School communities banding together in face of Covid

The Omicron surge is hitting Waipa¯ schools’ overall rate of attendance, with students either having Covid-19 or being isolated as a household contact.

Local schools are doing their best to keep producing high-quality education for their students whilst adhering to the Ministry of Education guidelines.

The attendance rate at Te Awamutu College is sitting at 78 per cent, whereas it would normally be about 87 per cent.

The college has had close to a dozen staff absent. Luckily it has a group of relievers available, which the college says it greatly appreciates.

Bus runs are also being affected – “we are advising parents/caregivers/students via our Te Awamutu College Facebook page as soon as we are made aware of cancellations of buses,” says the college.

“We are managing well in an extraordinary and challenging time,” says Liz Parsons, college principal Tony Membery’s personal assistant.

Ngāhinapōuri School principal Mark Harrop says he is “very proud of the way we are all looking after one another”.

Ngāhinapōuri has had only 6 per cent of the school affected as household close contacts or positive cases.

“It has been great to see a number of students who have already finished their isolation period return to school healthy and ready to learn,” Mark says.

St Patrick’s Catholic School principal Shelley Fitness reports about 14 cases among students so far. However, the school noticed the spread has been slow as “parents are doing the right thing and keeping their children at home as soon as they are symptomatic, rather than relying on RAT results.”

Shelley says that the parents have been absolutely amazing — likewise, the students have shown great resilience.

“There is certainly a feeling that we are all in this together and all supporting each other through.”

Ōhaupō School believes it had the advantage of time to fine-tune its approach to Covid because it was “one of the first schools in New Zealand to have a Covid case”.

Staff wear masks in the classroom, as do the children from Year 4 upwards. Children also have regular mask breaks outdoors and do some learning out in the fresh air.

Ōhaupō is also very proactive in keeping children at home if there is any sign of being unwell.

Sharon Griffiths, the principal of Te Awamutu Primary School, says she is “grateful for the staff and community that are working together in a positive way, to navigate our way through this latest phase of the pandemic”.

“We are focused on keeping our community well informed by sharing daily updates on numbers and locations across the school, as well as maintaining learning programmes at school and via online learning.”