Dear Parents / Caregivers,
Teenaa koutou ki a koutou,
I hope you and your whaanau are doing well after the week that had a bit of everything including weather bombs, ongoing COVID disruption and government announcements about the easing of some restrictions. This latest piece provides us with the hope that, as the modelling points to case numbers declining, so too the government is easing the public health measures and gathering limits. This, along with vaccine passes no longer required for school students, will enable us to hold many more of our normal activities and events for students and the community. Today I just wanted to update you on the parent evenings and the plan for rostering home.
Parent evenings - These are really important events in our calendar and a fantastic opportunity for us to discuss your child’s learning with you and your child. We were not able to run these events during this term, but we are looking forward to holding these in Term 2. We will share more details with you before the end of Term 1.
Rostering home - This step has been necessary for keeping the school open throughout the term, protecting the wellbeing of our staff, and maintaining the safety of our site. Thank you for supporting us and helping us to manage the term. We will stop rostering home by the end of the term according to the following:
Week 9 (beginning 28/3) – Last week of rostering home; details are:
Monday Year 12, Tuesday Year 11, Wednesday Year 13, Thursday Year 12 and Friday Year 11.
Week 10 (beginning 4/4) – All year levels will return to school as normal on 4th April.
Week 11 (beginning 11/4) – Last week of term, final day Thursday 14th April.
Please note, this position is dependent on the numbers tracking as they currently are.
Regionally, we are seeing a plateau or even decline in case numbers, but this is not always reflected locally where the impact on our staffing levels is most significant. If we end up with a local spike in numbers, then we will need to keep rostering seniors for Week 10. In this case, Week 11 only will be all year levels. We will be able to make this final decision by the middle of Week 9.
We have discussed the plan at length and, although there is no ideal position in this situation, we have taken into account a range of factors in making the decision, including the following:
- We would like the senior students back before the end of the term. This will give us time to establish routines, identify any gaps and reinforce expectations for work and catching up on work before Term 2 starts.
- The rostering has created some essential space for us all at CHS during this stressful term. It is also started to become problematic with difficulties in running things that depend on regular student attendance such as assessments, practices and other events.
Kind regards
Ngaa mihi
Greg Thornton
Principal
