Small bubbles for children
Early childhood education services will keep groups of children to small bubbles as centres reopen this week.
Early childhood centres are allowed to operate when New Zealand moves to coronavirus alert level three today. Only a small percentage of children will attend while the rest will stay at home.
In Manawatu¯, centres will operate in a reduced capacity with only small bubbles of children.
Tui Early Learners managing director Deborah Pedersen said all five of their centres in Palmerston North and Feilding would open, but would host bubbles of only 10 people. ‘‘[The number] is really quite small,’’ Pedersen said. ‘‘We’ve got amazing parents who are understanding and keeping their children home where at all possible.
‘‘For those that really can’t, it’s important to support them to go back to work. Most parents are able to stay at home and continue working ... and keep their children at home with them.
‘‘We did have a couple of questions from parents not working but wanted some support and that’s understandable, especially for parents of children with special needs. Our guidelines are if they’re not working, they can’t come in.’’
Teachers have cleaned centres, stored away toys that can’t be regularly cleaned properly and started a contact tracing register.
Children will be dropped off at the door at staggered times, only a handful of teachers will be at each site, which will be cleaned regularly, and teachers will try to minimise contact between children.
Pedersen said they were minimising risk and she was confident of managing things properly.
‘‘I think we need to be positive.
We have a part to play in this helping parents back to work, helping our economy start back up.’’
Ruahine Kindergarten Association has centres across Manawatu¯ and chief executive Alison Rudzki encouraged parents to keep their children home if possible, but said the association was there for parents who had to work and couldn’t leave their children at home.
‘‘We’ve got 25 kindergartens and early learning services and it’s looking like we will have about 15 or 16 of them open [this] week.
‘‘We’re still working out the staffing situation because we obviously have staff with underlying medical conditions and we’ll be very careful about who we put back in.’’
Rudzki said all staff would follow health and safety regulations.