child into the classroom or speak to the teacher, we do request that only one parent goes into the classroom at any given time. Please maintain social distancing at all times.
For Years 3 to 8 Parents should say goodbye to children at the gate, ‘drop and go’. Should a parent want to speak to their child’s teacher we ask that they email first to make an appointment. The classroom teacher will contact you as soon as possible with their next available time.
Preschoolers on site
We request that preschool siblings remain with their parents at all times. During Alert Level 2 they will not be able to access school equipment or playground, as they would normally have been able to do. Preschoolers may only go into a classroom with their parents.
Parents entering the site
The NZ COVID Tracer App is to be used to record everybody entering into Kohimarama School. All government buildings are required to display the QR code for the app. We have placed these strategically at the entry points to the school on both Rawhitiroa Road and Kohimarama Road as well as within the school site.
We thank you in advance for assisting us to manage students accessing Kohimarama School at Alert Level 2.
Programmes for the first week.
As students have been absent from school for a period of time and experiencing again a pandemic first hand, teachers will be focusing on students well-being and rebuilding relationships within the classroom. Over this time, the programmes and homework will be modified from what they were prior lockdown. Nightly readers may not go home straight away and usual homework programmes will not begin immediately.
Daily routines during Alert Level 2
● Lateness – Arriving at school on time is imperative during this time. Please let the office know if you will be running late by calling 09 930 9826 or emailing office@kohimarama.school.nz
In the event of a child being late, a late ticket will be printed and collected from the office door entrance. They will need to show the late ticket to their class teacher.
● Footwear- we are asking students to wear footwear outside at all times, this will eliminate minor cuts and abrasions that can occur during play.
● Break times will vary to ensure greater success with social distancing and maintaining our Year Groupings:
○ Kiri Team : 10.00 and 12 noon
○ Year 2 10.30 and 12.30
○ Year 3 11.00 and 1.00
○ Year 4 10.30 and 12.30
○ Year 5 11.00 and 1.00
○ Year 6 10.00 and 12 noon
○ Years 7 /8 11.30 and 1.30
● School Library
During Alert Level 2, learners will not have access to the library. Any return books they have on issue can go back to the library. These books will then be placed in “quarantine” within the library.
● During the first week of Level 2, each class teacher will be able to choose a selection of new, interesting and popular books for learners to enjoy at school. These books must remain in each class. They are not to go home with learners at this stage.
School Office
We will be limiting entry to the School office for the first two weeks at least. Think of the office like a pre-order and pick up service. E.g. your child needs a bookbag – please order via email and we will organise for the item to go home with your child. Prefered method of payment is EFTPOS, directly into the school bank account or via Kindo, the school online shop.
Students who are unwell.
● Symptoms to monitor are; any respiratory symptoms such as a cold, a head cold, blocked ears, cough, sneezing, sick tummy, chills and a fever.
○ Anyone with those symptoms must stay home
○ You can contact Healthline for advice, which may include getting tested for COVID-19 as a precaution.
● If your child becomes unwell at school we will contact you and request that you collect them immediately to take them home.
Other
● We will not be running school assemblies during Alert Level 2. Instead we will celebrate successes with certificates within their classrooms.
● Sushi Wednesday and Fruity Kunuity/Pizza Friday is on hold until further notice.
● School Bands will not run during Alert Level 2.
● Kapa Haka and Choir will begin again when Mrs Marshall and Miss Cadzow alert you
● School trips during Alert Level 2 will not proceed.
● At this time no organised inter school sport will be taking place. Should this change we will let you know.
● We have been informed by Auckland Netball that games will recommence in the Week commencing Monday 7th September. Because of this, practice for these teams will commence as soon as practicable as they remain in the same year group.
● When we hear from other codes as to when they propose to restart their games, we will be in touch and then those practices will commence.
● Students may bring their own balls to school to use for various games at break times.
● We are continuing to work through what Student Achievement Discussions and other community gatherings will look like moving forward to ensure we uphold the gatherings of no more than 10. More on this once we have settled your children back into School.
Further updates will be sent as we review and extend our thinking and as further information is released by MOH and MOE.
Thank you for your continued support of Kohimarama School. Our undertaking is to manage the learning within the parameters of a pandemic while enabling students to continue to develop and learn. Ensuring a safe environment and managing the risks to keep our community, especially, our students safe, are our key considerations.
Our school vision is; We Dream, We Inspire, We Create, We Empower. During these unsettled
times we have certainly continued to use our vision to guide our way.
Kind regards
Paul Engles
Principal