From the Principal 11 February 2022

 Kia ora koutou,

Welcome back to 2022 College year.  As you are aware, this has started with us having to rapidly respond to the way we are working under the COVID Red Light setting.  While this was not the way we wanted to commence, it is a reality and if ever there was a time for us to rally around each other as a community it is now.  Much of my time has been spent working alongside the senior management team to develop our COVID response planning because, as you are probably aware, the number of schools in New Zealand experiencing COVID-19 Omicron cases amongst staff and students is increasing.  The purpose of this update is to inform you of the process our school will undertake if we are informed of a positive case at Ōtaki College.

There are two ways I will be notified of a case:

1.     NOTIFICATION THROUGH PUBLIC HEALTH

When there is a confirmed case in the community, public health officials will undertake a case investigation, and work closely with the confirmed case to identify any close contacts, including any connection to a school or early learning service. 

Health officials will then contact the Regional Director of Education to provide direction on contact tracing and other relevant information. The Ministry of Education will provide support with communications to our school community, based on this public health advice.  

As a result of the case investigation, public health may be able to provide the following information:

· Infectious period OR information that the person was not infectious when at school

· Any known activities onsite during that infectious period

· Isolation end date and testing advice for contacts 

2.        NOTIFICATIONS FROM STAFF, PARENTS OR CAREGIVERS

A staff member, parent or caregiver will first notify the principal or service manager that they, or their child, are a confirmed case.  If this is so, and I have yet to hear from Public Health, I will immediately contact the Ministry of Education, who will liaise with Public Health and then work with our school on next steps.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The Principal liaises with the Ministry of Education and Public Health to work through next steps as identified in the attached document Cases in Schools Process Flowchart for Roles and Responsibilities Jan 2022.  I will work with a designated single point of contact (SPOC) at the Ministry of Education to go through the steps in the flow-chart.

Roles and responsibilities in regard to this are summarised here:

Principal / Tumuaki

·        Confirm with Ministry of Education (MOE) Single Point of Contact if student/staff member is positive case

·        Discuss public health risk and contact categorisation with MoE Single Point of Contact and public health

·        Complete assessment of contacts

·        Provide list of contacts to National Investigation and Tracing Centre

·        Send letters to Close Contacts and Casual Contacts (school community)

Ministry of Education Single Point of Contact (SPOC)

·        Request information on a case from a public health unit

·        Provide information about the education facility

·        Notify school / kura and arrange meeting

·        Discuss public health risk and contact categorisation with Principal / Tumuaki and public health

·        Support Principal / Tumuaki to complete assessment of contacts

Public Health

·        Investigate case

·        Confirm positive case was infectious at school

·        Notify MoE Single Point of Contact of case at school

·        Discuss public health risk and contact categorisation

·        Provide the infectious period, self-isolation end date and testing dates

National Investigation and Tracing Centre (NITC)

·        Upload Close Contacts into NCTS

·        Provide advice to Contacts

Identifying the contacts can take some time to ensure the risk assessment undertaken by public health is based on good information.  Our school has good processes in place for making the contact tracing process as easy as possible.

As an interim measure to mitigate risk and if advised by the Director of Education to do so, the following actions can be taken:

· The confirmed case and their household should already be self-isolating.

· As a precaution, those who have been in the same classroom/bubble/room as the confirmed case for the previous 48 hours can be asked to stay away, until public health advice has been received.

· There is no testing requirement at this time for those individuals unless they are feeling unwell and are advised by Healthline or their GP to get tested.

· Our school will however, be provided with specific guidance based on the public health risk assessment as soon as possible; which is likely to require any close contacts to self-isolate and get tested.

· Undertake a thorough clean prior to the other students, children and staff returning onsite.

HOW WILL WE COMMUNICATE WITH YOU?

·           Close contacts of a confirmed case will receive direct communication from the school. 

·           The Ōtaki College School Community will be informed.

WHAT OTHER PLANNING ARE WE UNDERTAKING?

Senior Leaders and I have been working on a Ōtaki College Covid Red Light Setting Plan.  The purpose of the plan is to consider a range of situations and impacts on the management and operation of our school depending on the number of staff and students absent due to COVID infection or self-isolating as close contacts.  This plan is nearing completion and will be shared with you.

One of the challenges we face is adapting our learning programmes to cater as best we can for having students on-site at school, and at home in isolation.  It is likely that whanau in isolation will find the situation more stressful than the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 as you cannot leave the home to get a break.  This may impact the effectiveness of home learning programmes and the ability for whanau to manage them.  We will be taking a pragmatic approach to this.

COULD ŌTAKI COLLEGE BE CLOSED FOR ONSITE LEARNING?

There may be a point of critical mass where the number of staff absent across all the roles in our school creates a situation where we can no longer safely operate.  Any decision to do this will be made by the school’s Board in consultation with the Ministry of Education and Public Health.

IN SUMMARY

The emergence of cases in our school is going to generate a lot of work to implement plans and systems for operating our school safely, and ensuring good communication with our school community.  We will also need to take into account the health and welfare of our staff, students and community as we move forward. 

Ōtaki College has managed very well over the past two years and, as we move into this very messy and transitional phase I want to once again thank you for your partnership and support as we navigate a very changeable pathway. I want to assure you that if you are a confirmed case or need to isolate a lot of work is now taking place in the community to support whanau and I will be sending more information out about this. Always know that the college and staff are here to support you all.

In closing, my apologies for such a wordy outline of our planned response but I will email a more streamlined version of this early next week.

Andy Fraser

Principal