Kia ora e te Whānau,

COVID-19

I hope you have all survived the first few days of the delightful school routines such as making lunches and getting tamariki out the door on time!

It has been wonderful to observe the tamariki as they caught up with their friends, met new classmates and their teacher for this year. It was a reminder to us all of just how much of a privilege it is to be involved in educating them. Our teachers are well aware of the huge impact they have on your children and the responsibility of ensuring that every child in their care receives the best possible education. I can assure you all that the school has a team of very dedicated and educationally focused teachers who are well prepared to deliver quality, teaching programmes.

Finally, on behalf of the Ilam School Team, I would like to extend a warm Happy Lunar New Year to our whānau who are currently celebrating this special time of year.

Belinda Kennedy and the Ilam School Team

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In this Update you will find information on the following:

• Learning Conferences - Via Zoom

• Life at Ilam during the Red Setting

• Parents onsite

• Masks

• Sickness

• Year 5-6 Camp consultations

• Some cool Learning @Ilam

WEDNESDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2021 3.15pm – 6.00pm

THURSDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2021 3.15pm – 6:15pm & 6:45pm - 8.00pm

Bookings for the Learning Conferences open on Friday 11th February and close on Thursday 17th February. In order to protect our staff, we are asking parents to consider meeting with their child’s teacher by Zoom rather than face-to-face. It will be important that you book during this timeframe so we can set up the zoom meetings in plenty of time.

Next Thursday we will send home a hard copy of the Learning Conference Sharing Paper. This paper has some basic questions for you to answer which you will share with your child’s classroom teacher, allowing them to develop a better understanding of your child and so cater for their individual needs.

Thank you for working with us on this matter.

Our days look a little different while at Red! Here are the key things to know:

• We have 3 School Zones: Senior, Middle and Junior.

• If you are onsite for pick up and drop off, please wait in the zone appropriate for your child.If you have children at different zones, please collect your youngest child first.

• Our playtimes and playgrounds will be rostered to minimise the mixing of teams.

• We ask that children DO NOT play at school after 3:15 pm.

• All tamariki will need their own labelled drink bottle as water fountains will be turned off.

Thank you all for respecting our request for small numbers of parents to enter the classrooms over the past two days. We now ask that parents do not enter buildings (classrooms and cloak bays) while at the Red Setting of the Covid Protection Framework.

Reminder about entering the school grounds:

• All adults must be wearing a suitable face mask and sign in using our QRCode when coming on site.

• All Year 4-6 children and staff must wear a mask when indoors. They can be taken off to go outdoors.

• Masks will be stored in our tote trays. A named plastic bag to store it in would be helpful.

• If you want your child to wear a mask and they are in Year 1-3, we will support you in this, however, it is not expected. We will leave that decision to you.

• If you need to come to school during the school day, again, scan in, mask up and come directly to the office and we will help you out.

Changes to mask-wearing in our Middle School Zone

Year 3 - 4 composite classes:

• Teachers and students in our middle school may choose to not wear a mask when teaching a particular lesson, such as phonics.

• Our Senior Zone Teachers and Students will continue to wear masks indoors.

• This is in alignment with the Ministry of Education Guidelines.

• We understand that wearing a mask all day can be difficult, we will support our children by spending time outside and offering a break when needed.

• We will have a supply of masks available for learners who need them.

Under the Covid Framework, Staff have been asked to observe children on arrival, checking for symptoms of illness. Staff will check for signs of cough/cold/fever or a runny nose. The School will contact the parents/whanau of children who appear unwell and arrange for parents or caregivers to come and collect them. We ask for and appreciate your support with this and understand that this can be disruptive, but it is important that our children and staff are not exposed to unwell children.

Staff have also been advised to stay at home and to get tested if they are unwell.

As noted in our previous communications, Education Outside the Classroom Programmes can take place with careful planning in the Red setting. At this stage, we have not yet decided if the Year 5 and 6 camps will go ahead. We would like input from families to inform our decision making as to whether or not camps go ahead at the Red Setting of the Covid Protection Framework.

If you have a child in the senior school and haven’t already done so, please complete this form by Tuesday 8th February, and we will consider your response in our decision making.

We have lots of amazing learning taking place throughout the school, that I would love to share with you in the coming weeks.

Here are some of our newest learners from Room 15 having a great time learning about The Lunar New Year.