31st August 21
Kia ora koutou,
This morning at 11am all teachers / teacher aides are meeting online to plan for Otaika Valley School moving to level 3. At this stage we are waiting for government to get testing back on 20 Northland waste water sites, which is due on Thursday. My understanding is if these are clear Northland has the potential to move to level 3 as at 11:59 Thursday. Therefore, my understanding at this point is Otaika Valley School could be open on Friday 3rd September to essential workers children only.
Thank you the parents who have filled in the form indicating your status as essential workers who are not working at home and requiring students to attend school under level 3 guidelines. Today’s staff planning meeting relies heavily on prompt and accurate information on students who will be attending school under level 3. I will personally contact those parents who have indicated their child’s attendance at school once numbers are confirmed.
As at 7am this morning we have 7 students of parents and 3 staff members with students bringing our total to 10. If we maintain these numbers we have the potential to have 1 bubble with a rotating roster of teacher/teacher aides each day. This will allow the teacher rostered to have days at home to maintain home-learning with their own class. Based on experience, the teacher rostered with the school bubble gets little time to engage with their home-learning class.
For our school size and staffing status, two bubbles is very difficult to staff and manage under level 3.
HIGHLY IMPORTANT: If you have not already filled in the form, please fill it in promptly to help with our planning https://bit.ly/essentialovs
This mornings staff meeting involves…
- discussing staff who are able work under level 3 as essential workers (same as parents)
- discussing level 3 student bubble numbers
- how to staff bubbles with limited staff without mixing bubbles
- sick cover for staff within bubbles
- emergency planning for staff cover if student medical emergency at school
- processes / systems for operating at level 3 at school for staff and students
There is plenty of work going on behind the scenes. Most of the communication with learning is going through the teachers with their classes. The website newsletter remains the major message updating tool from me.
Kind regards
Terry
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