Kia ora koutou e te whanau o te Kura a Rohe o Whaingaroa
Raglan Area School is closed until further notice (with a few exceptions as explained below).
With the COVID 19 announcement from our Prime Minister yesterday, Monday 23rd March 2020, we are implementing with urgency our plan to support your child’s learning from home. We appreciate this is a sudden and significant change, and will be heavily disruptive to many people in our community.
For children of essential workers, staff are on site at the usual time today – Tuesday 24th March and Wednesday 25th March. You may wish to check if you are considered an essential worker – https://covid19.govt.nz/government-actions/covid-19-alert-system/ (please look under the education link). These roles include doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and police. The school will then be FULLY CLOSED to all staff and students from Thursday 26th March 2020.
School Holidays
The school holidays start early from next Monday 30th March to Tuesday 14th April as the Tuesday after Easter Monday is always a closed day for schools – this is the usual two week holiday break. At the end of this school holiday break, Raglan Area school will be open for distance learning but not physically open for staff to work at the schools.
Learning From Home
Please note the instruction to stay home (Alert Level 4) will continue beyond the new school holiday period but Raglan Area School will be technically open for distance instruction. Teachers will be working offsite. However, by Tuesday 14th April, we will then have a process for maintaining distance instruction with support and direction from the Ministry of Education.
The Ministry of Education has aunched two new websites to support teachers, learners, parents and whaanau so that learning for children and young people can continue at home. The websites include resources for parents and whaanau, teachers and leaders that span the learning pathway from early learning through to senior secondary. More resources will be added as they’re developed.
Learning From Home (https://www.learningfromhome.govt.nz/ )
Ki te Ao Mārama, (https://www.kauwhatareo.govt.nz/ki-te-ao-marama/.
These websites will help families to get through the next few weeks as we move to remote learning. For those of you who are able to, we encourage you to explore this site. Hard copy packs are being prepared for learners and whānau who don’t have connectivity at home. These will be made available from Tuesday 14th April 2020.
Self Isolation Group Preparations
If you need to have your child cared for by someone else you will need to identify that person or people as part of your self-isolated group. This will need to be done by midnight Wednesday and the group must remain the same for the whole 4 week period. The caregiver’s own group (eg, their partner and children), your child and your own group (eg, your parents and other children) become one group. This group needs to be limited to minimise any risk of spread and should be no more than 20 people.
Talking to you children about COViD 19
Your child will be looking to you for guidance about this decision. Parents, caregivers, whānau and teachers will have a particularly important part to play in reassuring children at this time. If you haven’t already done so, you may wish to read the information put together by the Ministry of Education to support your conversations with your children – Talking to children about COVID-19
As noted by the Prime Minister these restrictions are our best chance to slow the virus in New Zealand and to save lives. We all have a clear role here to slow the spread of COVID-19.
We will continue to communicate with you over the coming days. Thank you for your ongoing support of our school staff and school community.
Ngaa mihi nui – Louisa and the staff and Board of Trustees at Raglan Area School
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