Newsletter

Week 4 NEWSLETTER

from the principal

Changes to how we determine Close Contacts

Part of the mahi when a case appears at DPS will be determining who the close contacts are within the school. You’ll know we have some pretty tight systems to limit how many children will be affected, and recent changes by the Ministries of Health and Education mean that even less children will be identified as close contacts (and therefore less will need to self-isolate).

Mask wearing and physical distancing are the key determinants of who will be a close contact. Our two senior teams are mask wearing all day and, as such, even when we get a case there will only be a handful of close contacts. To be clear…if children/staff are wearing masks they have a very, very high chance of NOT being a close contact. This means that even when we get a case…most classmates of the case will be able to carry on attending school. All children who are not wearing a mask in the two senior teams (i.e the handful we have with an exemption) will likely automatically be determined as close contacts.

Things are a bit different in Rimu and Kōwhai where students do not need to wear masks. We will see more close contacts in these teams as a result, but the way we have structured our learning environment means that contacts will be limited to pretty much the homeclass of the case (rather than the whole team).

Evidence seems to suggest now that mask wearing is making a difference in schools…research from Australia shows this, and locally we have seen the same. Local schools with cases are not seeing huge outbreaks. This article here provides some NZ info…but mask wearing limits transmission. I’m very proud of my staff and the Year 4 - 6 kids who are doing a great job with mask wearing.

Supporting Learning at Home

We have updated our website with a new page…link here. The page contains links to all the major online communication and learning platforms that we will be using. It has a description of our plan/process at the top of the page. Bookmark this, it may be valuable in the coming weeks.

I wrote about our learning at home plan in some detail last week, but just to give you the highlights:

  • We will switch to a hybrid form of learning (teachers teaching via our online platforms to those at home, and face to face onsite for the children there) when numbers affected by COVID get high.

  • We are video based, and content will be shared to you via HERO, Google Classroom and Seesaw

  • This will be supplemented by the hard copy packs we sent home to all students a couple of weeks ago

  • The online platforms (Maths Buddy, Lexia Reading and Reading Eggs) are all set up now…the login details are in your hard copy packs. Feel free to start using these now at home


Supporting Learning at School (Attendance)

While we are open for learning, and while attendance is still not an issue…our focus is on learning at school. Students need to be away if they are unwell, or if they are close contacts...but otherwise they are fine to attend. With a few of our neighbouring schools having COVID cases, we have seen families keep children at home…particularly those who have siblings attending those schools. There is no need for this, please refer to the flowchart below…as long as you are not a close contact, attending school should still be a priority. While we do have our plans to support those at home…you can’t really beat education in a face to face setting. We have a HEAP of systems in place to keep our children safe (masks, vaccination, ventilation, physical distancing, staggered breaks, hygiene measures, etc)…and as mentioned above, transmission within school settings is quite low.

If you have any worries about having your child onsite, please contact me and I’m happy to talk it all through.

Got Younger Siblings?

We are just updating our enrolment records for the year. If you have a 4 year old at home that will be attending DPS this year can you please let us know. Flick an email to the office: office@douglaspark.school.nz . This information lets us plan out classes, and to manage our numbers here at DPS.

Staff Profiles

We are so lucky here at DPS to have such an awesome group of people working with our learners! As we get new staff, we will have a korero with some of our staff to help you learn more about us! Feel free to stop for a chat when you see us around school.

Laura
Pania

Movin' march

Subway Lunches are available to be delivered to school every Friday. Order online or fill out an envelope at the office.

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