Principal Addresses the COVID-19 Crisis

As you will all be aware the World Health Organisation has declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to explain what steps we have taken to help keep our staff, students, families and community safe during this time. The Ministry of Health has been working through its pandemic plan since January. You will also know the Government has already implemented a range of measures to minimise the impacts to New Zealand. This includes border restrictions, a requirement to self-isolate on arrival in New Zealand and detailed contact tracing of any confirmed cases. The Government has indicated that there will be a ban on un-ticketed events and large gatherings to slow the spread. They have also advised that if we cannot be confident that participants can maintain a safe physical distance from each other (2 metres for more than 15 minutes) then we need to be considering how we manage the situation. Therefore we have made the decision to cancel further assemblies for the foreseeable future and postpone any events such as Noho Marae, Sport and Recreation Tramp, Lip Sync and our annual MudRun. Fortunately, we were involved in the events that were still on prior to the restrictions. Please see the photos of some of our team at the Relay 4 Life, where our team ran 628 laps (approx. 251 km) coming in 3rd overall. We had others at the Laskey Cycle Ride, who did a wonderful job of entertaining the cyclists. Our Rural Studies students were involved at the Rural Games, where they competed at the Clash of the Colleges Competition. Hamish Belcher received a special mention for putting together a Hansen compression T-Joint water fitting with the fastest time of 33 seconds. Our students involved at Horse of the Year had another successful competition-we will share more information about this in our next page. For our school, our pandemic plan is also ready to be implemented if needed. In the mean time we will continue to focus on good hygiene practices. Hand washing and good cough etiquette are very important tools in preventing the spread of illness including colds, flu and COVID-19. Our students were told, the importance of washing hands, no handshakes, hugs or sharing of food and drinks as we have a duty to do our very best to slow the spread. There is a likelihood that in the future schools could be closed down. Our staff are working currently on plans to be able to continue teaching and supporting your children to work from home. If a family member is in self-isolation and have family members at home they - “should minimise close contact with them by avoiding situations where you have face-to-face contact closer than 2 metres for more than 15 minutes. The other household residents do not need to self-isolate provided these precautions are followed”. Therefore if children are living in a household with someone who is self-isolating and they are unable to adhere to these precautions, then those children should stay away from school. Please advise the College if this is the situation for your family. One other action we can all take is to be vigilant about our own health, and the health of our children. Staff have been told to stay away from school if they are showing signs of illness such as coughs and colds. We ask that you please do the same with your children. Colds and flus are common in schools and by staying away, seeking medical attention and practising good hygiene, we can all keep any spread of illness to a minimum. I will continue to update our school community as and when more information is provided to me from the Ministry of Education & the Ministry of Health