FAQs

We are currently moving into Alert Level 4 as of midnight Wednesday 25th March. This is due to continue until at least Wednesday 22nd April. If there is a change in Alert Level after this date we would try to let you know about this in several ways:

• Our school website would be updated with this information at www.wegc.school.nz

• An announcement would be made through our social media channels

  • LearningatEast on Instagram

  • facebook.com/WEGCSchool/ on Facebook

• A text might be sent out through our WEGC smart-phone app

• An email would be sent to parents and students

If you hear of a change in Alert Level through one of these official channels, please make sure your friends have also heard and know what to do.

Email absences@wegc.school.nz or leave a phone message, as you normally would do. You should also email your ako teacher and could let any subject teachers for that day know as well. You should be able to see any work you have missed on Google Classroom once you are well enough to do it.

Currently, we are at Alert Level 4 which means that individuals must stay at home. You could set up a virtual study group through Google Meet.

As we are now at Alert Level 4 you cannot meet with friends or other students. You can go outside with your family but need to maintain a distance of 2m from other people that you may meet.

If you are unable to access the internet, try to let your ako teacher know somehow and they can pass this on to your teachers. If you have a phone with data, they could email or share limited instructions with you this way or get a friend to text you ideas on what to continue with in your book or other ways.

Many internet providers are working on getting unlimited broadband to the houses of all students in NZ, so you may find you have been given a free upgrade (eg by Spark or Vodafone).

The government is working on a plan to get devices to the estimated 70,000 students in NZ without them.

We have a plan within our school to allocate some COWs to students which can be taken home during this learn@home stage, with the understanding that they will be returned later in the year.

Many NCEA assessments can still be worked on from home, depending on the assessment conditions. Teachers will still be able to mark these and upload credits.

NZQA has some information on updates and they may announce some changes for this year and we will make sure you know about these.

In the first instance, you can email them. You may be able to have one-on-one or small group Google Meets or Hang-outs (which will be recorded by the teacher as a school policy).

It is a school policy that teachers won't be giving out their cell phone numbers to students for privacy reasons.

Please fill out the Hauora referral form and someone from the counselling team will contact you.

You can also still email deans, ako and other teachers for advice.

You can ask your ako or subject teacher to help you, if you're able to. You may be able to talk through your problem with them or even share your screen via a Google Meet to show them what is happening.

Our Cyclone IT staff will still be working for us either on site at school or remotely. You can email them on helpdesk@wegc.school.nz. They can help you with any issues you're having with logins in particular. They won't be able to help you with your own wifi or internet access; for this you would need to contact your provider (eg Spark, Vodafone) and they won't be able to assist you with personal software or hardware issues if you're not using a school-owned device.

Typically, students who are home-schooled or working through the correspondence school might only work for a few hours today, in a very focused way. Your teacher should be giving you guides as to how long they think activities will take. In an extended closure, we understand you might have other responsibilities and will not expect 100% of the work you would have done at school and will have more flexibility around how and when you do your work.

If you are sick, you may have days were you do no work though, and this is fine.