Responding to COVID-19 – Wellington High School

These updates have been emailed to all whānau.

We are actively following the information and advice being provided by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education with regard to the Coronavirus – COVID 19.
Remote learning: Our remote learning plan is here.

2022

13.9.2022

Kia ora Koutou

New long-term strategy for COVID-19

You’ll be aware that New Zealand will move to a new, long-term approach to COVID-19. These changes have been made based on public health advice and reflect high levels of immunity and declining case numbers across New Zealand.

This new approach will only result in minor changes to the way we operate.

The very positive news is that household contacts of a person with COVID-19 do not need to isolate, but instead are asked to complete a RAT test each day, for five days. Therefore, ākonga who are household contacts but test negative and do not have COVID-19 symptoms, should continue to attend. It is the best place for them to be so they can be engaged in their learning, and connected with their teachers, classmates and friends.

Information on how to get RAT kits can be found here: Request a RAT– Ministry of Health: https://requestrats.covid19.health.nz/

Mask wearing is no longer required but students and staff will be supported to wear one if they choose, including on public and school transport. We still have a supply of masks at Student Services if students forget theirs and wish to wear one.

All the other recommended public health measures will stay in place as we know they reduce the spread of infectious illnesses including COVID-19. These include ensuring our indoor spaces are well-ventilated, maintaining good hand hygiene, encouraging everyone to cough or sneeze into elbows and, most importantly, staying home and getting tested if they have COVID-19 symptoms.

Thank you for your ongoing support in protecting our community.

Noho ora mai
Shaun Tavernor
Acting Principal

12.8.2022

Kia ora Koutou

Staff absences have started to climb again and unfortunately left us in a position where we run the risk of having insufficient teachers to cover all classes. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, to reduce disruption to year 13 students we have replaced this year group with year 10.

This means that Year 10 will be rostered home for Period 5 Tuesday 16 August – Friday 19 August.

We have decided not to roster home on Monday to allow all ākonga to attend the Future Focus afternoon. This is an excellent opportunity for students to ask the Head of Faculty and course leaders any questions they may have about 2023 courses, in preparation for course selection which starts next week. As it was last year, this event will be a student only event for students in Years 10-12. If you have any questions on courses for next year, then please contact the Head of Faculty.

As you may have seen in the news the Minister of Education announced changes to NCEA that recognise the impact of students and teacher absences due to COVID-19 and other winter illnesses have had on teaching, learning and assessment this year.

In 2022, students will be entitled to 1 Learning Recognition Credit (LRC) for every 5 credits earned through assessment, up to a maximum of:

NCEA Level	Max LRC’s
1	10
2	8
3	8

To receive a Certificate Endorsement, Students will need 46 credits at Merit or excellence instead of the usual 50 .

To be awarded University Entrance, students will need 14 credits in each of two UE approved subjects, and 12 credits in a third UE Approved subject (they will also need to attain NCEA Level 3 and meet the numeracy and literacy requirements.

Externally assessed portfolios submission dates have also been pushed back by 1 week.

I am hoping this gives some reassurance for senior students as the external exams get ever closer.

Kia noho huamaru

Shaun Tavernor

Acting Principal

5.8.2022

Kia ora koutou

It is pleasing to see the number of COVID 19 cases starting to fall, in fact, yesterday (4/8) was the first day in some time when there were no reported student cases.

13-6 to 17-6	20-6 to 24-6	27-6 to 1-7	4-7 to 8-7	25-7 to 29-7	1-8 to 5-8
16	24	17	27	31	23

We have decided that staff absences are now at a level that we do not require to roster students home week 3.

We have our fingers tentatively crossed that the worst of the disruption to learning is over and we can focus on gaining momentum for a successful term 3. This, of course, does not preclude further rostering in the future.

For whānau of senior students, we are hoping to hear from NZQA in the near future on any changes to the qualifications, considering the difficulties experienced in terms 1 and 2.

Learning conversations will take place on Thursday 25 August. This will be an opportunity for students, with the help of you and their rōpū teacher, to reflect on learning and engagement this year, and look ahead to plans for 2023. As for the recent Parent Teacher interviews we will be holding these online – booking information will follow early next week.

This year our Parent Teacher Evening used an online format for the first time. We would like to hear your experiences, so please help us review this change by completing this survey (https://forms.gle/SgyPVDB1eGPGovH8A). This will take 1-2 minutes.

29.7.2022

Updated case numbers at school

As you can see, the number of cases slowly continues to increase.

6-6 to 10-6	13-6 to 17-6	20-6 to 24-6	27-6 to 1-7	4-7 to 8-7	25-7 to 29-7
25	16	24	17	27	31

Year 11 students rostered home for period 5 for Monday 1 August – Friday 5 August

We have decided to continue with the rostering home of students as we are still experiencing sustained staff absences.

As in previous rostering arrangements, multi level classes (year 11-12-13) may have alternative arrangements and teachers of those classes will advise their students accordingly. In some cases, scheduled assessments will continue in period 5 slots – if this is the case, teachers will advise students accordingly.

Please note that the rostering home arrangements will not affect any ORS funded students in these classes, unless caregivers would like them to go home at 1.20pm. In this case, caregivers would need to organise transport home for their young person. Those ORS funded students who remain at school will complete their work supported by a teacher aide. They will finish at the regular time of 3.20pm returning home by their usual mode of transport.

We are concerned that despite the best effort of students and staff, these trying times are significantly impacting the learning of students. Term 3 is an important term for senior students, especially Year 13 who are often working towards tertiary study or other opportunities out of secondary education. With this in mind, we have taken the decision to no longer roster Year 13, and if required, roster home Year 10 to reduce the impact on the other senior years.

This week it has been very pleasing to see students and staff wearing masks to protect all members of the WHS whānau.

Also note that buses will depart from school at their regular times after 3.20pm.

Mauri ora,

Shaun Tavernor

Acting Principal

22.7.2022

Throughout Term 2, it has been pleasing to see the collective effort by our community to protect all members of the Wellington High School whānau. However, in previous years we have found there is an increase in winter illnesses in schools at the start of Term 3 as students bring back infections after travelling and socialising during the holidays. This year cases of COVID-19 are increasing in most parts of the country, and we are also seeing high numbers of other winter illnesses.

Today we have received information that from the start of Term 3, 2022, the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health strongly recommend that all schools and kura amend their mask policy for the first four weeks of term to require mask wearing in all indoor settings for students in Years 4 and above. We will follow this recommendation at our kura, and also, undertake a review of our Health and Safety policy as soon as possible at the start of term 3

This recommendation does not include any situation where mask wearing might not be practicable, such as while eating and drinking, playing certain musical instruments, indoor sport, where it will have a significant impact on teaching and learning (for example, students with particular learning needs), certain activities such as singing or drama performance on stage, and PE. In these situations, particular attention should be paid to ensuring there is good ventilation during the activity, and physical distancing where practicable.

Wearing masks can reduce new cases of the virus by as much as 53%. It works alongside other measures including vaccination, good ventilation, staying home when sick, and hand washing and other hygiene measures, to protect our students and staff.

Keep up healthy habits – Unite Against COVID-19

Adult-sized masks can generally be adjusted to fit older children by tying knots in the ear loops. Unite Against COVID-19 shows how to do this:

How to wear a face mask safely – Unite Against COVID-19

We know that some of our tamariki/ākonga are exempt from wearing a mask. If they have an exemption card or a letter from their health provider, or we have agreed that mask wearing is not practicable for them, we will support them to not wear a mask.

Apply for a face mask exemption pass – Unite Against COVID-19

Please make sure that tamariki/ākonga come to school ready to wear masks. Students should bring masks from home. If students are not able to provide their own masks, we have a supply of masks at school which are available from Student Services.

Other measures and COVID-19 informtaion and measures are:

Staying at home if sick – Keeping tamariki at home if they are showing symptoms of COVID-19 prevents the spread of the infection. If you have tested positive for COVID -19, then please follow the advice here. You may also become a Household Contact if you live with, and have spent at least 8 hours at a residence with, someone who has tested positive for COVID.
Reporting COVID-19 cases prior to term 3

If your student has contracted COVID-19 during the holidays and will be away from school due to COVID at the start of term 3, please email admin@whs.school.nz before the term begins so that we can track these absences accurately from day 1. Please include your student’s day 0 (onset of symptoms or positive test, whichever is earlier).

Basic hygiene measures – good hand hygiene, cough and sneeze etiquette, avoiding touching your face, and cleaning surfaces.

Hand sanitiser will continue to be available in all classrooms and tables wiped down at the end of each day.

Ventilation – The risk of infection is increased in poorly ventilated areas. We will continue to ventilate classrooms (trickier on cold days) and monitor ventilation in all areas of the school.

It is also a good time to remind you that Year 12 students will be rostered home during period 5 for week 1 of term 3.

We will, of course, be communicating this to students when they return to school, but if you could reinforce this message over the weekend it would be greatly appreciated.

Ngā mihi nui for your continued support during these trying times.

Shaun Tavernor

Acting Principal

8.7.2022

Updated case numbers at school

You can see from the attached table that case numbers have increased this week and, as is to be expected in winter, there are other illnesses around too.

6-6 to 10-6	13-6 to 17-6	20-6 to 24-6	27-6 to 1-7	4-7 to 8-7
0	3	12	6	5
12	4	4	2	4
8	0	4	2	7
4	5	4	1	6
1	4	0	6	5
25	16	24	17	27

Year 12 students rostered home for period 5 for Monday 25 July – Friday 29 July

It may seem premature to make this decision, however, given our continued struggle to find enough relief teachers to cover staff absences, and the increases in COVID case numbers across the country, we have taken the decision to roster home Year 12 students during period 5 each day during the first week of term 3.

Also note that buses will depart from school at their regular times after 3.20pm.

Reporting COVID-19 cases prior to term 3

If your student contracts COVID-19 during the holidays and will be away from school due to COVID at the start of term 3, please email admin@whs.school.nz the week before so that we can track these absences accurately when term begins.

I hope your student and your family are able to spend some quality time together these holidays and we look forward to seeing everyone back and refreshed for the start of term 3 on Monday 25 July.

Ngā mihi,

Shaun Tavernor

Acting Principal

23.6.2022

Kia ora koutou

Updated case numbers at school

You can see that case numbers have increased a little this week and there seems to be other illness around at the moment.

Stats	2-5 to 6-5	9-5 to 13-5	16-5 to 20-5	23-5 to 27-5	30-5 to 3-6	6-6 to 10-6	13-6 to 17-6	20-6 to 24-6
Monday	9	7	15	8	19	0	3	12
Tuesday	3	3	13	7	6	12	4	4
Wednesday	2	1	0	2	4	8	0	4
Thursday	1	4	12	3	5	4	5	6
Friday	0	3	3	9	0	1	5
Totals	15	18	43	29	34	25	17	26

Year 11 students rostered home for period 5 for next week (Monday 27 June to Friday 1 July)

We are still struggling to find enough relief teachers to cover the extra classes created by COVID and winter illness and we will continue with our rostering home next week. Year 11 students will be rostered home for period 5 each day next week.

Also note that buses will depart from school at their regular times after 3.20pm.

ERO Profile reporting

Te Ara Huarau is the evaluation approach that the Education Review Office (ERO) is using in our school. This is a developmental approach to evaluation where ERO and our school work together over time rather than one off reviews that happened previously. Te Ara Huarau is used in most English-medium state and state-integrated schools.

ERO maintains a regular review programme to evaluate and report on the education and care of young people in the schools. Our school worked alongside ERO to write our Profile Report. This type of report will only happen once as part of our initial engagement with Te Ara Huarau. The profile report reflects our strategic goals and a shared evaluation focus in one or more areas that are important to us as we work together to improve outcomes for all our learners. ERO, like us, has a strong focus on equity and excellence. Future reporting will show our progress and achievement towards meeting the goals we have set. We will share links to these reports in next week’s weekly wrap up. There will be three reports:

The profile report as explained
A Board Assurance Report that shows how we are meeting regulatory and legislative Requirements.
A Hostel and/or Provision for International Students report.

Ngā mihi

Dominic Killalea

17 June 2022

Kia ora koutou

Updated case numbers at school

We are observing a slight decline in reported student case numbers as we reach the end of the 7th week of term. at the start of term, the last 3 weeks have seen relatively steady numbers. These are only COVID case numbers and we are seeing other illness in our school.

Stats	2-5 to 6-5	9-5 to 13-5	16-5 to 20-5	23-5 to 27-5	30-5 to 3-6	6-6 to 10-6	13-6 to 17-6
Monday	9	7	15	8	19	0	3
Tuesday	3	3	13	7	6	12	4
Wednesday	2	1	0	2	4	8	0
Thursday	1	4	12	3	5	4	5
Friday	0	3	3	9	0	1	5
Totals	15	18	43	29	34	25	17

Year 12 students rostered home for period 5 for next week (Monday 20 June to Thursday 23 June)

Although we are observing a similar decline in staff COVID case numbers and numbers of staff needing to isolate, we are still struggling to get enough relieving teachers to cover staff absence through COVID, and other illnesses reasons. Based on our projections for next week I have made the decision to roster year 12 students home for period 5 for the rest of this week.

As in previous rostering arrangements, multi level classes (year 11-12-13) may have alternative arrangements and teachers of those classes will advise their students accordingly. In some cases, scheduled assessments will continue in period 5 slots – teachers will advise students where this is the case.

Also note that buses will depart from school at their regular times after 3.20pm.

Matariki holiday next Friday 24 June

We are all looking forward to the first ever celebration of Matariki as a public holiday. Matariki heralds the start of a new year for many Māori with the rising of what is also know as the Pleiades cluster of stars. Some iwi name this time of year Puanga because they’re not able to see Matariki clearly from their locality. They look to the next important star near Matariki – Puanga.

Ngā mihi

Dominic Killalea

13 June 2022

Kia ora koutou

Updated case numbers at school

After an increase in reported student case numbers at the start of term, the last 3 weeks have seen relatively steady numbers. These are only COVID case numbers and we are seeing other illness in our school.

Stats	2-5 to 6-5	9-5 to 13-5	16-5 to 20-5	23-5 to 27-5	30-5 to 3-6	6-6 to 10-6
Monday	9	7	15	8	19	0
Tuesday	3	3	13	7	6	12
Wednesday	2	1	0	2	4	8
Thursday	1	4	12	3	5	4
Friday	0	3	3	9	0	1
Totals	15	18	43	29	34	25

Year 13 students rostered home for period 5 for the rest of this week (Tuesday 14 June to Friday 17 June)

We are struggling to get enough relieving teachers to cover staff absence through COVID, isolation and other illness so I have made the decision to roster year 13 students home for period 5 for the rest of this week. As in previous rostering arrangements, multi level classes (year 11-12-13) may have alternative arrangements and teachers of those classes will advise their students accordingly. In most cases, students will be expected to work remotely for those lessons.

Also note that buses will depart from school at their regular times after 3.20pm.

Continuing with our good practices

I have noted in previous communications the need for us all to continue with our good practices that we have learned over the last couple of years. These practices are aimed at keeping us all safe from illness and it means that we are:

staying away if unwell and seeking advice about getting tested
regularly washing hands
using well-ventilated spaces
wearing masks when indoors
cleaning and disinfecting high-touch surfaces regularly
covering coughs and sneezes
having a highly vaccinated community (and not just for COVID-19).

Ngā mihi

Dominic Killalea

Principal

27 May – COVID whānau update

Kia ora koutou,

Updated case numbers at school

We have seen a decrease in student case numbers this week and a corresponding decrease in staff numbers. I am printing all the case numbers for the past 4 weeks below.

Stats	2-5 to 6-5	9-5 to 13-5	16-5 to 20-5	23-5 to 27-5
Monday	9	7	15	8
Tuesday	3	3	13	7
Wednesday	2	1	0	2
Thursday	1	4	12	3
Friday	0	3	3	9
Totals	15	18	43	29

In light of these numbers, we do not need to roster any year groups home next week at this stage. If this changes, I will let you know.

To date, almost a third of our students have been affected by COVID. You might also find it interesting to note that it has affected the same proportion of our staff. I have pasted some information from the Ministry of Education below about COVID reinfection and long COVID, which you may find useful.

Reinfection or continued infection

Anecdotally we are receiving a number of reports of reinfection with COVID-19.

Public health advice is that:

current evidence shows the chance of having COVID-19 again within 90 days of a first infection is low, especially if it is the same variant – but it can happen
reinfection within 28 days is considered exceptionally unlikely
COVID-19 like symptoms may be caused by other infections like the common cold, flu or a chest infection
reinfection does not generally cause serious illness for most people but a diagnosis of reinfection with COVID-19 can be important for older people, people who have high risk conditions, or people who have frequent close contact with vulnerable people
people who are low health risk and have symptoms consistent with COVID-19 within 90 days of a COVID-19 diagnosis should stay home and recover until 24 hours after symptoms resolve. They are not required to take a RAT. However, if they become increasingly ill, they should call their GP or Healthline
people with underlying health conditions or anyone who has worsening symptoms should seek advice from a health practitioner or Healthline on 0800 358 5453. A RAT or PCR test may be recommended
we know that people can continue to test positive after their recovery but are very unlikely to be infectious after day 10. Retesting during the initial 28-day period is not necessary unless recommended by a health professional
if you become unwell more than 90 days after a COVID-19 infection you should follow the same advice as for a first infection. That is, seek advice about getting tested.

Further information on catching COVID-19 again is available on the Ministry of Health website.

Catching COVID-19 again – Ministry of Health

Long COVID in children

Long COVID describes the symptoms that continue or develop after the initial COVID-19 symptoms.

This is usually longer than 12 weeks after a person is first infected.

Most people with COVID-19 recover completely and return to normal health. People usually recover from COVID-19 after two to six weeks and many make a full recovery within 12 weeks.

KidsHealth has provided some useful information about COVID-19 symptoms in children which you may wish to share with your community:

for most children with mild COVID-19, they will be back to normal within a week. A small number of children might take up to two weeks to feel back to normal
most children with COVID-19 will have a mild illness and get better quickly
for a child or young person to have a diagnosis of post-COVID-19 condition (long COVID) their symptoms need to be having an impact on their everyday functioning and cannot be explained by another condition
nearly all children will fully recover and return to normal health
scientists and health professionals are still learning about long COVID, but studies so far have found:
- children are much less likely to have long COVID than adults
- children recover faster than adults
- it mostly affects children over the age of 10 – it’s very rare in younger children.

Further information is also available on the KidsHealth website, including caring for a child with COVID-19.

Recovering from long COVID – KidsHealth

Caring for a child with COVID-19 – KidsHealth

Long COVID – Ministry of Health NZ

When can a sick child return to school?

Any child who has COVID-19 or is a household contact must remain at home for the legally required isolation period, regardless of whether they have returned a negative RAT.

Isolation is currently seven days with Day 0 being when a positive test was returned or from symptom onset. At the end of the seven-day isolation period if the child is still sick, they should stay home until they are well and for 24 hours after they no longer have symptoms.

There is no need to wait for an official message to leave isolation although they may receive a text message confirming their isolation period has ended.

If you have COVID-19 – Unite Against COVID-19

Ngā mihi

Dominic Killalea

Principal

14 April – COVID whānau update

Kia ora koutou

You’ll be aware that our Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins, announced the move to Orange starting from 11:59pm last night.

The decision to move to Orange has been made on public health advice and reflects that we are moving past the peak of cases and our health system is able to cope. We are seeing that cases are declining due to high levels of vaccination and natural immunity after infection. We are also seeing our reported cases at school declining.

Stats	7-3 to 11-3	14-3 to 18-3	21-3 to 25-3	28-3 to 1-4	4-4 to 8-4	11-4 to 14-4
Monday	23	35	13	9	3	14
Tuesday	31	14	12	10	13	2
Wednesday	19	18	7	2	4	2
Thursday	19	1	6	3	3	1
Friday	10	8	4	5	1
	102	76	42	29	24	19

At Orange, face masks are no longer required at school. However public health advice is that masks continue to be strongly encouraged when indoors. Wearing a mask is a key health measure that slows the spread of COVID-19 in indoor settings. For that reason, we ask that visitors to the school, including parents and whānau, wear a mask whenever they are indoors on school grounds. In addition, any students and staff who wish to continue to wear face masks will be supported to do so.

We also ask that your young person continues to bring a mask to school every day. There may be times that we may ask them to wear a mask, for example, in close contact situations like assemblies. If there are a high number of cases at school or in the community, we may ask that masks are worn in classrooms for a time.

At Orange, students aged 12 and above are still required to wear a face mask on school or public transport.

We will continue to keep all the other health measures in place at school that we know slow the spread of COVID-19. These include ensuring our indoor spaces are well-ventilated, maintaining good hand hygiene and cough and sneeze etiquette, appropriate physical distancing whenever we can and, most importantly, staying home if we are sick.

We are looking forward to a few less restrictions and returning to school life that is a bit closer to normal.

Ngā mihi

6 April – COVID whānau update

I think I missed a milestone in my previous communication as we have now completed two full years of school under the pressure of a global pandemic. We have learned and we are continuing to learn to be agile in our planning, to adapt and to make the best of sometimes difficult situations. This term, in many ways, has felt like the hardest term of all as advice has constantly been changing. Our students have been quite remarkable in meeting the challenges and showing the necessary resilience through these last two years and I want to thank all of our teachers who have supported and guided our students through these times.

As the landscape continues to change in relation to how we are dealing with COVID, I am providing further information following recent government announcements. Firstly, our own numbers of reported cases at school continue to decline.

Stats	7-3 to 11-3	14-3 to 18-3	21-3 to 25-3	28-3 to 1-4	4-4 to 8-4
Monday	23	35	13	9	3
Tuesday	31	14	12	10	13
Wednesday	19	18	7	2	4
Thursday	19	1	6	3
Friday	10	8	4	5
	102	76	42	29

Wearing face masks when exercising

I mentioned changes last week in relation to masks and exercise. Although students do not need to wear masks when exercising, any students who want to wear a mask while doing PE will be supported to do so. PE teachers have indicated that they will continue to wear masks during these lessons.

College Sport Wellington (CSW) update

In relation to the Government’s removal of the Vaccine Pass requirement from the COVID Protection Framework and the recent changes made to gathering limits, CSW have advised of the following for College Sport Wellington sanctioned events and competitions:

Vaccine Passes are no longer required at CSW sanctioned events and competitions, except where a specific venue still requires them (as deemed by their own Health and Safety review).
Spectators are welcome at all outdoor competitions and events (in line with the removal of gathering restrictions at CPF Red).
Spectators are welcome at indoor competitions and events, except where a specific venue advises otherwise (as deemed by their own Health and Safety review). This will be on a case by case basis where the venue can feasibly host more than 200 people (as per the CPF Red setting) and need to consider gathering restrictions.

Rostering home period 5

The decline in student cases has also seen a decline in teacher cases and absences. Therefore at this stage we are not intending to continue with the rostering home programme for next week. This means that we expect all students to be attending all classes next week, our last 4 days of term 1.

Noho ora mai

30 March – COVID whānau update

Kia ora koutou

I am writing to keep you updated about how our school is continuing to respond to COVID-19 in New Zealand. As you may have seen, in the last few days the media has reported a reduction in the number of daily cases. You can see from the table below that the numbers of reported cases at our school are continuing to decline. The number of students isolating is also declining.

Stats	7-3 to 11-3	14-3 to 18-3	21-3 to 25-3	28-3 to 1-4
Monday	23	35	13	9
Tuesday	31	14	12	10
Wednesday	19	18	7	2
Thursday	19	1	6
Friday	10	8	4
	102	76	42	21

I know these numbers are crucial for some families in making their decision about sending their student(s) to school. Although I understand the caution, please also consider that it is great for any young person’s wellbeing and learning to be at school with their friends, teachers and other school staff.

I want to remind you that there are a number of measures we are taking to combat the spread of COVID in our school. Firstly, we know that being fully vaccinated and boosted reduces the risk of severe illness due to COVID-19. The ministry has shared the following links with good information about the Pfizer vaccine, if you still have questions.

Secondly, we are trying to ensure that all spaces are well ventilated, that students exercise good cough and sneeze etiquette, that they use good hand hygiene and that they are working in areas that are regularly cleaned and sanitised.

Wearing face masks when exercising

Students have been exceptional in their co-operation with this aspect of the plan. Mask wearing is still a vital element of the approach to COVID and remains in place in indoor spaces. However, there has been a shift in recent advice in relation to mask wearing and physical activity indoors.

The advice from public health is that activities held indoors – especially those involving physical exertion, singing, or playing wind instruments – remain a higher risk for spread of COVID-19. While the preference is to hold these activities outdoors, there is understanding that there will be times when they need to be held indoors.

Students are not required to wear masks while participating in indoor sports (or other physically exerting activities). However, they should still be wearing masks when they are not participating in such activities. For example, they would take a mask off to play basketball but they would put on the mask again to visit the toilet during the same lesson.

We will continue to make sure that the spaces where these activities take place are well-ventilated. I really like the short video in the link below which compares breath in well-ventilated and poorly ventilated spaces, with and without masks – Why wearing masks and creating airflow helps – KidsHealth

Remote learning for those who are isolating

From time to time some students will need to isolate at home. This is in line with Government advice and if this happens, we will support them to continue their learning at home through the use of Google Classroom.

According to the Paediatric Society of NZ, in most children COVID-19 is a mild illness. It can be managed by whānau with some simple measures such as keeping fluids up and keeping an eye out for symptoms. Our advice remains the same that if students are feeling unwell they should be staying at home and getting advice about getting a COVID-19 test.

If you have any concerns about sending your child to school, please get in touch – our team is here to help. We want children to be at school and engaging in learning with their friends.

Year 12 students rostered home for period 5 next week (Monday 4 April to Friday 8 April)

Although we are seeing a decline in overall cases, there is a degree of uncertainty that remains. Therefore we will continue with our period 5 rostering home plans and next week, year 12 will be rostered home for each period 5 of their timetable (and year 11 and 13 students should be at school at those times). There may be multi level classes (year 12-13) with other alternative arrangements – teachers of those classes will advise their students accordingly. In most cases, students will be expected to work remotely for those lessons.

Noho ora mai

Dominic Killalea

Principal

23 March 2022

Kia ora koutou

This morning the Prime Minister announced changes to the COVID-19 Protection Framework which will take effect from 11.59pm this Friday 25 March, and to vaccine mandates and My Vaccine Pass, which will take effect from 11.59pm Monday 4 April.

These changes reflect the science and public health advice, and where New Zealand has moved to in our Omicron response. The key changes are as follows.

COVID-19 Protection Framework, My Vaccine Pass and vaccination mandates

The removal of vaccination mandates for education workers will take effect from 11.59pm Monday 4 April.
On the same date, removal of the My Vaccine Pass from the COVID-19 Protection Framework (traffic light system).
There is no requirement to display QR code posters or have other processes, other than our regular processes, to support people to check-in. This system may need to return if case numbers rise.

Red

There is no change to masks in education settings from the existing Red setting. Medical-grade masks remain a requirement for staff working indoors with young people in Years 4-13. Students should continue to wear masks at school and on school transport, unless they are exempted.
For all New Zealanders, including school settings, masks will not be required outdoors.
Capacity limits will be removed for outdoor events and activities.
Indoor capacity limits for extra-curricular activities increase to 200 people, or a maximum capacity based on the maximum number of people who could occupy the space if each person was one metre apart (whichever is lower).

Orange

There is no change to masks in education settings from the existing Orange setting. Masks are strongly encouraged to be worn when indoors and are required for children aged 12 and over on school transport.
As at Red, there will be no mask requirements when outdoors.
There will be no outdoor capacity limits.
Indoor capacity limits are also removed. However, for non-curriculum related events and activities you are strongly encouraged to use allocated seating for large events (such as those with more than 500 people) or apply a maximum capacity limit based on the maximum number of people who could occupy the space if each person was one metre apart.

Green

There will be no face mask requirements and no capacity or gathering limits in any setting, indoors or outdoors.

Wellington High School student COVID case numbers

You can see from the table below that the numbers of reported cases at school are dropping. We are also seeing lower numbers of students isolating so a sense of normality is returning to school life. It is also pleasing that overall attendance at school has increased by 4 percentage points from last week to this week.

Week commencing	7 March	14 March	21 March
Monday	23	35	13
Tuesday	31	14	12
Wednesday	19	18	7
Thursday	19	1
Friday	10	8
Total	102	76

Parent teacher evenings postponed

We have decided to postpone our parent-teacher evenings scheduled for the start of term 2. There is a fair amount of organisation required for these evenings and there is still uncertainty in the current environment.

We hope to run these further into next term and we will advise you on new dates for these.

Year 13 students rostered home for period 5 next week (Monday 28 March to Friday 1 April)

We are still dealing with uncertainty and our rostering home plans have helped us cover extraordinary staff absences over the last 3 weeks. Next week, our year 13 students will be rostered home for each period 5 of their timetable (and year 11 and 12 students are at school at those times). There may be multi level classes (year 12-13) with other alternative arrangements – teachers of those classes will advise their students accordingly.

In most cases, students will be expected to work remotely for those lessons.

He Kākano students and rostering home

Noho ora mai

Dominic Killalea

Principal

16 March 2022 – COVID whānau update

Kia ora koutou

I am writing this update because I realise there would be an element of uncertainty in relation to the evolving COVID situation at school, and in the community, and student case numbers. As a school, we are required to send our daily case information to the ministry and I am happy to share this data with you on a weekly basis. I realise that this will influence your decision about whether school is a safe environment for your student. Through sharing these numbers, I am hopeful that we will see some indicators related to the peak and hopeful decline over time.

The numbers of student cases reported to us last week were as follows:

Monday 7 March – 23
Tuesday 8 March – 31
Wednesday 9 March – 19
Thursday 10 March – 19
Friday 11 March – 10

And this week we have had the following numbers of student cases:

Monday 14 March – 35
Tuesday 15 March – 14
Wednesday 16 March – 18

With Monday 7 March to Wednesday 9 March cases returning to school, we have 96 cases out of school at the moment. The Monday figures for both weeks are interesting because they are effectively 3 days of data. In addition to this data we have approximately 300 students isolating which, combined with the case numbers, is making teaching a little challenging at the moment as classes are averaging between half and two thirds of the students only. You will appreciate that it is not possible for teachers to teach both an at-school class and an online class. However, teachers will continue to update their google classrooms so that students are able to keep in touch with what is happening at school (if they are well enough to do so).

If you are reporting a COVID case or home isolation case to school

If you need to tell us that your students is isolating because they have COVID or they are a household contact, please let us know the relevant day 0 information for our records – day 0 is the earlier of the first day they displayed symptoms or the day they tested positive.

Health advice

Given that we have large numbers of students isolating as COVID cases and as household contacts, I remind you of the best health advice at the moment:

You and your whānau should be very vigilant about monitoring for symptoms.
If any symptoms develop, get tested immediately.
Wear a face mask when out and about.
Wash hands often with soap for 20 seconds and dry your hands completely.
Wash your hands if you have been in a public place or after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing.
Avoid touching your face, and cough or sneeze into your elbow or cover your mouth with tissues.
If you and your whānau haven’t been vaccinated or boosted, please do so as soon as possible. You can book on-line at bookmyvaccine.nz or by calling 0800 28 29 26. It’s free.

Symptoms of COVID-19

A new or worsening cough,

Sneezing and runny nose,
A fever,
Temporary loss of smell or altered sense of taste,
Sore throat,
Shortness of breath.

Less common symptoms include diarrhoea, headache, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, malaise, chest pain, abdominal pain, joint pain, or confusion/irritability.

For more information, go to the Unite Against COVID-19 website.

If you or someone in your whānau tests positive for Covid 19

If you or your child receive a positive test result the household must isolate for seven days.
Household contacts must test on Day 3 and Day 7.

Returning to school after COVID-19

Students who test positive for COVID-19 are not required to self-isolate past seven days, but they shouldn’t return to school if they are still feeling unwell.
Many children will have long lasting runny nose and cough after viral infections. If it is over 10 days since the onset of the COVID infection and they are no longer feeling unwell, they are unlikely to be transmitting any active COVID infection and can return to school. However, if they are continuing to feel unwell or their symptoms are worsening after 10 days then GP review is recommended.

What we’re doing

We are staying open, with alternative arrangements put in place to cover staff who are sick or isolating,
We are using public health measures to reduce the risk in our settings, including masks, physical distancing and ventilation,
We have appropriate cleaning procedures in place.

Changes to vaccine pass requirements for teams and groups

As signalled in my COVID update on 3 March, changes have now been made to the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Protection Framework) Order. All children and young people enrolled in a registered school are now able to participate in all school-organised teams and groups regardless of their vaccination status. This change took effect from 11.59pm Saturday 12 March.

For education outside the classroom (EOTC), this will mean that an offsite provider will not be able to ask children and young people participating in school-organised curriculum-related activities for evidence of vaccination. However, it should be noted that there are other activities where student participants are not in a school-organised team or group and they are not included in this exemption from vaccine pass requirements. These will still need to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Year 11 students rostered home for period 5 next week (Monday 21 March to Friday 25 March)

Our rostering plan for year 13 and year 12 in successive weeks to cover staff absences has worked well with a minimum of disruption. Next week, our year 11 students will be rostered home for each period 5 of their timetable (and year 12 and 13 students are at school at those times). Please note that MAT123 classes will run as normal for year 12 students during the period 5 slot but year 11 students should not be attending. There may be multi level classes (year 11-12-13) with other alternative arrangements – teachers of those classes will advise their students accordingly.

The period 5 class is the second period of a double for all year 11 students. In most cases, students will be expected to continue the work that they have been given in that double period, at home, or their teacher will let them know alternative arrangements.

As I have said previously, this plan frees up a number of staff who can cover elsewhere in our timetable and allow the school to continue operations as normally as possible.

Please note that this arrangement is only for next week – Monday 21 March to Friday 25 March. I will advise if we need to add another year level to this arrangement, depending on how the week evolves.

He Kākano students and rostering home

Noho ora mai

Dominic Killalea

Principal

9 March 2022

Kia ora koutou

As the numbers of cases and household contacts amongst our student population continues to increase, it is important that we make sure that all students are following the advice from the Ministry of Health in relation to isolation. I have pasted some useful information below.

When should COVID-19 cases and contacts end their isolation?

Positive cases of COVID-19

As you know, a person confirmed to have COVID-19 must currently isolate for a minimum of 10 days and until they are symptom-free. However, the Government has announced today that the 10 day period is reducing to 7 days from Saturday 12 March. If someone is still sick at the end of 7 days, they should stay home until they are well. Day zero for isolation is from the date they either developed symptoms or were tested positive if they do not have symptoms.

The case does not need to have any further tests after their initial confirmation test (they have already tested positive).

Household contacts of someone with COVID-19 (from Saturday 12 March)

Any household contacts of the positive case must isolate for 7 days and take a Rapid Antigen Test on day 3 and 7 of the case’s isolation period. If a household contact tests negative on day 3 and day 7 and is symptom-free, they can return to school on day 8. A reminder that if someone else in the house tests positive, you do not need to restart your 7 days unless you have tested positive. Recovered cases won’t need to self-isolate if they become a household contact within 90 days.

There is a helpful tool on the Unite Against COVID-19 website which calculates a person’s isolation period.

If you need to inform the school that your young person has tested positive or is a household contact, please let us know their day zero.

How can my student stay in touch with learning at school?

We have information about our remote learning plan on our school website (red banner at top – COVID updates). If your student is isolating or is well enough to work from home, they will be supported through their online Google Classroom. We suggest that they follow a normal timetable for a day and make sure they have plenty of breaks as being online for long periods can be draining.

Unfortunately, in these ‘hybrid’ times, teachers will most likely not be available to support their online learning during the lesson time as the teachers are still taking classes at school, or themselves isolating or unwell. If a student has a question about the work, they should email their teacher or post into the classroom.

Supporting students with complex medical needs through Omicron

There will be some students who may have pre-existing medical needs or other developmental needs that could mean there is a greater risk from COVID-19 transmission, especially when there are high numbers of cases in the community.

If you are worried then talk to your health practitioner who knows the specific needs of your young person, to decide what is best for them. We will then work together to tailor the support that we can offer either onsite or at home. Do not hesitate to get in touch with us so that we can work through this together.

Year 12 students rostered home for period 5 next week (Monday 14 March to Friday 18 March)

Our rostering plan for year 13 this week has gone well and we have been able to cover all classes that have needed cover to date. We have made the decision that for next week, our year 12 students will be rostered home for each period 5 of their timetable. Exceptions may apply if they are attending a mixed level class – their teacher will let them know the arrangements. As for year 13, the period 5 class is the second period of a double. In most cases, students will be expected to continue the work that they have been given in that double period, at home, or their teacher will let them know alternative arrangements.

As I said last week, this will free up a number of staff who can cover elsewhere in our timetable and allow the school to continue operations as normally as possible.

If the situation deteriorates during the week, we may ask the same of year 11. Again, I will let you know if this is going to happen.

Please note that this arrangement is only for next week – Monday 14 March to Friday 18 March.

Mauri Ora!

Dominic Killalea, Principal

4 March 2022

Kia ora koutou

With the rise in COVID cases and household contact isolating now affecting some of our staff, our ability to staff classes is being really tested. With this in mind, we have made a decision to roster year 13 home for each period 5 next week, except where they are attending a mixed level class. The period 5 class is the second period of a double. In most cases, students will be expected to continue the work that they have been given in that double period, at home, or their teacher will let them know alternative arrangements.

This will free up a number of staff who can cover elsewhere in our timetable and allow the school to continue operations as normally as possible.

If the situation deteriorates during the week or in future weeks, we may progressively ask the same of year 12 and year 11 in turn. I will let you know if this is going to happen.

Please note that this arrangement is only for next week – Monday 7 March to Friday 11 March.

Changes to the COVID Protection Framework Rules for School Sport

We are really pleased with the high participation rates in many of our summer sports, in particular futsal and volleyball. The Ministry of Education has advised us that, “… as indicated by Minister Hipkins, all children and young people will soon be able to participate in all school-organised teams and groups regardless of their vaccination status. An amendment to the Health Order will now be needed and we anticipate these changes will take effect no later than Tuesday 15 March. This will apply to onsite and offsite activities for both curriculum-related (including offsite education outside the classroom) and extra-curricular activities offered by a registered school.” Until that date, the existing requirements / permissions under the Health Order remain in place.

College Sport Wellington (CSW) have advised us that they are currently working through the implications of the change in the Health Order and we expect to hear more soon. In light of the cancellation of many Summer Tournament week events, CSW have advised us that the following Wellington Regional Tournaments will take place:

Futsal – 29 and 30 March at ASB Sports Centre
Volleyball – 30 March to 1 April @ Te Rauparaha Arena

There will be arrangements made to ensure these events abide by the COVID Protection Framework gathering limits, and we will communicate directly with those doing our school organisation.

Athletics Postponement Dates Confirmed

Following the decision to postpone the CSW Zone and Regional Athletics events, CSW can now confirm that the following dates have been confirmed for Newtown Park:

Western Zone – 12 September
Athletes with Disabilities – 15 September
Regionals – 20 September

We postponed our Athletics Day in term 1 because of the Red settings in the CPF and we will keep these new dates in mind as we plan for athletics later in the year.

Mauri Ora!

Dominic Killalea

Principal

25 February 2022

Kia ora koutou,

I am sure you are aware of the move to phase 3 of the Omicron response from today. The key change at phase 3 is that it is only confirmed cases and their household contacts who need to self-isolate. Everyone else, including those who may have had close contact with the case but aren’t in the household, must continue to monitor very closely for any symptoms of COVID-19, but do not need to isolate. The Ministry of Health has published good summaries of this information.

We are seeing a much larger number of daily cases and we have had five cases that we know about so far at school – in each case, the student had already been self isolating but we took precautions with close contacts and asked them to self isolate as well. This has allowed us to continue to stay open. Naturally, as cases in our community increase, more will appear in our school and we will be tested in our operations. We believe we have good plans in place to cope with staff and student absences. Currently, if any students need to isolate, they can keep in touch with their classes through their online google classroom which teachers are regularly updating – there is more information in our remote learning plan.

While we are able to cope with inevitable staff and student absence, we will remain open at Red and we know that it is really positive for a child’s wellbeing and learning to be at school with their friends and school staff.

In these times, we ask you to continue to keep a really close watch of your whānau for anyone with symptoms. If unwell, please stay at home and get advice about getting a COVID-19 test.

With Phase 3 of the Omicron response,

Rapid antigen tests (RATs) are now being used to diagnose COVID-19 as well as PCR tests. This means that you will get an almost immediate test result back if a RAT is used.
If anyone in your family is confirmed as having COVID-19, you will be asked to notify your close contacts yourself. Please get in touch with us as soon as you can if your child has tested positive for COVID-19.
Transmission of COVID-19 is still most likely to happen in your home – so please keep doing all those good things to keep your whānau safe. Wash your hands, get lots of fresh air, cover any coughs and sneezes, clean surfaces regularly, and seek advice if anyone is not feeling well. And please wear a mask when you are out and about. There is information online to help your family prepare to isolate if you need to.

The most important advice we can give to keep your whānau safe is to act as if you have COVID-19. More than a third of people who have COVID-19 will not have any symptoms if they have had three doses of the vaccine. Please think about who you visit and what health measures you can put in place to keep everyone as safe as possible.

Getting three doses of the vaccine will really help you to do that. Research has shown that compared with being unvaccinated, three doses of the vaccine will mean you are 67% less likely to be infected with Omicron and 97% less likely to get Delta. If you can’t get COVID you can’t pass it on.

Finally, we know how hard the impacts on COVID-19 have been for many families in New Zealand. If you know of a family in your community who is struggling, please encourage them to reach out for support for example to access food, medicine, or access financial support: Help is available – COVID-19 Health Hub.

If you have any concerns about sending your student to school, please do get in touch. We are here to help.

Mauri ora

Dominic Killalea

Principal

11 February 2022

Kia ora koutou kota.

Kei ngā whānau, kei ngā kaitiaki tokomaha o te motu e poipoi ana i ngā tamariki mokopuna, tēnā rā koutou katoa.

This update contains information about getting booster vaccinations, students / teachers who are required by Public Health to self-isolate and how we will manage if there is a COVID case identified in the school.

‘The Big Boost’

You may be aware ‘The Big Boost’ is happening during February, and everyone in Aotearoa is being asked to get their boosters as soon as they are due.

To make it easy, pop-up vaccination centres and extended opening hours are open for you to get your booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

Evidence has shown that the Pfizer vaccine provides a higher level of protection against severe disease or hospitalisation from the Omicron variant, than the two-dose course. Being fully vaccinated with two doses provides greater protection against Delta, however the booster is the best way to fight Omicron.

If you want to know more about the booster – you can get the facts about COVID-19 vaccinations.

Who can have a booster?

Anyone in your whānau over the age of 18 and has had their second dose at least three months ago.

You can check when you are due for a booster by visiting mycovidrecord.nz or calling the Covid Vaccination Healthline on 0800 28 29 26 (8am-8pm, seven days a week).

You can book your booster at BookMyVaccine.nz or for whānau bookings call 0800 28 29 26

Teachers and students who are required to isolate

Already this year we have had a number of staff and students who have been required to isolate. This occurrence will grow and we need to learn to live with it and understand it a bit better.

A person who is asked to isolate will be identified and informed by Public Health. When this happens, they receive an ‘official’ letter / email requiring them to go into self-isolation for a period stated in the communication. Once the recommended period of self-isolation has been completed, provided they do not become unwell during that period, and the relevant negative test results have been received, they will be released following notification from a health official. This will occur on the day after their isolation period has been completed. You can find out more information about this at https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-health-advice-public/contact-tracing-covid-19

Once public health has made an assessment that the person can return to school, they will send an emailing confirming this.

If your student receives a letter informing them that they need to self-isolate, please inform us as soon as practically possible by contacting your student’s rōpū teacher.

How we will manage if there is a confirmed COVID-19 case in our school

1. The school will immediately be in touch with the Ministry of Education. They will provide advice about the next steps and support us through the process to follow. Their team will connect with public health services to seek advice for our school.
2. Closing our school may not be required and will only occur in consultation with, and direction from Health or in discussion with the Director of Education.
3. We will need to identify all people in our school who may be considered contacts through our:
  1. timetable
  2. attendance register
  3. sports, cultural and other extracurricular groups
  4. visitor register
4. Identifying the contacts will take some time to ensure the risk assessment undertaken by public health is based on good information.
5. As an interim measure to mitigate risk and if advised by the Director of Education to do so, the following actions can be taken:
  1. The confirmed case and their household should already be self-isolating.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. We 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.
  5. Undertake a clean prior to the other students, children and staff return onsite.

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 support, with communications to the school or early learning service 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/early learning
Any known activities onsite during that infectious period
Isolation end date and testing advice for contacts

The information above has been taken from the following Ministry of Ed page – Schools connected to a confirmed case.

Mauri Ora!

Dominic Killalea

Principal

4 February 2022

Kia ora whānau

As we welcome all of our students back, this communication will provide a little more information about arrangements at school under the CPF red setting. I apologise for the length of this communication and it combines our own planning and information from the Ministry of Education.

Sport under red setting

Most sport and recreation activities are classified as a Gathering in the CPF eg netball training after school, football match between two schools, single school athletics. Other sporting and recreation activities could be classified as events eg Sport NZ tournament weeks, multi-school athletics competitions, regional kapahaka. Most inter-school competitions (against other schools) will only be held with a vaccination pass requirement. Intra school competitions (eg inter-herengatahi competitions) can be held without vaccination pass requirements because they remain in school.

In relation to spectators, College Sport Wellington have informed us that the ‘no spectator’ rule will be implemented under red settings. However, they are allowing schools to have some flexibility with this for sports played on school sites. Note that spectators will need to have a vaccination pass if they are attending an event onsite. We will communicate separately about which events can be attended by spectators.

How to sign up for summer and winter sports

We are unable to hold our ‘aroha’ day introductions to sport and cultural activities so we will be getting this information to students in alternative ways. If your student is interested in playing sports at High, they can find out more information and register for sports on our dedicated sports website – https://www.sporty.co.nz/whs.

The mask mandate

As you know, unless exempted, school staff and students are now required to wear masks at school. The requirements for masks are different for staff and students. Staff are required to wear medical grade masks while students may wear a range of masks including cloth masks. Masks are just one of the measures we can use for reducing the spread of the virus. Other measures include:

being fully vaccinated and having a booster
staying home and seeking medical advice if you are unwell
keeping your distance from other people and making sure spaces are well ventilated
cleaning your hands often and sneezing and coughing into your elbow
keeping track of where you’ve been with the NZ COVID Tracer app.

The Ministry of Health have advised that there is no specific time limit for how long a single-use mask is effective, and you do not necessarily need to change your mask regularly throughout the day. Staff and students are able to wear a medical mask until it is damp, soiled or damaged. The important thing is for the wearer to make sure the mask has maintained its integrity. If you can see it is soiled or torn, it needs to be replaced.

When looking for a medical mask in New Zealand, the box normally states that it is a medical mask. You can use any of these. For example:

Meets ASTM F2100-11 standard level: translated this means it meets the American Standard – American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) Standard F2100-11). A level 1 mask is recommended but you could wear level 1, level 2 or level 3.
Medical mask meets BS EN 14683 type I: translated this means it meets British Standard (BS) or European Standard (EN) 14683. A type I or type II is recommended but you could wear a type IIR.

Some reusable masks with filters do meet the medical-grade standard. Again, the packaging will indicate if it is a medical mask. These can be used, so long as the instructions for use are followed.

Exemptions from wearing masks

Information on mask exemptions can be found on the Unite Against COVID-19 website.

Contingency planning

We expect to see high rates of staff and student absence as the term and year unfolds. The senior leadership team have been planning around scenarios to cope with high rates of staff and student absences. This may mean rostering of senior year levels home (who will continue to work online) or collapsing the timetable for senior students for a period or two a day. Our priority will be to keep our year 9 and 10 students at school learning and our experience of remote learning over the last couple of years will serve us well in these situations.

School photos

School photos are happening on Thursday 17 February and Friday 18 February. We cannot run these in the same way as we have done in previous years under the current ‘red’ settings. All students will have ID photos taken, and composite class photos will be created from the ID shots. In time it will help us all remember this time!

Athletics day scheduled for Wednesday 16 February

This has been postponed with an alternative date not yet set. Most likely, it will be towards the end of term 3 (yes I know lots is happening then!) or term 4.

Wellington Trades Academies and vaccination status

Wellington Trades Academy have been in touch with schools in relation to participation and vaccination status. “In some courses, given the ‘public facing’ and workplace readiness nature of the delivery, full vaccination is a requirement and needs to be complied with before attendance on campuses. Those students will also need to have their vaccination passes with them. This includes the Cookery, Cooking Café Service, Salon Environment, Barbering, and Animal Care courses who will be engaging with outside clients, customers, and also undertaking visits to organisations that require an MVP as part of their course. Creative Technology will be delivered online so full vaccination is not necessary. Health Science courses will also be delivered online so full vaccination is not currently necessary; however, if opportunities for lab sessions on campus do arise later in the year, full vaccination will be required to attend these. For Construction Mixed Trades, Engineering and Automotive, and Engines we have been working with our team to organise the delivery of this in a manner that does not require a public-facing component. Given the outdoor nature of most of the delivery, we believe we can now extend these offerings to all students, vaccinated and unvaccinated.”

Artificial turf

I mentioned at the end of last year that construction of an artificial turf would be taking place in term 1. It is really good to see that work is already underway and we have been told that the expected completion date is the end of this term.

Protecting our tamariki from Omicron

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, public health advice has noted that our experience in New Zealand and overseas with COVID-19 shows that it does not affect children and teens in the same way it does adults.

While the role our tamariki play in transmitting COVID-19 is still unclear and is changing as new variants evolve and older populations become increasingly vaccinated, as of 28 January the Ministry of Health has advised “no new evidence has emerged yet on the transmission risk to or from children in light of Omicron … it is likely that children continue to pose a lower risk of transmission”.

As such, the Ministry of Health’s current advice is that transmission within school settings continues to be limited and is influenced by broader transmission in the community and household settings. That is, although children are susceptible to infection, transmission is more likely to occur between adults and from adults to children; the risk of child-to-child or child-to-adult transmission is considerably less.

Commonly, children have mild or no symptoms of COVID-19 with a short duration of illness that includes headache, fever, cough, nasal congestion and fatigue. Those more at risk are those living with pre-existing health conditions such as asthma, diabetes and obesity and socioeconomic barriers to accessing health care.

We can protect our tamariki through key interventions such as wearing masks, good ventilation, spatial distancing, ‘stay at home if sick’ policies and good hand hygiene. Encouraging good behaviours that will adhere to the COVID-19 Protection Framework outside of school hours, will also help to reduce risk for tamariki, their friends and whānau.

For more detailed information about the Omicron variant go to the Ministry of Health website.

Translated and accessible information on COVID-19

Please be aware that there is a wide variety of COVID-19 information in 27 languages and four alternate formats on the Unite Against COVID-19 website and this translated information is updated regularly. If you know people that would benefit from this information, please let them know. There is key information including:

COVID-19: Our Isolation Plan,
Getting your booster dose,
Protecting your tamariki from COVID-19,
Wearing a face covering,
Testing,
Support for if you get COVID-19,
Support for individuals and families.

Mauri Ora!

Dominic Killalea

Principal

Start of Year 2022 – COVID-19 information

Kia ora

We look forward to welcoming all of our students back next week after what I hope has been a wonderful summer for you and your whānau. This communication is to give you some more information in relation to recent announcements about COVID-19 and the Omicron variant.

You should know that we have moved fully into the new traffic light framework for all our school and kura activities and events this year and we will be starting the year at Red setting. A brief overview of the CPF and how it applies to schools is contained here. Please note that at Red setting, we are able to support everyone learning onsite.

Events and activities

Large hui and gatherings especially when indoors continue to be one of the riskier activities we can undertake. We are currently reviewing all our events and activities for the upcoming term to ensure we meet the health guidance for Red. The most immediate of these events is our pōwhiri for new students. This event will run without parents this year and it will be held outside the school marae. Details for this event have been provided separately.

Ventilation

We have used the Ministry of Education self-assessment tool to review all our ventilation in readiness for the start of the year. Providing good old fashioned fresh air remains the most important thing we can do in our learning spaces to minimise risk for ākonga and kaiako (and the same goes for you at home). We will also be doing some CO2 monitoring in the coming weeks to further support our ventilation plan.

Omicron and testing

We have all seen the very large numbers of cases overseas and we will very likely see much larger numbers of cases in Aotearoa than we have previously experienced in the last two years. While Omicron is more transmissible than previous strains, most people who get COVID-19 will have a mild to moderate illness and will fully recover in their own home.

However, some of our community who are immune compromised, are ill or have other vulnerabilities, even when they are fully vaccinated, could be more affected by Omicron. So, we all need to continue to play our part to minimise the spread of the virus.

In regard to testing, the health system currently has capacity to process 40,000 PCR tests a day. PCR testing is the most accurate test for COVID-19 and will continue to be used while New Zealand is in the stamp-it-out phase.

Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) will begin to be used more widely over time. They are not as accurate as PCR tests and this means that some people who do have COVID-19 will get a negative test result back. There are currently 4.6 million RATs in the country and 10s of millions ordered.

If you are symptomatic or need to be tested to access a workplace or service, you will be guided at the time on which test is best for you.

Face coverings

Staff and children in Years 4 – 13 must wear face coverings when inside at school when we are at Red.

Public health advice is that an appropriate face covering will fit snugly and seal well around facial contours. This can include single use, disposable masks (medical masks) and re-usable fabric masks with three layers.

Don’t worry if you don’t have these specific types of face coverings, as public health experts also say that any face covering is better than no face covering.

The Unite Against COVID-19 website also has information on how to make a face covering.

For those of you with children who might be reluctant to wear a face covering, there is some helpful advice from Michigan Health, including using simple, specific explanations about why they need to wear a face covering, adults being the role models, providing small rewards for wearing them, bringing face coverings into play such as drawing face coverings on characters in colouring books, or letting them choose/make the mask.

Good hygiene practices

We will continue to emphasise good hygiene practices as we have throughout the COVID-19 pandemic including:

regular hand washing/sanitising
cough and sneeze etiquette
regular cleaning of high touch surfaces
students and staff to stay at home if they are sick, and we will send anyone home immediately if they show any symptoms.

Managing cases in our school

Our attendance registers are our contact tracing system and if there is a confirmed case who has been at school while infectious, we can quickly identify who was a close contact of that person. We will then quickly advise those contacts of what they need to do.

Only if the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Education advises to do so, would we consider closing a physical onsite school and moving to distance learning for everyone. At Red we will keep everyone learning onsite for as long as we can.

Please make sure your contact details we have on file are up to date, so we can get in touch with you if needed.

Preparing for COVID-19

You can also prepare for COVID-19, making sure you and your household have a plan and know what to do. This will mean your whānau and community can help each other if needed. Find out more here:

Be prepared for COVID-19
Download the COVID-19 Readiness Checklist [PDF, 121 KB]
What to expect when self-isolating at home

Self-isolating at home because of COVID-19

Many people will be able to manage self-isolation with help from friends and whānau, but there is help available if you need it – both with health support and access to food and other essentials.

If you know anyone in your community affected by COVID-19 and who may need help, such as food and other financial assistance, Work and Income has a range of supports available for individuals, families, employers and self-employed people affected by COVID-19.

Work and Income support

The beginning of the year can be a tough time for parents who are faced with many costs and it is important you are aware of what assistance you may be able to get from Work and Income. These are available to people on a low income as well as those on a benefit. In addition, feel free to contact me if you are experiencing financial difficulties.

Check what you might get here

School costs
Out of School Care and Recreation (OSCAR) Subsidy
Other Childcare Assistance
School and Year Start-up Payment (for people getting Orphan’s Benefit or Unsupported Child’s Benefit)
Help with living costs (including food and rent/mortgage)

Use the links above or call 0800 559 009 to find out more, or to apply.

MoneyTalks can assist with free budgeting and debt help.

You can also contact your local community provider. Please find more information here.

Getting ready to return to school

The Ministry of Education has some helpful information on their Parents and Whānau website to support your tamariki to get back to school. There is also a very important reminder about how you can take care of yourself.

While this might all feel a little overwhelming at times, we know that all these measures will help our children return to school, reconnect with whānau and friends and do what they enjoy.

Please remember that we are also here to help – use this page to contact the person that you need to speak to about anything related to your student.

Ngā mihi

Dominic Killalea

Principal

2021

COVID update 30-11-21

Kia ora koutou

In light of announcements yesterday, it is time for another update in relation to COVID-19 and how this relates to schools.

New COVID Protection Framework (CPF)

You will know that the whole country is moving to the new COVID Protection Framework from Friday 3 December. In Wellington, we will be moving to Orange on this new framework.

Elimination and the alert levels have worked well, with New Zealand having the lowest numbers of cases and hospitalisations in the OECD. The focus is now on minimising the impact of the Delta strain and being ready for other variants such as omicron which may hit our communities.

With 85% of eligible New Zealanders now fully vaccinated, and by mid-December it is expected to be approximately 90%, this allows a careful reopening while continuing to protect New Zealanders.

Despite the new framework, the ministry has told us yesterday that schools will retain their existing COVID-19 settings until the end of the 2021 calendar year and move to the CPF in the new year. For next year, we can confirm that everyone will be back onsite for learning regardless of the setting under the new Traffic Light Framework (Red/Orange/Green). I imagine this news will be met with some apprehension from staff and students but I feel that most of us also see this as inevitable with the current knowledge we have. This decision will heighten the importance of the health measures that we need to maintain.

Health measures in place at school

This year and next, health, safety and wellbeing will continue to be a priority for us and the same public health measures you are very familiar with will remain in place:

good hygiene and cleaning
contact tracing systems in place
vaccination requirements for workers (paid and unpaid)
if you are sick, you must stay home and get tested
good ventilation.

If we are at Red at any stage next year:

face coverings will be required at school when indoors for students and staff in years 4 – 13
we will ask that only essential visitors come onsite.

With these measures in place, public health has confirmed the risk of infection remains low when at school, with households continuing to be where COVID-19 is spreading the most. As noted by Dr Caroline McElnay, Director of Public Health:

Our experience in New Zealand and overseas with COVID-19 shows that it does not affect children and teens in the same way it does adults. Children and teens don’t become as unwell if they do get infected, and they don’t tend to pass the virus on so much as adults when in a classroom setting.
Compared to other places, schools and early learning services are not environments where we have seen significant spread of COVID-19. Household members and work colleagues who are in close contact with people with COVID-19, are the most common sources of transmission.

However, if we do have someone confirmed with COVID-19 in our school, we have a plan in place to manage this and will contact you as soon as possible.

The requirement for vaccination and vaccine passes next year

This will become an interesting area next year. Despite an earlier email where we were asked to set up a vaccination register for our students according to ministry guidelines, the ministry has informed us in their 19 November bulletin that when the CPF takes effect on Friday 3 December, we cannot require evidence of vaccination for children, students and their parents and caregivers if they are there to access education as this is viewed as an essential service.

However, there will be situations where requiring evidence of vaccination is not prohibited and we will provide information on these as appropriate next year. For example, a parent-teacher evening would be viewed as an essential part of a student’s education so vaccination cannot be required for such an event. A music evening or a drama production would not be viewed in the same way so it may be appropriate to ask for a vaccine certificate to access such an event.

Further to this, if we use offsite providers for educational purposes, they may require our students to produce vaccine passes. We have had one example of this already. In such cases we will provide an alternative activity at school for those who are unable to attend and we will communicate clearly about the expectations with such events. It is important to note in these cases that the business or service provider has the right to decide who comes onto their premises and the requirements around vaccine passes. This may take some time to negotiate next year – for the moment further details can be found at Events — business.govt.nz.

If you’d like to learn more about the framework visit COVID-19 Protection Framework.

Teacher Only Day – Wednesday 1 December

This is the third and final day that has been set aside for the purposes of exploring the changes to NCEA from 2023 onwards. Students should not be attending school on this day.

Ngā mihi

Dominic Killalea, Principal

Message to the community – Friday 15 October

Kia ora koutou

There were a number of announcements from the Government in the last week that will affect how we operate in the future and I need to share these with you in this communication. It is pleasing to see the response by most New Zealanders to this latest COVID outbreak with high rates of testing and more and more people getting vaccinated.

If we were to have a case of COVID-19 in our school in the future, public health authorities will want to know if we are a school with a high vaccination rate. This information will then be used as part of the local health authority’s risk assessment. The more highly vaccinated we are (staff and eligible students ie students aged 12+), the less likely it will be that we will have to close down for a long period of time, or we might not need to close at all. We are also doing our part by working toward all our staff being vaccinated.

We will therefore need to know if your child has had their first or second vaccine dose or is exempted from being vaccinated. This information will be held by us in accordance with the Privacy Act and will only be shared with public health authorities. We are therefore getting our data collection system in place and I will get in touch with you again very soon.

As of 7 October, more than 5.7 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have now been given in New Zealand:

53 percent are fully vaccinated (2 doses) = 2.2 million New Zealanders
81 percent have had their first dose = 3.4 million New Zealanders
86 percent of Aucklanders have had their first dose
61percent of Aucklanders have had their second dose

As of 3 October 2021, 86 percent of Pacific Peoples and 90 percent of Māori aged 65 and over had received their first dose (compared with 93 percent of non-Māori and Non-Pacific) and our average daily numbers for Māori getting their first dose have increased by 69 percent in the last fortnight.

While the signs are really pleasing, clearly the job isn’t done. The two best things we can to do keep our community as safe as possible is to get tested if we are feeling unwell and get everyone who is eligible, vaccinated.

The second announcement from the government is that all staff members who work in schools and workers who may have contact with students will be required to have a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by 15 November 2021 and be fully vaccinated by 1 January 2022. This public health order includes all school staff and also applies to any visitors to site including contractors, sports coaches, cleaners, volunteers (including parent volunteers) and any members of the community who are on site at the school. The vaccination requirement does not apply to parents or whānau undertaking student pick-ups and drop-offs, but these should be conducted in an outdoor environment where face coverings must be worn, and physical distancing measures retained.

Thirdly, please note that face coverings are now required to be worn on school transport as well as public transport for all students in years 9 – 13.

Fourthly, the restrictions on gatherings at alert level 2 will mean that some of our normal end of year activities will not be running and some will have a different form. I will provide more advice in relation to these activities next week.

Finally, you may be aware that Super Saturday is happening this weekend, our national day of action to get more people vaccinated. With summer rapidly approaching, the Government is working hard to get everyone to have their first vaccine dose now. We encourage you to support the national day of action this Saturday 16 October and think about what you can do as an individual to help others be vaccinated.

Find more information on the Unite Against COVID-19 website.

I look forward to seeing all of our junior students (years 9 & 10) back at school on Monday for our final term of the year. A reminder that senior students (years 11 to 13) will be having derived grade exams next week and will only be required to be at school when they have an examination scheduled.

Ngā mihi nui

Dominic Killalea

Principal

Message to the community – Friday 10 September

Kia ora koutou

I hope your young person has appreciated being back at school. It has certainly been nice to see so many students returning.

Winter sport resumption

It is already the end of the season for some of our winter codes but College Sport Wellington (CSW) have confirmed dates for the resumption of some sports at level 2 and these are below. Please understand that for sport to continue, spectators are not permitted at competitions under alert level 2. CSW are working on live streaming options for some finals that are coming up.

Sport	Arrangements
Junior Basketball	14 September – Unplayed semi-finals from 17 August 21 September – Finals
Senior Basketball	17 September – semi-finals 17 September Boys Div 6 Final 24 September – Finals
Girls Football	14 September – Regional Junior Final 15 September – Premier 2 semi-finals only 22 September – Premier 1 & 2 Finals & Division 2 Regional Final
Junior Boys Football	18 September – Semi-finals only 25 September – Finals
Youth Boys Football	18 September – Youth Division 1 Final 18 September – Youth Division 2 to 6 semi-finals only 25 September – Prem Youth and Grade Finals
Ultimate	Final three rounds on September 15, 22, & 29 September
Badminton	24 September – finals
AWD Programme	Indoor Bowls Tournament – 27 September Basketball – 15 and 22 September SONZ Have a Go Day – TBC

More changes to NCEA

The Government has decided that students disrupted by 16 days of COVID-19 lockdown this year (students in Wellington) will be eligible to receive Learning Recognition Credits (LRCs) at a rate of 1 LRC per 5 credits achieved through assessment, up to a cap of 8 LRCs at NCEA Level 1, and 6 LRCs and Levels 2 and 3.

The thresholds for being awarded endorsements and University Entrance will remain at their normal levels for students who have not been disrupted for 20 school days.

Trades Academy courses

We have been informed that Trades Academy courses will resume on site for the majority of courses starting Monday 13 September. Classes resuming 2 days face to face are Barbering Level 3 (Porirua), Salon Environment (Porirua and Te Auaha), Creative Technology (Te Auaha), Cookery Level 3 (School of Hospitality Cuba St Wellington), Cooking Café Service classes (School of Hospitality Cuba St Wellington). Classes resuming with a mix of 1 day per week on campus and 1 day online for week 13 September include: Construction Mixed Trades and Construction Projects, Engineering and Automotive and Engines, Health Science L2 (Porirua) only one day course, so no online, Health Science L3 (Porirua) only one day course, so no online, Animal Care, Youth Development L3.

In line with Ministry of Education advice and Ministry of Health protocols and guidelines all students at Trades Academy courses will need to adhere to the following instructions:

Wear a face mask or face covering on campus.
Wear face coverings on buses.
Scan the Government QR code and not leave campus during their scheduled Trades Academy Day.
Maintain hygiene practices and physical distancing (Hand sanitiser will be available in all work areas).
Follow all health and safety instructions given by tutors and staff.

Students should not attend if, they or anyone in their household are:

Unwell with Covid-19 symptoms (any unwell students will be sent home).
Have been tested for Covid-19 and should not return until they have received a negative result.

Mana Coach Services Transport will resume from Monday, same stops and times. Others who use other public transport will need to ensure they have their passes or Snapper cards. Masks and scanning are mandatory.

Ngā mihi

Dominic Killalea

Principal

Message to the community 2 – Tuesday 7 September

Kia ora,

Following on from my earlier email, we have now received advice from the Ministry about operations at level 2.

Firstly, we will be following our original plan to support those students we have supported at level 3 to continue to attend school tomorrow and we will be welcoming all students back on Thursday starting with rōpū at 9.30am. Please note that students are welcome onsite before this but there will be no formal classes until 9.30am rōpū.

At Alert Level 2 there is low risk of community transmission and it provides us with a lot more opportunities to engage and connect with others. However, there are still a number of public health requirements we all need to follow. Please do continue to monitor your health and do not send your children to school if they are not well (and please seek advice about getting a COVID test).

For us, all the required safety precautions for Alert Level 2 will be in place which include following all the recommendations from the public health experts. This means we will regularly clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces, encourage everyone to frequently wash their hands and cough and sneeze into their elbow.

While physical distancing is not a requirement in schools, we will be doing our best to keep students from congregating in very large numbers and keeping spaces well-ventilated.

Face coverings are not required to be worn in school. The Director General of Health has recommended that children 12 years+ wear a face covering at school – just as older children are required to wear face coverings in some other places. The decision to wear a face covering is up to you and your whānau, whatever your decision it will be respected.

If you are not sure what all the rules are for alert level 2 when you are out and about, then the following information may be useful to you:

Unfortunately, our cafeteria will not be reopening until Monday 13 September. Please ensure that your student has enough food for Thursday and Friday lunch and let us know if there is any problem with this.

Please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s kaiako or me if there is something you need assistance with. See you Thursday!

Ngā mihi

Dominic Killalea

Principal

Message to the community – Tuesday 7 September

Mālō e lelei

I have used a Tongan greeting to start as this week is officially Tongan language week. I apologise for the delay in communications. I have been waiting on advice from the Ministry and it has not yet arrived. I am sure you will all welcome the announcement to move to alert level 2 from midnight this evening and the resumption of schooling from Thursday. I hope that in amongst the stresses of having young people trying to connect and continue with their school work, and you trying to continue with your work, you have also all found time to spend together that you might not normally be afforded.

Because of the delay in communications and changes to level 2 that have been foreshadowed, I am unable to outline what school will look like at level 2 but it is likely I will send another communication this evening or as soon as I receive more information. I can tell you that there is no school tomorrow (except for those who have been attending under alert level 3) and that school will recommence with a rōpū class at 9.30am on Thursday morning. The later starting time is because we are anticipating that not all public transport services will be running perfectly on Thursday morning and this will also give teachers some time to set up before students arrive. Rōpū will be from 9.30am to 10am and this will also be a chance for students to reconnect with each other before they resume lessons for the rest of the day.

School cafeteria

Please note that the school cafeteria will not be reopening until next Monday 13 September.

NZQA Changes

I have previously mentioned that NZQA have changed their dates for end of year exams and portfolio submission dates. Further to that information, Level 3 and Scholarship Visual Arts submission dates have also been adjusted to allow students more time to complete their portfolios. In addition, the DCATs (Digital Common Assessment Tasks) have been pushed by 2 weeks in recognition of the need for some candidates to have extra time to prepare for the DCATs.

NZQA has also flagged some other possible compensatory changes if lockdowns extend for more than 20 school days although these would seem unlikely to apply to students in Wellington. More information can be found at this link – https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/about-us/news/threshold-set-for-learning-recognition-credits-and-other-nceaue-changes/

School ball

This has been rescheduled for Saturday 30 October at the same venue.

Everyone aged 12 years and over can now be vaccinated

Everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand aged 12 years and over can now book their free COVID-19 vaccination.

The Ministry of Health advises that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are necessary to protect each other, our whānau and our community against the Delta variant of the virus.
Reservations can be made through bookmyvaccine.nz – when booking appointments remember to stay local and book as close to home as possible.
If you have questions or need help booking, call the COVID Vaccination Healthline 0800 28 29 26.
It may be able to book directly at your local general practice, community pharmacy or hauora provider. For more information visit Healthpoint or Karawhiua.

We are really looking forward to welcoming everyone back onto site on Thursday. As I said above, I will send out more information about how level 2 will look this time around when I receive further advice from the ministry.

Mauri Ora

Dominic Killalea

Principal

27 August 2021

Kia ora koutou

Following the Government’s announcement today to continue at alert level 4 until midnight Tuesday evening and move to alert level 3 from Wednesday onwards, we will start to make preparations for the school to operate under alert level 3. The Prime Minister said today that “students should only go to school if their parents are required to go to work and there is no other option”. This means that any students in years 9 & 10 whose parents are required to work away from home, and for whom there is no alternative supervision, will be able to return to school.

If your student is going to require supervision from Wednesday onwards, please email Deputy Principal Megan Southwell (megan.southwell@whs.school.nz) to let her know by midday Tuesday at the latest. We will then be able to connect with parents directly about arrangements for Wednesday.

Students who attend school will be in bubbles of no more than 20 students and they will need to keep a 2-metre distance from other school bubbles. We will be able to work through our preparations for alert level 3 when we have a bit more information about how many students will be attending.

Students who are at school under alert level 3 will be continuing with the remote learning plan and all students will need to bring a device and charger. In addition, students must bring their own lunch and a water bottle as there will not be a cafeteria operating under alert level 3.

At the moment we do not know if Metlink services will be operating and we will advise further when we have more information. If your student needs a bus, please include this information in your email.

Changes to NCEA assessment dates

You may already be aware of the decision to change some NCEA dates. The Ministry of Education and NZQA are aware that the current situation has caused disruption to thousands of secondary school students around New Zealand and is adding to students’ anxiety. They have therefore decided to change dates and processes around some assessments – including end of year exams and portfolio submissions.

The dates for end-of-year NCEA and NZ Scholarship exams will be delayed by two weeks and will run from Monday 22 November until Tuesday 14 December. Due dates for portfolio submissions will also be pushed back by two weeks.

In the same way, the NCEA Level 1 Mathematics Common Assessment Task (MCAT) will be moving from 14 September to 28 September. At this stage, the dates for DCATs (Digital Common Assessment Tasks) remain the same.

Derived Grade exams for years 11 to 13

These were originally supposed to happen this week, week 5 and we made a decision to push them a couple of weeks when we received the original information. However, with the decisions made by the Ministry and NZQA we have decided to move these further into the first week of term 4 – from Monday 18 October to Friday 22 October.

Our school dates

The changes to NCEA exam dates mean that we will need to rethink our end-of-year dates and we will publish more information on that soon. In the meantime, it is most likely that we will have seniors for longer in term 4 and this should provide our senior students with more face-to-face time next term. At this stage we anticipate that the last day for our senior students will now be Tuesday 16 November.

Learning Conversations scheduled for Friday 24 September

We have decided to cancel these in order to maximise face-to-face learning time.

Board Elections / Student representatives

Please note that all processes in relation to student representatives for our school board have currently paused and we will await further advice. This means that no student representative elections will take place until further notice.

Year 12-13 ball

It is most likely that we will have to cancel the ball for 2021. This will be very disappointing and the ball committee will look at possible alternatives.

Temporary change to university and Te Pūkenga enrolment and scholarship application processes

Universities and Te Pūkenga have adapted their enrolment and scholarship application processes in light of Alert Level 4. Prior to COVID-19 restrictions, students were required to provide certified copies of their results (for example, signed by their principal). As an interim process, neither Te Pūkenga nor the universities will require certified copies of results documents and will obtain confirmation of students’ results from NZQA. Students should, where possible, provide a copy of their results documentation, but this does not need to be certified.

Te Pūkenga and universities ordinarily require learners to provide certified copies of identification documents. During COVID-19 restrictions learners will not be able to get copies of documents certified so TEC has authorised the use of an alternative process. Students who are unable to provide certified copies of identity documents can enrol with uncertified documents until further notice. Students must be prepared to provide certified documents if required once alert levels change.

Vaccine FAQs (including information for 12 to 15-year-olds)

The attached document has been provided by the Government to support any questions you might have about vaccinations for 12 to 15-year-olds.

The news of a move to a lower level is encouraging of all of our efforts and we are hopeful of seeing all of our students at school in the near future, assuming the situation continues to improve. As always, if you have any concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kia kaha

Dominic Killalea

Principal

23 August 2021

Kia ora koutou

Following the Government’s decision to extend Alert Level 4 across New Zealand through until Friday evening, we will be continuing with remote learning for the remainder of the week. Because of the uncertainty with the emerging situation and the lockdown length, it is important that students connect with their teachers and try to continue with their studies as best they can. It is important to remember that we have been in this situation before and we can make it work. This week teachers will be available online to meet with their classes until Thursday. On Friday, there will be work in students’ respective google classrooms but I am asking teachers to use that day to check in with all students in their rōpū in relation to their work and their wellbeing.

Students choosing courses for 2022 (students in year 10-12 this year)

The date for initial choices to be made is this Friday 27 August. This will give the timetabling team a chance to look at the choices that have been made and make any necessary adjustments to the lines, if needed. The timetabling team have made some minor changes to the lines at year 12 as there were some combinations that weren’t working on lines 3 and 4 – students will be choosing from the updated lines on the portal. In addition Digital Media at year 11 and 12 was omitted from the initial lines. The updated course choice booklet and lines are also on the student login hub.

Derived grade examinations

In a previous communication, I flagged the movement of these from this week to week 7 (starting Monday 6 September). At the moment, we are sticking to this plan but this may have been a little optimistic given the growing situation and we are considering other options at the moment. There are a number of factors to consider such as weighing up a week of exams against a week of teaching face-to-face when we return from lockdowns, and an awareness that year 11 students have not previously done any external examinations and will need the practice. We will consider our options and issue something more definitive when we have greater certainty around the situation.

There is a lot we can all do to protect our whānau and community from COVID-19 including:

Everyone must continue to stay home in their bubble
Do not mix with other household bubbles – if they have COVID-19, it can easily spread to your household, and every other household they and you are connecting with
As new cases are identified, new locations of interest are added to the Ministry of Health website – please keep checking this. You can search by your location and they are sorted by date, so you only need to check the locations which have been added when you last checked
Wash your hands regularly, especially when you have been out in public
Stay home if you are feeling unwell and seek advice about whether you need to get a test
Wear a face covering when out and about, and you MUST wear a face covering in any businesses or services which are open at Alert Level 4 (unless you have specifically been exempted from doing so, which includes anyone aged under 12)
Keep a two-metre distance from people outside your household bubble
Check in using the NZ COVID Tracer App wherever you go or keep a manual record (a reminder the App only stores information on your own phone – no one else will know who it is that checked in, or when)

You can go to the COVID19.govt.nz website if you would like more information on Alert Level 4 requirements.

We can also make sure we are passing on good information. There is a very helpful article by Dr Siouxsie Wiles and Toby Morris in The Spinoff regarding misinformation and disinformation.

Their red flags for how to spot bad information are particularly well-summarised. Bad information will:

downplay COVID-19 and the pandemic
focus on survival rate
ignore long COVID
emphasise individual freedom
try to sell you something
push simple cures/treatments
make you feel fearful or angry.

“Good information put out to help you make an informed choice won’t make you feel scared or angry. It’ll make you feel empowered.”

We know some families in our community may be finding it difficult to access food and essential items such as medicine. This information about how to access to food or essential items summarises the supports that are available, including financial help to buy food.

I hope you are able to balance managing your own jobs and looking after your young person(s). The initial part of the lockdown felt like a welcome break but we are now realising that we may have to get used to a prolonged period of time working in this way again. As I went walking a couple of days ago it occurred to me that dogs probably really enjoy lockdowns and can’t believe how many walks they are getting in with different family members. It also occurred to me that lockdowns aren’t always great situations for some families and a prolonged situation will have more profound effects on employment. I am encouraged by the data in relation to COVID testing and vaccinations and the way we have responded, again, to this situation. These factors provide a lot more hope than at the same time last year, even though we are dealing with a more aggressive variant.

Please do take care and let us know how we can best support you and your whānau.

Kia kaha!

Dominic Killalea

Principal

21 August 2021

Winter Tournament Week

Kia ora koutou

Following the Government’s decision to extend Alert Level 4 through until Tuesday night, School Sport New Zealand has subsequently announced that all sanctioned events on its calendar through till September 6 have been cancelled. This unfortunately includes Winter Tournament Week, which will no doubt be a huge disappointment to a number of students at High. This year was to represent our highest participation in many years with over 100 students representing our school in basketball, football, hockey, netball, rock climbing and underwater hockey over the week commencing Monday 30 August.

Ngā mihi

Dominic Killalea

Principal

20 August 2021

Kia ora koutou

This email is to update you in terms of arrangements for school given the Government’s decision to extend the alert level 4 lockdown until midnight on Tuesday evening for all of New Zealand.

Remote learning for Monday and Tuesday

We will provide remote learning on Monday and Tuesday as per our previous plans. Please encourage your students to engage in what is being offered online through our login hub and the various google classrooms that they belong to. Your student should be following their normal school timetable which will also provide opportunities to meet with their teachers and class through Google Meet. It is important for all of our students to keep connected to each other and maintain structure at times like these – following the school timetable and engaging in google meets will provide them with this ability.

Arrangements for Mike Neville

The funeral for Mike Neville has now been cancelled and there will be private cremation tomorrow or Monday. The family have told me that there will be a memorial service in a few weeks time. The school will hold the midterm break over until we have a date on that memorial service as we will need to close the school on that day. A reminder of support services that are available and that have been indicated in previous emails. Our guidance team will be checking in on a number of students during this time.

Trades Academy students

Students who are enrolled in Trades Academies courses had their classes paused this week. However, tutors will be sending out online teaching appointments with students and WELTEC will assess the next steps in relation to any changes to their mode of delivery.

Sport and winter tournament week

There will be no sport proceeding under alert level 4 and decisions are yet to be made about Winter Tournament week. I will update you in relation to this when I have more information.

Students without devices

A number of students may not have access to a device at the moment and we are working over the next couple of days to remedy this situation. Although rōpū teachers are gathering this information at the moment, if you know of anyone that is in need, please let us know by emailing admin@whs.school.nz.

Nominations for the School Board

Please note that nominations for student trustees for the School Board can still be made until Monday 30 August. If students want to nominate for election, they need to email Alison Jeffery – alison.jeffery@whs.school.nz.

It is hard to know what will happen next in the current situation but we are ready for a continuation of alert level 3 & 4 lockdowns and we will be ready for a return to site if that happens soon. Lockdowns can be difficult for people of any age and the government has a range of advice and resources to support mental health and wellbeing in such times.

Please continue to keep yourselves, your family and loved ones safe as we try and deal with this variant by following the advice of the experts. At all alert levels, fundamental public health measures continue to apply: physical distancing, good hand hygiene, cough and sneeze etiquette, use of face coverings in public places, scanning in using the COVID tracer app to essential businesses.

The emergence of the virus in Wellington will put people on higher alert and testing remains a crucial component in preventing an outbreak. If people have cold or flu symptoms they should call their doctor or Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for advice about getting tested. If recommended to get tested, they should do so. If you have been at a location of interest within the relevant time periods, please follow all public health advice and call Healthline for information about getting a test.

Mauri Ora

Dominic Killalea

Principal

18 August 2021

Kia ora koutou

This email is to update you on some of our plans in light of the decision to move all of New Zealand to alert level 4 last night. Information about alert levels can be found on the Government COVID website – https://covid19.govt.nz/.

Because of the uncertainty and the likelihood of further lockdown, we have decided to move derived grade examinations that were scheduled for students in years 11, 12 and 13 from next week to week 7 (week starting Monday 6 September). Of course, in a longer lockdown situation we will need to review this change.

This is a really sad time for our school. You will have heard of Mr Neville’s passing. There are a lot of people (staff and students) who have needed and will continue to need support around this. It has been lovely to see the writings and gestures of support that have come from students, whānau and other schools. Mike was an outstanding teacher but he also supported the school in so many other ways: through his regular attendance (purely voluntary of course) at awhina (our Thursday afternoon homework support programme); mountain biking where he shared his passion with so many other avid riders; and as a regular supporter of sports and cultural activities at school. I believe that there has been strong support for students and staff but a lockdown can remove this from people’s lives and we need to continue to look after one another. If you are concerned about your student, do not hesitate to make contact with us or use the 1737 line which has trained counsellors available at any time. If you are contacting us the first point of call should be your student’s rōpū teacher, who can direct them to appropriate support. Our counsellors are also available during the lockdown and students can get in touch with them directly.

WHS Guidance team

Maeve Stevenson snm@whs.school.nz
Gavin Hockly hyg@whs.school.nz
Nikki Peterson pnn@whs.school.nz

There are also a number of services in the community that offer support, information and help, you can find out more here: https://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/get-help/in-crisis/helplines.

Depression Helpline — 0800 111 757
Youthline — 0800 376 633, free text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz
Lifeline — 0800 543 354

As I mentioned yesterday, Mike’s funeral was originally scheduled for Friday at 10.30am at Cornwall Manor in Lower Hutt. This has now been moved to Tuesday 24 August at the same time. The original timing fitted in with our mid term break plans and we have decided to hold our mid term break over to possibly next Tuesday or whenever the funeral is able to happen, to allow us to close the school as the majority of staff will want to celebrate Mike’s life in this way. This means that online learning will occur over the next two days – Thursday and Friday this week and this is a change from my communication last night.

As I mentioned, this last week has been very difficult for so many here. I would appreciate your understanding if teachers do not make themselves available over the next two days for video calls with students. My expectation is that all teachers will post work on their google classroom so that students have work to do, but I also expect them to put themselves first for a couple of days and take time to take stock, grieve and consider and value the relationships and connections they have with the people around them.

Our remote learning plan remains as it was during previous lockdowns and we will continue to follow this if the lockdown period is extended. Our expectation is that students will follow the timetable of a normal school day and they will be able to access support from staff during the time that they would normally have that class.

There will be a number of students concerned about Winter Tournament week and School Sport NZ have said that they are currently considering arrangements. Currently we have more sports teams participating than I can remember in my time at this school so this will be very disappointing if events aren’t able to run. However, I will update you as soon as I know more in relation to tournament week.It is really important we do everything we can to keep our community safe. Alert Level 4 means we need to stay home in our bubbles and avoid any travelling as much as possible. Supermarkets, pharmacies, foodbanks and other essential services will be open – but remember to wear a face covering if you are out and about (even a scarf wrapped around your mouth and nose will help). Check in using the NZ COVID Tracer App wherever you go and please also keep a distance from people you don’t know and wash your hands well and often, especially before and after using any public facilities.

Our focus as always will be to support the learning, safety and wellbeing of our young people. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any concerns whatsoever.

Mauri Ora!

17 August 2021

Kia ora koutou

The news from the Government that we will be moving into level 4 lockdown means that there will be no school for the next 3 days. A mid-term break was planned for Friday anyway.

This announcement will have taken everyone by surprise and we will not be in a position to offer online learning from the start of tomorrow. However, teachers will progressively post materials onto their google classrooms in the hope that online learning can resume on Thursday. At this stage we will follow a school timetable on Thursday and students will be able to access learning through Google Meets and Google Classroom.

At this stage derived grade exams will go ahead next week and students in year 11, 12 and 13 can be preparing for those. A decision about those exams will be deferred until we have more information and there will be a number of possible scenarios that we will entertain.

This has been a difficult week for staff and students since the passing of our much-loved teacher, Mike Neville. I was going to write to you tomorrow with details about the funeral arrangements. The funeral was to take place on Friday 20 August at 10.30am at Cornwall Manor, cnr Knights Road and Cornwall Street, in Lower Hutt. This has tentatively been moved to Tuesday 24 August at the same time and I will update you after we know more about the current situation.

I will write to you when there is more information about the current situation.

Mauri Ora

Dominic Killalea

Principal

28.6.2021

Kia ora koutou

I am passing information on to you that was shared with me by the Ministry of Education last night.

The greater Wellington region will stay at Alert Level 2 for a further 48 hours so more testing can occur and to provide reassurance we don’t have COVID-19 in our community. The rest of New Zealand is at Alert Level 1 (not Alert Level none).

Anyone who was in Wellington over last weekend is asked to check the locations of interest again to make sure they weren’t at the same place at the same time as the confirmed case, and to adhere to the Alert Level 2 restrictions wherever they are in the country.

It is important that you get tested if you have any symptoms similar to cold or flu – don’t assume it is “just” a cold.

We are also asked to continue to be vigilant. Situations with COVID-19 can move very quickly and the global pandemic is not going away with 2.5 million new cases and more than 64,000 deaths in a week being reported by the World Health Organisation in their 22 June Situation Report.

At all times, staying away if unwell and seeking advice about getting tested, remains a priority for us all. Please contact your GP or Healthline if you have any COVID-19 symptoms including aches and pains.

We will support learning from home for anyone required to stay away, so please get in touch with us if you have any concerns.

A reminder of the symptoms to look for. You or your student may have one or more of the following:

a new or worsening cough
fever (at least 38˚C)
shortness of breath
a sore throat
sneezing and runny nose
temporary loss of smell.

Some people may present with less typical symptoms such as only:

fever
diarrhoea
headache
muscle pain
nausea/vomiting
confusion/irritability.

Symptoms can take up to 14 days to show after a person has been infected. The virus can be passed onto others before they know they have it – from up to two days before symptoms develop. So the sooner you seek advice, the quicker health authorities can respond.

A face covering helps stop droplets spreading when someone speaks, laughs, coughs or sneezes. This includes someone who has COVID-19 but feels well or has no obvious symptoms. Face coverings are particularly useful when physical distancing is not possible from people you don’t know, such as in supermarkets and stores.

Face coverings are not required when at school or on school transport, however they must be worn on public transport and domestic flights for anyone aged 12 and over. Go to the covid19.govt.nz website for more information about requirements and exemptions.

A reminder there is a lot of information about COVID-19 available in different languages. Please get in touch if you need any help accessing information in your first language.

Thank you all for continuing to play your part in keeping COVID-19 out of our community. We will be doing the same through our regular cleaning, monitoring for signs of illness, continuing to encourage good hygiene practices and supporting you to check in using the NZ COVID Tracer app.

Mauri ora

Dominic Killalea, Principal

24.6.2021

Kia ora koutou

With the Government’s decision to elevate the Wellington Region to COVID Alert Level 2 through until Sunday 27 June, College Sport Wellington (CSW) have announced that all sporting competitions will proceed, but with a no-spectator policy in effect for all venues – both indoors and outdoors.

The no-spectator policy is the most effective and consistent way to support all the venues hosting students. College Sport Wellington acknowledge that this will be disappointing to the many supporters, but it is their way of ensuring secondary school sport can continue under the current Alert Level guidelines. In terms of the participants themselves, the CSW team will work with venues to ensure games do not breach the 100 person limits.

Mauri Ora!

Dominic Killalea

Principal

23.6.2021

Kia ora koutou

You have probably read that an Australian traveller from Sydney who visited Wellington between Saturday 19 June and Monday 21 June has tested positive upon return to Australia. The Ministry of Health has listed contact tracing locations of interest. We are asking that if you or any of your family visited any of these points of interest, please consult the advice on the page in the link and get in touch with Healthline on 0800 358 5453.

This email is also a reminder that the most important things for us to do at this time remain the same until we receive further advice:

For our school we will:

display QR code posters for the NZ COVID Tracer app
keep our visitor register, attendance register and timetables up to date to help with contact tracing if needed
be monitoring for illness and asking anyone who is unwell to remain at home, or to go home
encourage people with relevant symptoms to seek medical advice through Healthline (0800 358 5453) or their GP and get tested for COVID if recommended to do so
reinforce the importance of good hand washing and drying
reinforce good cough and sneeze etiquette
clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces regularly
support those that want to wear PPE in classes and around school

Your whānau will also have good practices to follow to keep yourselves safe:

check in using the NZ COVID Tracer app everywhere you go (the sooner you get notified that you were at a location of interest, the easier it will be to keep yourself and your whānau safe)
switch on the Bluetooth function on the app (go to the dashboard in the app to do this)
always stay home if you are unwell and seek advice from Healthline (0800 358 5453) or your GP
get tested if recommended to do so. Testing is free to everyone in New Zealand!
wash and dry hands thoroughly and frequently
practise good cough and sneeze etiquette
regularly clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces in your home
wear face coverings on public transport
for those of you who think you might have been at a location of interest at the specified time, follow the instructions on the Ministry of Health website or if you are unsure what to do, contact Healthline (0800 358 5453) for advice about getting tested

Get your information from good sources

The Ministry of Education also has information for parents, caregivers and whānau.
The Government’s Unite against COVID-19 website is the main website to go to get great advice.

If we follow these practices we will help protect ourselves, our whānau and our whakapapa.

Ngā mihi

Dominic Killalea, Principal

1.3.21 – College Sport Wellington update

Kia ora koutou

This email is to update you on sport this week under alert level 2. We have received the information below from College Sport Wellington this morning.

“As you will be aware, the return of Alert Level 2 conditions in Wellington comes at a particularly busy time of year for the secondary school sporting calendar. In addition to our weekly summer competitions, several major events and tournaments are scheduled to take place over the next fortnight. The requirements of Alert Level 2 mean that we need to evaluate these events in terms of gathering sizes, plus contact tracing and the other hygiene considerations. With this in mind, please find below a summary of our decisions for this week, and with a view to contingency plans for the following week also.

Athletics – Zone and Regional Meetings

The Zone Athletics meetings scheduled for this week (2, 3 and 4 March) are postponed, as is the Regional event scheduled for 11 March. Postponement dates will be advised shortly, by the CSW Sport Managers responsible for each Zone event. The Regionals are postponed until the week starting 29 March.

Senior Volleyball Tournament

The Senior Volleyball Tournament scheduled for 5 and 6 March will proceed, under Alert Level 2 requirements. This will necessitate a reduction in the number of teams competing and the CSW Sport Manager responsible for Volleyball will advise schools shortly on the process for this.

Dragon Boating

This event has been postponed until the following weekend (13 and 14 March).

Weekly Competitions Proceeding (No Spectator Policy)

The majority of CSW’s regular weekly competitions will proceed under Alert Level 2 requirements and these will be communicated to schools by the relevant CSW Sport Manager. In terms of managing gathering limits of 100 people, College Sport Wellington has assessed each sport and made the following determination:

Indoor Sports – no spectators are to be present
Outdoor Sports – where social distancing can be reasonably expected/supervised, spectators are allowed. On review of our COVID-19 plans, this means that spectators are allowed at cricket, golf and ultimate, but not Touch Rugby or Ki o Rahi.

Clearly this is a slight relaxation of the blanket “no spectator” policy used previously. We have based this decision on the likely numbers present and their ability to keep within the 100 person gathering limits. This decision will be reviewed next week upon feedback by the schools. Regardless, we urge all people present to exercise caution and adhere to the Government’s guidelines on social distancing.

Weekly Competitions Not Proceeding

Floorball – At this stage, we can confirm that the weekly Floorball competition (4 March) has been cancelled, and that the games will carry over until next week.”

College Sport Wellington have not made any decisions about the following week and we will communicate any updates as soon as they come to hand if Wellington remains at alert level 2 beyond Saturday.

Mauri Ora!

Dominic Killalea

Principal

28.2.2021 – Update to the school community

Kia ora koutou

The Prime Minister last night announced that from 6am this morning Auckland would return to Alert Level 3 for a period of seven days, and the rest of New Zealand would go to Alert Level 2 for the same period.

This decision was taken for two reasons – first it is not immediately clear how the latest person to test positive got infected and second, that person has visited several large sites while potentially infectious and it will take some time to identify and track down what could be a large number of people.

This email is a restatement of the information that has been previously sent to you about alert level 2. As I have previously said, we have been in this situation previously and we are well prepared for such an eventuality. We all need to continue to do the right thing by following the advice of our health professionals which means staying home if feeling unwell, seeking advice about getting tested, washing hands regularly and scanning in using the NZ COVID Tracer App continue to support our ‘stamp it out’ approach.

The key considerations for alert level 2 in an educational context are the following:

It is safe for all students, children and staff to attend school. We have been at this level before and we will be taking the same precautions that we have previously taken under alert level 2.
Children and staff who are at higher-risk of severe illness are encouraged to take additional precautions when leaving home. Anyone displaying flu or COVID-like symptoms should not be attending school and should seek further advice from their doctor or Healthline.
If students present to school as unwell, we will be asking parents and caregivers to come and pick their student up.
We all need to continue to send strong messaging about good hand hygiene and appropriate cough and sneeze etiquette.
While at school, students and staff should be far enough away from each other so that they are not breathing on or touching each other. There does not need to be a specific measurement but where practicable and reasonable 1 metre can be used as a guide, particularly between adults.
Physical distancing of 2 metres is recommended for parents and caregivers, from people they don’t know (to align with public health measures outside the school grounds).
If there was a confirmed or probable case of COVID-19 in our school, our school would close immediately for 72 hours, to allow contact tracing, and then potentially for a further 14 days.

Below are the additional practices that we have undertaken at alert level 2 previously and that we will continue to follow this week.

Extra hygiene practices

All classrooms have good stocks of hand sanitiser and cleaning products. We will continue to encourage students to make use of these to ensure everyone’s health and wellbeing.
All surfaces in classrooms will be cleaned and disinfected at least once each day and our cleaning contract will take into account treatment of high touch surfaces.
Our toilets have warm water and soap, hand dryers and paper towels.
Students should bring a water bottle from home and this should not be shared with anyone else. Water bottles can be refilled at the water stations around the school. Students should not be using the fountains at this stage. These will be disabled if we are to stay at level 2 for a prolonged period.
Students should not be sharing class equipment eg books, pens, pencils, devices etc, at this time.

Contact tracing

Attendance in class is sufficient for lesson times for contact tracing purposes.
Senior students who leave the premises at lunch should be using the NZ COVID Tracer App or signing in wherever they visit.
We will open additional spaces at lunchtime to allow students to observe physical distancing at these times.
Lunchtime activities can occur but we will keep contact registers for these and an adult will be in a supervisory capacity at all times.
Visitors to the school should be using the QR code posters for the NZ COVID Tracer App and they will be required to provide contact details for contact tracing purposes.

Remote learning plans

We will not institute remote learning plans yet but we will be ready to do so if we are to continue at alert level 2 for a prolonged period of time.

School assemblies

We will not be running school assemblies under alert level 2.

Cafeteria

The cafeteria will operate as a takeaway outlet as it did previously under level 2.
Students enter the cafeteria by the carpark entrance and leave by the foyer door.
Cashless payments are preferable but we understand that this can also cause problems. Cash will be accepted at the cafeteria.

Reception & Student services

Reception will remain where it is as we await further information.
Visitor sign in procedures will remain the same until further notice.
All payments to student services will need to be cashless.

Year 9 Noho Marae

Noho Marae can proceed and all operators have good extra precautions in place for alert level 2.

Sport

It has been wonderful to see so many students involved with sports this term. This week is a busy one on the sporting calendar and we are expecting College Sport Wellington to advise us tomorrow morning on plans for some competitions. We expect most sports to proceed but we are unsure about Zone Athletics and the Senior Volleyball Tournament at this stage. We will advise.

At alert level 2, all sports are competitors only and spectator free. This is to ensure that gatherings will be manageable under the 100 person limit. Please help us to adhere to these restrictions and allow sport to proceed.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

At this stage, face masks are not required at schools at alert levels 2 and 3. The Prime Minister has advised previously that the use of masks is encouraged for areas where social distancing may be difficult but they are not mandatory. If students wish to wear masks to school, we support them to do so.

At this stage alert level 2 is in place for a week and we will continue to follow the advice of health authorities during this time. I will update you if any new information becomes available.

Mauri Ora!

Dominic Killalea

Principal

Update 2 28.2.21 – Year 9 Noho Marae week commencing 1 March

Kia ora koutou

The Year 9 Noho Marae will take place as per planning for this week. In preparing for these noho we had already planned for a possible move to alert level 2 and we had received assurances from all of our operators that they were able to function at that level, with some minor adjustments.

Specifically,

East-West Ferries have told us that all students will be required to wear face masks on their ferries as this is public transport. Departure from Days Bay is at a time that avoids clashing with students from other schools using the service to get home.
When students are at Matiu / Somes and Days Bay they will need to ensure they are distancing themselves appropriately from other people using the space – 2m is the recommended distance in these instances. Teachers will be making sure students stick to this.
Pukeahu Education Centre will welcome us and social distancing will be in place between our students and the curators of the centre.
Adrenalin Forest has extra measures in place. Students will be asked to hand wash before and after using the facilities and they will be given disposable gloves for use on the equipment.
At all venues off site, staff will sign the class in using the COVID app.

Below is a reminder of the key considerations for alert level 2 in an educational context:

It is safe for all students, children and staff to attend school. We have been at this level before and we will be taking the same precautions that we have previously taken under alert level 2. In this way, the Noho Marae is the same as attendance for a regular school day.
Children and staff who are at higher-risk of severe illness are encouraged to take additional precautions when leaving home. Anyone displaying flu or COVID-like symptoms should not be attending school and should seek further advice from their doctor or Healthline.
If students present to school as unwell, we will be asking parents and caregivers to come and pick their student up.
We all need to continue to send strong messaging about good hand hygiene and appropriate cough and sneeze etiquette.
While at school, students and staff should be far enough away from each other so that they are not breathing on or touching each other. There does not need to be a specific measurement but where practicable and reasonable 1 metre can be used as a guide, particularly between adults.
Physical distancing of 2 metres is recommended for parents and caregivers, from people they don’t know (to align with public health measures outside the school grounds).
If there was a confirmed or probable case of COVID-19 in our school, our school would close immediately for 72 hours, to allow contact tracing, and then potentially for a further 14 days.

The Noho Marae is a terrific opportunity for the students to spend quality time with each other learning about Pukeahu and its context and to have some fun together. If you have any concerns or questions, please talk to us about these.

Mauri Ora!

Dominic Killalea

Principal

Update 1 28.2.21 – Year 9 Noho Marae

Year 9 noho marae will take place as per planning for this week. In preparations for these noho we had already planned for a possible move to alert level 2 and we had received assurances from all of our operators of their ability to function at that level.

We will send through more details about this event later today.

Update 15-2-2021

Kia ora koutou

You will have heard yesterday that a student at Papatoetoe High School and her parents, have tested positive for COVID-19. New Zealand’s COVID response has swung swiftly into action. Treating any new cases with an abundance of caution is part of that plan and therefore the decision has been made to move to Alert Level 3 in Auckland and Alert Level 2 for the remainder of New Zealand, from midnight last night.

Health authorities are quickly gathering more information about these latest cases and will review every 24 hours. If you or your family have been in Auckland in recent days, please make sure that you have engaged with the media release from Public Health yesterday which listed contact tracing locations of interest for Auckland and Taranaki. Everyone who has been to one of these locations in the specified times or is displaying COVID-19 symptoms is being asked to self-isolate, call Healthline to arrange a test and follow the instructions from Public Health.

While hoping it wouldn’t happen, it is important to remember that we have been in this situation previously and we are well prepared for such an eventuality. Like this family has done, we all need to continue to do the right thing by following the advice of our health professionals and working together to stamp out community transmission. Staying home if feeling unwell, seeking advice about getting tested, washing hands regularly and scanning in using the NZ COVID Tracer App continue to support our ‘stamp it out’ approach.

The key considerations for alert level 2 in an educational context are the following:

It is safe for all students, children and staff to attend school. We have been at this level before and we will be taking the same precautions that we have previously taken under alert level 2.
Children and staff who are at higher-risk of severe illness are encouraged to take additional precautions when leaving home. Anyone displaying flu or COVID-like symptoms should not be attending school and should seek further advice from their doctor or Healthline.
If students present to school as unwell, we will be asking parents and caregivers to come and pick their student up.
We all need to continue to send strong messaging about good hand hygiene and appropriate cough and sneeze etiquette.
While at school, students and staff should be far enough away from each other so that they are not breathing on or touching each other. There does not need to be a specific measurement but where practicable and reasonable 1 metre can be used as a guide, particularly between adults.
Physical distancing of 2 metres is recommended for parents and caregivers, from people they don’t know (to align with public health measures outside the school grounds).
If there was a confirmed or probable case of COVID-19 in our school, our school would close immediately for 72 hours, to allow contact tracing, and then potentially for a further 14 days.

Below I have outlined additional practices that we have undertaken at alert level 2 previously and that we will continue to follow in the near future. I am aware that this information will be new to students who are new to our school this year. I apologise in advance for the amount of information contained below.

Extra hygiene practices

All classrooms have good stocks of hand sanitiser and cleaning products. We will continue to encourage students to make use of these to ensure everyone’s health and wellbeing.
At alert level 2 the only specific requirement is to clean and disinfect surfaces once each day but we will do this on multiple occasions during the day and our cleaning contract will take into account treatment of high touch surfaces.
Our toilets have warm water and soap, hand dryers and paper towels. We will encourage our students to keep an eye on stocks and notify student services if they are diminishing.
Students should bring a water bottle from home and this should not be shared with anyone else. Water bottles can be refilled at the water stations around the school. The fountains at these stations have not yet been disabled but they will be if we are to continue at alert level 2 for a prolonged period of time.
Students should not be sharing class equipment eg books, pens, pencils, devices etc, at this time.

Contact tracing

Attendance in class is sufficient for lesson times for contact tracing purposes.
Senior students who leave the premises at lunch will be encouraged to use the NZ COVID Tracer App.
We will open additional spaces at lunchtime to allow students to observe physical distancing at these times.
Lunchtime activities can occur but we will keep contact registers for these and an adult will be in a supervisory capacity at all times.
Visitors to the school should be using the QR code posters for the NZ COVID Tracer App and they will be required to provide contact details for contact tracing purposes.

Remote learning plans

We will not institute remote learning plans yet but we will be ready to do so from Monday next week if we are to continue at alert level 2.

Meet the teacher evening – Monday 15 February

This will not be running. We hope to be able to run this in a few weeks time – we will let you know.

School assemblies

We will not be running school assemblies under alert level 2.

Cafeteria

The cafeteria will operate as a takeaway outlet as it did previously under level 2.
Students enter the cafeteria by the carpark entrance and leave by the foyer door.
Cashless payments will be the only method of payment. If this is a problem for your student, please get in touch with us and we can make alternative arrangements.

Reception & Student services

Reception will remain where it is as we await further information.
Visitor sign in procedures will remain the same until further notice.
All payments to student services will need to be cashless.

Sport

We expect most sports to proceed until we have further advice about alert level status. Previously under alert level 2, College Sport Wellington have previously ruled that spectators will not be permitted to secondary school events. This is to ensure that gatherings will be manageable under the 100 person limit. Please help us to adhere to these restrictions and allow sport to proceed and I will update you further when I have more information.

Community Education

Our community education is a vital part of our school community and at this stage, classes will continue where possible, taking into account the same considerations that we make in our day classes. Our staff will be carefully monitoring this situation and more information will be provided depending on the length of the alert level 2 status.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

We all have a role to play in providing reassurance to our young people that if we look after ourselves and each other, then we will eliminate the virus, which at this stage is the best strategy. This means ensuring we have good hygiene practices in place at home and at school. It is worth remembering that we have been here before and we made it work. I am confident that if we continue to work together and follow the excellent practices we have previously put into place, we will be able to continue to provide a safe place for our young people.

I will continue to update you over the coming days as new information becomes available and decisions are made.

Mauri Ora!

Dominic Killalea

Principal

Update 24-9-2020

I am sure you are aware of the Prime Minister’s announcement about the move in Wellington to Alert Level 1 this week. Cabinet will meet again on Monday 5 October to review alert level settings. In the meantime, the emphasis at level 1 is for everyone to:

please continue to stay home if you are sick and get tested if recommended to do so,
maintain good hygiene practices,
scan into places through the NZ COVID Tracer app or keep a good record of where you have been, to support speedy contact tracing.

Full details can be found on the COVID19.govt.nz website.

8 Implications for Wellington High School for Alert Level 1 (from the Ministry of Education):

Our school is open and will continue to operate safely. At Alert Level 1 the virus is contained in New Zealand but not overseas. We have systems and practices in place in case COVID-19 reappears in our community.
Fundamental public health measures continue to apply:

Hand hygiene
Cough and sneeze etiquette
Regularly cleaning and disinfecting high touch surfaces.

Testing remains a crucial component in preventing an outbreak. If your young person is sick, they should stay at home. We are giving staff the same advice. If your young person has cold or flu symptoms they should call their doctor or Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for advice about getting tested. If recommended to get tested, they should do so. If there is a confirmed case who was infectious when at school we will close for cleaning and contact tracing.
We will continue to support contact tracing through the display of QR Code posters and our visitor register, attendance register and timetable. If a new case does appear in our community, our contact tracing processes will support the speedy identification of close contacts of the confirmed case. If you need to visit the school, please check-in using the NZ COVID Tracer app.
There are no restrictions on personal movement at Alert Level 1 – all students and staff should be at school. The only people who will need to stay away are:

those required to self-isolate,
individuals who health authorities have asked to stay away while waiting for a test result,
students and staff who are unwell.

There are no restrictions on numbers at gatherings. Schools, like workplaces are not considered to be gatherings. Physical activities including cultural and sporting activities, practices and events will continue to go ahead.
Face coverings continue not to be required when in school. This includes school transport and charter buses hired by the school to transport students and staff to and from school. Anyone who chooses to wear a face covering in any setting is supported to do so.
NCEA Exams will proceed at Alert Levels 1, 2 and 3. There will be additional health measures in place for NCEA exams and students will be notified of these measures closer to the exams. In the unlikely case that a region or regions are placed under Alert Level 4, exams will not be able to go ahead in those regions and further advice will be provided for this circumstance.

Mauri ora!

Dominic Killalea

Principal

Update 28-8-2020

Kia ora koutou

I am updating you with further information on the wearing of face masks. I am sure that you know that there is emerging international evidence that the use of masks and face coverings can reduce the risk of infected people spreading COVID-19. Masks and face coverings can be particularly useful if there is a risk of undetected community transmission and people are in close proximity to each other, or are unable to physically distance.

As I mentioned in my update on Tuesday, face coverings will now be a requirement on public transport (buses, trains and commuter ferries) from 11.59pm on Sunday 30 August. The key impact the new requirement will have on the school community is that students aged 12 and above will be required to wear a face covering when on public transport.

However, this requirement does not apply to school transport services ie school buses which only have students from our school being transported. These services are viewed in the same way as classrooms and other areas in the school where groups of students are close together. We know who is on school transport and have good systems in place to identify potential close contacts, should there be a case. Children will also be staying away if they are unwell, vehicles will be sanitised after each school run and drivers have been asked to wear face masks.

Therefore from Monday we will be encouraging students to wear face masks on school transport services to help keep themselves and others safe, but we will not be requiring them to wear them to access these services.

Finally, a reminder that we all need to follow our good practices to keep ourselves, family and whānau safe including:

Washing your hands regularly with soap and water including before and after eating, after blowing your nose, after visiting a public space including public transport, before, during and after caring for a sick or vulnerable person, after using the toilet etc.
Coughing and sneezing into your elbow.
Staying at home if you are sick and checking with your GP or Healthline to see if you need to get tested (a reminder that Healthline is free to call – 0800 611 116 and they have people who speak many different languages).
If you are recommended to get tested please do so – testing is free.
At home, clean your surfaces regularly particularly the ones that are often touched such as taps and door handles.
Keep a physical distance from people you don’t know (2 metres wherever possible).
If you are in an enclosed space with people you don’t know, such as on public transport, wear a face covering as they can help stop the spread of COVID-19 by limiting the spread of droplets.
A face covering is any material that covers your nose and mouth – such as a scarf, bandana, t-shirt or facemask.

Mauri ora!
Dominic Killalea
Principal

Update – 25-8-2020

Kia ora koutou

As I’m sure you will have heard, yesterday the Prime Minister announced that Auckland will reduce from Alert Level 3 to Alert Level 2 from 11.59pm on Sunday 30 August while the remainder of the country will remain at Alert Level 2 during this period.

These settings remain in place for one week and Cabinet will review them again before 6 September.

The main change for level 2 announced yesterday was the mandating of face coverings when using public transport from Monday 31 August. If your student uses school / public transport, please ensure that they have a face mask for travel. From today we will be supporting our bus operators to ensure that students follow this recommendation.

A further reminder that while everyone is onsite at Alert Level 2, we are adhering to key health measures including:

Good hand hygiene and cough and sneeze etiquette,
Making sure staff and students stay away if sick,
Keeping the appropriate physical distance from others,
Cleaning and disinfecting our high touch surfaces regularly,
Displaying QR code posters at our entrances – please note that if you are planning to come onsite we would encourage you to download the NZ COVID Tracer App and use it when you visit,
Keeping a visitor register for anyone who cannot use the app and for other visitors who come onsite for a period of time.

We know all these things will help to keep our community as safe as possible. Because of these measures, your child does not need to wear a face covering while at school. We will of course support them should they choose to do so.

For those of you who might be finding things more difficult than usual, a reminder that there is a large range of support available for businesses and the community. We encourage you to go to the covid19.govt.nz for more information.

Mauri ora!
Dominic Killalea
Principal

Update 17.08.2020

Kia ora koutou

I have had a few emails about face masks and I wanted to share with you the current opinion of the Ministry of Education based on advice from Public Health. This was shared with me in a FAQ section about wearing face masks on Saturday 15 August.

Alert Level 2
Do children and young people need to wear face coverings at schools at level 2?
No. Children and young people do not need to wear face coverings because the risk of infection within the school environment is low. Other public health control measures will be in place including children and staff staying home if they are sick, contact tracing, and hygiene requirements.

Do teachers need to wear face coverings at early learning services and schools at level 2?
No. Teachers do not need to wear face coverings at level 2. Other public health measures will be in place including children and staff staying home if they are sick, contact tracing, and hygiene requirements.

Do children and young people need to wear face coverings on school or public transport at alert level 2?
Children and young people are not required to wear face coverings wrapped around the nose and mouth on school transport. At Alert level 2, children and young people aged 6 years and over are encouraged to carry a face covering to wrap around their nose and mouth, when they are on school and public transport.

Can children, young people or teachers wear face coverings at school or early learning services if they wish to?
Yes. Any children, young people or teachers who wish to wear face coverings wrapped around the nose and mouth (including masks) at schools or early learning services may do so if they want to. They are entitled to make this decision and should not be criticised for doing so.

As I have stated in previous communications, students should feel safe and supported to wear face masks at school as a precautionary measure. From my observations of students at school, my two areas of concern in relation to social distancing are school/public transport and our cafeteria queue. Therefore, we would like to encourage students who are going to be using school/public transport to use face masks while queuing and travelling on these services. We also encourage students to wear face masks if they are unable to keep social distancing in the queue for the cafeteria at break times. This small action will help keep everyone safe in these two situations.

Mauri ora
Dominic Killalea
Principal

Update 14.08.2020

Kia ora koutou

We are living in uncertain times again but I wanted to update you in relation to two areas mentioned in my previous email to you.

Sport
College Sport Wellington (CSW) has informed us that at alert level 2, spectators will not be permitted to secondary school events. This will ensure that gatherings will be manageable under the 100 person limit and allow most sports to proceed until we have further advice about alert level status.
Therefore CSW are asking those not directly involved in playing, officiating or administering games, to respect this decision and assist them in ensuring the season can continue. To be clear, this decision covers all CSW competitions and events in the Wellington region, both indoors and outdoors. CSW will naturally review this decision at appropriate intervals, and as further Government advice becomes available.
This means that Basketball this evening is going ahead, as is badminton, and football tomorrow. Underwater Hockey has been cancelled, pending further advice due to the number of students/officials present exceeding 100.
I will update you as more information becomes available.

Future Focus and Careers Expo
As we will not have a decision about our alert level status until the weekend has commenced, the following will apply according to the government advice on alert level status.
– Level 1 – both of these events will happen as normal
– Level 2 – the careers expo will be cancelled and future focus will run for students currently in years 11 & 12 only from 3.30pm to 4.30pm in the same venues (levels 3 & 4). Unfortunately, parents and caregivers will not be able to attend this event.
– Level 3/4 – both events will be cancelled. We will provide further information online if this is the case.

From Monday 17 August, all teachers will be updating the work that they have in their remote learning plans. This is to support students who are currently unable to attend school. We will not be providing online learning at alert level 2 but we will be ready to deliver if the alert level changes at any time.

Mauri Ora!
Dominic Killalea
Principal

Update 12.08.2020

Kia ora koutou

I know that none of you would have welcomed the news overnight of a return to alert level 3 in Greater Auckland and alert level 2 in the rest of the country. At this stage the government has told us that these alert levels will be in place for at least 3 days. The key considerations for alert level 2 in an educational context are the following:

It is safe for all students, children and staff to attend school. We have been at this level before and we will be taking the same precautions that we have previously taken under alert level 2.
Children and staff who are at higher-risk of severe illness are encouraged to take additional precautions when leaving home. Anyone displaying flu or COVID-like symptoms should not be attending school and should seek further advice from their doctor or Healthline.
If students present to school as unwell, we will be asking parents and caregivers to come and pick their student up.
We all need to continue to send strong messaging about good hand hygiene and appropriate cough and sneeze etiquette.
While at school, students and staff should be far enough away from each other so that they are not breathing on or touching each other. There does not need to be a specific measurement but where practicable and reasonable 1 metre can be used as a guide, particularly between adults.
Physical distancing of 2 metres is recommended for parents and caregivers, from people they don’t know (to align with public health measures outside the school grounds).
If there was a confirmed or probable case of COVID-19 in our school, our school would close immediately for 72 hours, to allow contact tracing, and then potentially for a further 14 days.

There is uncertainty about how long we may be at alert level 2 and so it is difficult to make decisions on some areas of school life that may only be for a few days. Below I have outlined additional practices that we have undertaken at alert level 2 previously and that we will continue to follow in the near future. I apologise in advance for the amount of information contained below. It is very similar to information we have previously published.

Extra hygiene practices

All classrooms have good stocks of hand sanitiser and cleaning products. We will continue to encourage students to make use of these to ensure everyone’s health and wellbeing.
At alert level 2 the only specific requirement is to clean and disinfect surfaces once each day but we will do this on multiple occasions during the day and our cleaning contract will take into account treatment of high touch surfaces.
Our toilets have warm water and soap, hand dryers and paper towels. We will encourage our students to keep an eye on stocks and notify student services if they are diminishing.
Students should bring a water bottle from home and this should not be shared with anyone else. Water bottles can be refilled at the water stations around the school. The fountains at these stations have not yet been disabled but they will be if we are to continue at alert level 2 for a prolonged period of time.
Students should not be sharing class equipment eg books, pens, pencils, devices etc, at this time.

Contact tracing

Attendance in class is sufficient for lesson times for contact tracing purposes.
Senior students who leave the premises at lunch will be encouraged to use the NZ COVID Tracer App.
We will open additional spaces at lunchtime to allow students to observe physical distancing at these times.
Lunchtime activities can occur but we will keep contact registers for these and an adult will be in a supervisory capacity at all times.
Visitors to the school should be using the QR code posters for the NZ COVID Tracer App and they will be required to provide contact details for contact tracing purposes.

Remote learning plans

We will not institute remote learning plans yet but we will be ready to do so from Monday next week if we are to continue at alert level 2.

School assemblies

We will not be running school assemblies under alert level 2.

Cafeteria

The cafeteria will operate as a takeaway outlet as it did previously under level 2.
Students enter the cafeteria by the carpark entrance and leave by the foyer door.
Cashless payments will be the only method of payment.

Reception & Student services

Reception will remain where it is as we await further information.
Visitor sign in procedures will remain the same until further notice.
All payments to student services will need to be cashless.

Enrolment interviews

Currently we are enrolling large numbers of students for our incoming year 9 cohort for 2021. We will be postponing all of these interviews until we have further information.

Sport

I expect there will be announcements about sport very soon but previously under level 2 guidelines, the gatherings of over 10 persons applied and most sports were not possible. I will update you as soon as I know more.

Community Education

Breakfast club

Recently we have instituted a breakfast club – this will be cancelled under level 2.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

At this stage, face masks are not required at schools at alert levels 2 and 3. The Prime Minister has advised today that the use of masks is encouraged for areas where social distancing may be difficult but they are not mandatory. If students wish to wear masks to school, we support them to do so.

Careers expo and Future Focus evening – Monday 17 August

We will await further information before we make a call on these two events. We will let you know by Friday this week.

We all have a role to play in providing reassurance to our young people that if we look after ourselves and each other, then we will eliminate the virus, which at this stage is the best strategy. This means ensuring we have good hygiene practices in place at home and at school. It is worth remembering that we have been here before and we made it work. You may not realise that our best attended day of the year so far was the first day back at school under alert level 2 on Monday 18 May. I am confident that if we continue to work together and follow the excellent practices we have previously put into place, we will be able to continue to provide a safe place for our young people.

Mauri Ora!

Dominic Killalea, Principal

Update 9.6.2020

Kia ora koutou

I am sure you were as pleased as I was to hear the Prime Minister’s announcement about moving to Alert Level 1 yesterday. This will bring some small changes to our daily operations but we are keen to continue with some of the good practices we have learned through these unprecedented times.

At level 1:
– Physical distancing is not a requirement but where possible or practicable is encouraged when you are around people you don’t know.
– There are no specific public health requirements.
– There are no restrictions on personal movement so all students, children and staff continue to be safe to go to school / early learning, and all students must attend school.
– We are no longer required to keep a contact tracing register but we will continue with our usual practice of having a visitor register.
– There are no restrictions on numbers at gatherings or on physical activities including cultural and sporting activities, practices and events.

In terms of our school the implications of level 1 are:
– If people are sick, they should stay home and the advice is to phone Healthline / GP and get tested if there are cold or flu symptoms.
– We should all continue to regularly wash and dry hands, being careful to sneeze and cough into elbows.
– We will continue to regularly disinfect shared surfaces.
– We will support contact tracing efforts by displaying QR Code posters for the NZ COVID Tracer App at our entrances.
– We will revert to our normal school timetable from Monday 15 June.
– We can now look forward to inter-school and community sport, cultural events and performances and to welcoming all of our school community on site for these activities.
– We also look forward to running our usual array of field trips and other excursions.
– We look forward to running our annual Open evening on Monday 29 June and our first music evening on Tuesday 30 June.

I’m sure you have heard that we had four prefabricated classrooms delivered over the weekend (6-7 June). I have mentioned before that our school roll has grown more than any other Wellington city school since 2012 and the effect of this is that we are running out of classroom space. We have been working closely with the Ministry of Education who have given us these new classrooms as a first step in our planning towards a school with greater capacity. These will be in operation from the start of term 3.

This will hopefully be my last message to you in relation to COVID-19. I have realised that with my messages to students, parents and staff during this time I have written over 50 pages which is about half a John Steinbeck novella, albeit not as stimulating.

Mauri ora!
Dominic Killalea
Principal

Update 5.6.2020 – NZQA changes

Kia ora koutou,

You have probably heard of changes announced by NZQA in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This communication is about those changes.

We know some of our students – and their whānau – are worried that they might not be able to attain NCEA or UE this year, because of the disruption caused by COVID-19.

To help address this and support students, the following changes are being made to NCEA and University Entrance (UE) requirements for this year:

Students working towards an NCEA can gain additional credits, based on the number of credits they achieve during the 2020 school year. These additional credits will be known as Learning Recognition credits. For every 5 credits a student achieves towards their NCEA either through internal or external assessment, they are entitled to an additional 1 credit. Students at NCEA Level 1 are eligible for up to a maximum of 10 additional credits while those at Levels 2 and 3 are eligible for up to a maximum of 8 additional credits.
Students will be awarded a certificate endorsement if they achieve 46 credits at Merit or Excellence level, rather than the usual 50. Students achieving 12 credits at Merit or Excellence level in a course – rather than 14 – will be awarded a course endorsement.
Current UE requirements have been reduced from 14 to 12 credits in three UE-approved subjects. Students still need to attain NCEA Level 3 and meet literacy and numeracy requirements to be awarded University Entrance.
External NCEA examinations and NZ Scholarship examinations will now take place from 16 November 2020 to 9 December 2020. This will provide extra time for teaching, learning and assessment in Term 4.
The submission date for subjects which require students to submit a portfolio (for example, Design and Visual Communications) has been extended to 12 November 2020, to give students more time to complete their portfolios.

These changes have been designed to encourage students to continue working towards their NCEA and to ensure that the integrity of the NCEA qualification is maintained.

You can read a summary of the changes here.

If you have any queries about these changes, please contact your student’s rōpū teacher.

Mauri ora

Dominic Killalea, Principal

Update: 29.5.2020

Kia ora koutou

I hope you are able to enjoy some time away from work over this long weekend and enjoy the time you spend with your young person(s). Things at school have felt a lot more ‘normal’ this week and I have learned that teenagers find it very hard to observe social distancing, even when they are constantly reminded. I have found the adjustment to level 2 a little unsettling from a personal point of view. It’s great to have all of the students back at school but I fear that we might return to what life was like before COVID-19 without heeding the warnings that a pandemic gave us in terms of our work-life balance, our relationships with our family and friends and how we interact with our wider environment.

Today’s teacher only day has been about learning from the lockdowns and carrying those lessons forward into redesigning learning in the future. We’re not entirely sure what that will look like yet but we have to take the best of these times and learn from them.

Attendance collection and tracking

We will be sending student attendance data to the Ministry of Education weekly, from 29 May. The purpose is to:

report to the National Crisis Monitoring Centre and government on levels of attendance during the COVID-19 period
inform and support Ministry planning for students and schools returning to normal operation, and
evaluate and report on the effectiveness of initiatives implemented by the Ministry to respond and manage its response to COVID-19.

NZ COVID Tracer app

The NZ COVID Tracer App was launched last week and will assist with contact tracing in New Zealand. Please note we still need to maintain our contact tracing register (through our visitor register, timetabled classes and student contact registers) at this time. The App does not send data to the organisation that has generated the QR code and therefore cannot replace our visitor register and our other measures. Future versions may offer increased functionality, including linking with other apps that undertake a similar function, and we will update you should this situation change.

For your own knowledge, those who download the app will create a digital diary of the places they visit by scanning QR codes displayed at the entrances to business premises, other organisations and public buildings. People can also register their contact information through the app so that the National Close Contact Service can get in touch if they need to.

Hand sanitiser

I have never engaged in so much hand sanitising in my life. I’m sure our students are feeling the same way and I hope this has a really positive effect on lowering sickness levels this winter. If you are sending a student to school with their own hand sanitiser, please ensure it meets the requirements of over 70% alcohol.

Emergency contact information

We are extending the emergency contact information that we gather and asking all families to complete the form at: https://forms.gle/yenaWPnB4R73x7J49. If an emergency ever constitutes the need to evacuate and close the school, we will keep all Year 9 students with us until a known adult can come and collect them from the field. Families of older students can ask us to supervise their student in this situation too. Please provide three emergency contacts, in addition to those contacts already known to school, who could collect your student in the event of an emergency that closes school.

Sport

The lifting of restrictions on numbers at gatherings from this afternoon means that school sports will be able to restart. I’m sure a lot of our students will be really pleased with this news. College Sport Wellington have been in touch to confirm the following timings for the restart of sport:

Hockey – The Wellington Secondary Schools Hockey Competitions will commence on June 12 for P1/P2 grades and from June 15 for other grades,
Underwater Hockey – The College Sport Wellington (CSW) Underwater Hockey competition will commence on June 16,
Basketball – The Dynasty CSW Basketball competitions will commence on June 16 for Juniors and June 19 for Seniors,
Football – The CSW Football Competitions will commence from June 16 for Girls and from June 19 for Boys,
Badminton – The CSW Badminton competitions will commence from June 19,
Netball – Netball competitions can commence from June 19 and each Netball Centre will confirm their exact start date shortly. The Hutt Valley SS competitions will commence on June 20 and the College Sport Wellington RSSL will commence in Term 3,
Rugby – The CSW Rugby Competitions will commence from June 20.

Finally, if you are reading this and your student hasn’t yet joined us back at school, please feel assured that our school is a safe place for your child to be. Getting back to a normal routine is important for the health and wellbeing of all of our children, and being around their peers and teachers helps them feel in control and reassured. We would love to welcome them back to school and make it a positive experience for them and for you. Further, regularly attending school really matters when it comes to your child’s learning and their future. We are here to help and will be happy to talk about any challenges you have in relation to this.

Mauri ora!

Dominic Killalea, Principal

Update 14.5.2020

Kia ora koutou

This email is to provide a little more detail about some of the services at school under alert level 2 and some information about Queen’s birthday weekend. A reminder that we are expecting to greet all of our year 9 and 10 students at 8.45am on Monday 18 May and all our year 11, 12 and 13 students at 9.30am on Monday 18 May.

Payments

Under alert level 2 we won’t be handling cash payments anywhere at school. All payments should be either through the portal or by Paywave at student services.

Visitors to school

If you need to attend school for any reason, you must sign in at student services. Reception has moved to student services for the alert level 2 period.

Queen’s birthday weekend arrangements

A lot of teachers and students have been working without much of a break since the start of lockdown. A number of parents have contacted me asking for a break for their student. We have decided that we will have a longer break over the Queen’s birthday weekend – Friday 29 May will be a teacher only day and Tuesday 2 June will be a mid term break. This is in line with a number of other Wellington schools and will give students 5 days continuously away from school work and hopefully allow many of them to recharge for the remainder of the term. Please note that in our original scheduling for the year, we already had Friday 29 May marked as a teacher only day.

Extra hygiene processes

We have installed packets of paper towels as an additional drying mechanism in all toilets (in addition to electric hand dryers). We need students to look after these so that stocks are not depleted quicker than they need to be. Students should use 2 towels to dry their hands for roughly 10 seconds each, or use the hand dryer for approximately 45 seconds. We will be giving this message to students but your help in talking to your student about this would be appreciated.

Public transport

We have had difficulty getting information from Metlink but we have been told that there will definitely be no standing allowed on any school buses and they acknowledge this means some services may overfill. They are also looking at where they can put in additional services but cannot give any guarantees of when these might be in place. I suspect their capacity is limited in this regard and this will remain a problem under alert level 2. If you have alternative modes of transport for a student who would normally catch a bus or train, then this would be a good time to ‘exercise’ that option!

A reminder to please complete the public transport survey if you haven’t done already. This can be found at: https://forms.gle/kjY4WiGJ1GTnYsNX6. We need this information for contact tracing to and from school.

Students displaying signs of cold, flu, COVID-19

If students are displaying symptoms of any of these, please keep them away from school. If students turn up to school displaying these symptoms, we will ask you to come and pick them up. If students are ill they will be able to continue with the remote learning plans that will continue under alert level 2.

Cafeteria

Our cafeteria will be operating a cashless system using the mykindo app or through www.mykindo.co.nz. Orders can be placed through the app or website and the service is click and collect. More details can be found here. On Monday, EFTPOS machines will also be available in the cafeteria.

In addition, the cafeteria is implementing the following extra practices based on MPI guidelines:

There will be a register which records who handled/packaged what food.
Hand sanitiser is available at the counter for student use once they have received their food.
Queuing for food will happen in the marked lanes. Entry is by the car park entrance, exit is by the foyer entrance. There will be no dining in this area under alert level 2, and all seating has been removed from this area.

Preparing to return to school under Alert Level 2

The Ministry of Education has compiled a list of resources to help prepare parents and students for alert level 2. These include:

A ‘checklist’ for preparing for the return to on-site learning
Translated versions of the information in te reo Māori and 10 Pacific languages (Note: we will be adding other language versions in the coming days).
Some helpful videos that may help with the situation

https://parents.education.govt.nz/essential-information/news-stories/covid-19-preparing-for-alert-level-2/

Our Learning Plan under alert level 2

As I mentioned in my previous email, we will be continuing with our remote learning plan to enable some students to continue to work from home. Our expectation is that all students will return to school but we realise there will be some exceptions. Could you please ensure that your student has all the equipment they need for learning, including:

A charged device (and their charger)
Headphones to use with their device.

Our alert level 2 planning

You can view our COVID-19 alert level 2 planning here. This plan has been completed with close reference to Ministry of Education guidelines in Managing Health and Safety in Schools at Alert Level 2.

We are looking forward to welcoming all of our students back to school on Monday.

Mauri ora!

Dominic Killalea, Principal

Update 12.5.2020

Kia ora koutou

Yesterday, the Prime Minister announced that New Zealand will move into Alert Level 2 from Thursday 14 May. The Government will be reviewing this decision in two weeks time. In light of this announcement, our school will be reopening for all students from Monday 18 May and we will be making preparations for the return of students over the coming days. The key messages from the Prime Minister in relation to schools reopening at level 2 are below.

“Schools … are safe environments for children, young people and staff. Additional public health control measures are in place to prevent the spread of disease and to support contact tracing.”

“If a school has a confirmed or probable case of COVID-19, they must close on an individual or group basis for 72 hours, to allow contact tracing, and then potentially for a further 14 days.”

“The two key public health principles we’re talking to the sector about are one: to reduce the risk of someone getting infected in the first place and two, to ensure we can identify and contact anyone who becomes infected.”

“So keeping kids at home if they’re sick, and good hygiene such as hand washing are so important.”

“In schools, physical distancing means children, young people and staff maintaining enough distance so that they are not breathing on or touching each other. And maintaining good hygiene practices, and regular cleaning. As is regular cleaning of equipment.”

Returning to school

If your student is in years 9 & 10, we will be expecting them to return to school at 8.45am on Monday 18 May when they will immediately go to their rōpū class. If your student is in years 11, 12 & 13, we will be expecting them at 9.30am on Monday 18 May when they will also immediately go to their rōpū class. In both cases, this will be an opportunity for students to reconnect with their peers, be briefed on health and safety procedures for level 2 and set up contact tracing registers for each student.

As we have been doing at Alert Level 3, we will continue to focus on:

enabling good hygiene practices – regular washing and drying of hands and good cough and sneeze etiquette remain fundamental to preventing spread of illness such as colds, flu and COVID-19,
ensuring people with COVID-19 symptoms stay away from school,
maintaining physical distancing where practicable – in schools at Alert Level 2 this means young people and staff maintaining a physical distance so that they are not breathing on or touching each other,
keeping track of people who enter our school.

Additionally, at level 2, we will ask students to:

Use hand sanitiser upon entering class and clean surfaces at the end of each class,
Keep a contact register for break times and study periods,
Bring a bottle from home for water, as water fountains have been disabled except filling taps,
Not share class equipment eg books, pens, pencils, etc, at this time.

In light of the return to school, I have asked staff not to set any new work over the next 3 days – Wednesday to Friday. This will give students a bit of a breather or catch up time before returning to school full-time next week. Note that teachers will still be available in lesson times on Wednesday and Thursday. No staff will be available on Friday as they will be preparing onsite for the return of students on Monday.

Timetable changes

As you know, we have been struggling with space and overcrowding in more recent times. To mitigate against this we have decided to put junior students (years 9-10) and senior students (years 11-13) on different timetables for breaks during the school day. The altered timings are attached and will be in place for level 2 and be reviewed at the end of this period.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday		Wednesday
Junior timetable (9-10)	Senior timetable (11-13)	Junior timetable (9-10)	Senior timetable (11-13)
8.45 – Period 1	8.45 – Period 1	Staff PD	Staff PD
9.40 – Rōpū	9.40 – Interval	9.30 – Period 1
10.00 – Period 2	10.00 – Period 2	10.20 – Period 2	No period 1
11.00 – Interval	11.00 – Rōpū	11.10 – Interval	10.40 – Period 2
11.20 – Period 3	11.20 – Period 3	11.30 – Period 3	11.30 – Period 3
12.20 – Period 4	12.20 – Lunch	12.20 – Period 4	12.20 – Lunch
1.20 – Lunch	1.20 – Period 4	1.20 – Lunch	1.20 – Period 4
2.20 – Period 5	2.20 – Period 5	2.20 – Period 5	2.20 – Period 5

School Learning Plans

Our remote learning plans during the level 4 and level 3 lockdowns have provided a level of flexibility that we would like to be able to maintain in our normal school routines. At level 2 we will continue with our remote plan, but teachers will obviously not be available for online meetings, as they will be physically in class. If a student needs to be at home, they will be able to follow the work using their google classroom as they have done over the past 5-7 weeks.

Our priority at this point is to look after all of our students and help them through the next period of transition. There will be students who are anxious about assessment and qualifications and we are currently working through planning to ensure there is no ‘tsunami’ of assessment upon their return. If you are concerned about the wellbeing of your student, do not hesitate to get in touch and use your student’s rōpū teacher as the first point of contact.

Your support

In addition, although students are coming to a safe place, this isn’t business as usual and it is important that we continue to stress the need for good hygiene practices. To this end, could you help us by making sure your student brings the following from home:

Bottled water – these can be refilled at school but drinking taps have been disabled,
Equipment for classes – pens, pencils, books, devices – so there is no need to share others’ equipment.

In addition, if your student is using public transport with a snapper card, getting the snapper registered will help with contact tracing, in the event of any further outbreak of COVID-19 in the wider community.

Cafeteria

The cafeteria at school will be available for students. They are currently working on plans for what the delivery of their service looks like under alert level 2. I will forward you more advice on this in coming days.

School transport survey

Please complete the accompanying survey so that we are able to help with any contact tracing, should it be required in the event of a further outbreak of COVID-19. The survey can be accessed at: https://forms.gle/kjY4WiGJ1GTnYsNX6

We are really looking forward to welcoming all of our students back to school. I know that these have been challenging circumstances for all of our community and I thank you for your efforts in supporting and guiding your young person through the particular challenges of remote learning and these quite surreal times.

Mauri ora!

Dominic Killalea, Principal

Update 8.5.2020

Kia ora koutou

Yesterday, the Prime Minister advised that in Alert Level 2 schools are safe environments for children, young people and staff and that additional public health control measures are in place to prevent the spread of disease and to support contact tracing. There will be a decision about moving between alert levels on Monday 11 May, based on public health information, in particular low or no community transmission. If the decision is made to move from level 3 to level 2 then, according to the Prime Minister, “… schools won’t open midweek – whenever the decision is made – they will open at the beginning of the following week.” This means that the earliest we would be reopening at level 2 would be from Monday 18 May.

The decision to reopen our site is an important one and the key Public Health approach is to minimise the risk that someone gets infected in the first place, and second to ensure we can identify and contact anyone who has been in close contact with a person, if someone in our school is infected.

As we have done in Alert Level 3, you can be assured that in Alert Level 2 we will know who is at school, who our staff and students have been in close contact with and take appropriate measures to keep everyone safe.

Physical distancing is a good precaution to prevent the spread of disease. However, we do know it is challenging in schools, so good hygiene practices and regular cleaning are even more important here. This includes staff and students coughing into their elbows, handwashing and drying and regular cleaning of commonly touched surfaces.

Under Alert Level 2, we advise any students and staff to stay at home if they are sick, and we will send anyone home immediately if they show any symptoms.

Our school has safe and sensible practices to maintain the health and safety of everyone on the school site. As described by Dr Payinda in his NZ Herald article, “Covid’s not measles or chickenpox, it doesn’t hang in the air for hours waiting to infect passers-by. It travels on invisible drops of spit. You don’t have to cross the street to avoid anyone. Just avoid getting in their ‘moist breath’ zone”. We all just need to remember to have some breathing space at Alert Level 2!

It’s important however that not just at school but at home, safe hygiene habits are practised by everyone, as this is essential to minimise the risk that someone gets infected with Covid-19.

For more information about the public health measures at Alert Level 2, you can visit the covid19.govt.nz website: https://covid19.govt.nz/

We will be in touch again soon to update you on our plans.

Mauri ora

Dominic Killalea, Principal

Update 24.4.2020

Kia ora koutou

I hope you and your family are faring well at this time. Thank you to our year 9 and 10 parents and caregivers to their responses to our surveying in relation to students who will need supervision under the level 3 lockdown. At this stage we have approximately 10 students who are going to need supervision at school. This email is to outline what is happening over the next few days and a little information about our Health and Safety procedures during the level 3 lockdown.

ANZAC day holiday – Monday 27 April

This is a public holiday and so there are no classes and no expectations of students to be working on this day. Teachers will obviously not be available.

Teacher only day – Tuesday 28 April

There will be no scheduled classes on this day either as teachers will be preparing the school for level 3 lockdown and also using the time to share teaching and learning stories in a less frenetic environment. The teacher only day will mostly be happening remotely.

These two days (Monday and Tuesday away from school) will provide an opportunity for students to recharge, and spend time away from their computers. Try and encourage them to do this as much as possible. We have heard stories of students using this time to ‘game’ very late at night. Please discourage this type of behaviour at those sorts of hours. Try and talk to your young person about how you maintain your work-life balance and the risks and harm associated with addiction.

Students coming to school from Wednesday 29 April

The PM’s messaging has been very clear that under level 3 lockdown, as many people as possible should continue to work from home. This goes for schools as well and it is not possible for us to offer normal classes at the moment as teachers will be running their learning online. However, for essential services workers we can and will provide a level of supervision for students in years 9 and 10 so that those students can safely engage in their remote learning programmes.

As I mentioned above, we are expecting 10 students at school from Wednesday and it is important that we know who is onsite at all times for contact tracing. If you have not informed us that your student needs supervision, please email admin@whs.school.nz. If your situation changes and you will require your student to be supervised please let us know by contact through this email address.

When students are at school they will be placed in a ‘bubble’ of no more than 10 students initially although there is scope to grow the bubble to a maximum of 20 students when we feel that we have good health and safety procedures in place. Please note that the teachers supervising in the bubble will only be there in a supervising, not teaching capacity.

These times are obviously unprecedented and there will no doubt be learnings in the early stages.

A few notes about Health and Safety when students are at school under level 3 lockdown

The notes below are based on our advice from the Ministry of Education. I will be in touch separately on Tuesday with those parents and caregivers whose students will be attending from next Wednesday in relation to these procedures.

If your student is not well they should be kept home. If a sick child comes to school, they will need to be sent home.
Hand sanitiser will be at entry to classrooms and in bathrooms (if soap and water is not available). We will continue to emphasise the importance of good hygiene practices.
Initially, the number of children must be limited to 10 in a school bubble, but this can be increased to 20 once all processes are running smoothly. There can be multiple school bubbles in a physical space but there must be distance between bubbles and strictly no mixing between school bubbles. Bubbles cannot mix during break times.
To support contact tracing students should sit in the same place each day, with at least 1m physical distance between all children, young people and staff inside buildings and 2 metre physical distancing outside.
Our preference is that parents will drop students to school and pick them up at the end of the day if they are not living within walking distance. Parents will need to remain in their car and will be able to use our car park for this purpose in the short term.
Students will use the same workspace each day, all day and they will be required to disinfect and clean their workspace daily. There is an exception here for break times and visits to the library. These exceptions will be strictly supervised by school staff.
Students will need to bring their own lunch and food for each day as the school cafeteria will not be available. Students will be eating their lunch in their workspace (washing hands before and after).
Contact tracing registers will be set up to identify which children are in each teaching space, recording when and who they have contact with during the day.
There will be a register in student services recording any contractors or visitors to the site, including parents. However, parents and caregivers should not be visiting the site other than to perform drop offs and pick ups.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is not required or recommended as necessary in any educational facility by the Public Health Service as long as other protocols are observed. However, if students want to wear face masks, we see that as a proactive step in trying to keep themselves and others safe. The school has a supply of PPE.
Toilets – students will be directed to the toilets they will use during this period. We will be emphasising that they continue with good hygiene practices, particularly during this period.
If there is an emergency situation, students will follow normal school procedures.
Students will not have the normal freedoms associated with being at school and they will not be able to walk around the site as they might normally do. They will be confined to a small amount of spaces within the school to minimise contact.

School contact

Reception will be closed during this period and level 5 will be out of bounds for students. Any visitors to the school will need to go to student services on level 5 of main block. We already have in place a glass screen. A member of our senior leadership team will be supervising and answering enquiries from that point.
Phone calls to reception will be handled remotely.
If you need to contact the school about a general matter, please use the email address – admin@whs.school.nz. This address is being regularly monitored and we will respond when we can.

A slight change to our timetable

During the level 3 lockdown, we will move lunch to only a 40 minute break – from 1.20pm to 2pm. This means that period 5 will commence at 2pm. This applies to remote learning and at school learning. Please make note of this for lessons from next Wednesday. Our longer break normally facilitates sports practices and a range of other activities that aren’t possible at the moment.
This means our hours of supervision are 8.45am to 3pm under level 3 lockdown. It is not expected that students will be on school grounds outside of these times. If you are an essential services worker and you need additional supervision / support please contact admin@whs.school.nz and we will work through a solution with you.
Please note that Wednesdays remain a later start day with classes commencing at 9.30am. This also applies next Wednesday 29 April.

Mauri ora

Dominic Killalea, Principal

Update 21.4.2020

Kia ora koutou

We hope that Term 2 and our remote learning programme has been a success for your student(s) so far. We know that this has been a challenging time for all but it has been heartening to hear a lot of positive feedback in relation to what we have been offering and we thank you for all your support.

Yesterday the Government decided that we will move into Alert Level 3 from midnight Tuesday 28 April. That means we will be open to receive students from Wednesday 29 April. We will be starting to prepare our site this week.

The PM’s announcement in relation to level 3 was very clear:

Stay home. If you are not at work, school, exercising or getting essentials, then you must be at home, the same as at Level 4.
Work and learn from home if you can. We still want the vast majority of people working from home, and children and young people learning from home. At-risk students and staff should also stay at home, and they will be supported to do so. Early learning centres and schools will physically be open for up to Year 10 for families that need them.”

The key message for you is that if you can, you should keep your child at home. You should only physically send your child to school if you need to. If your child has a health condition that means they are at a greater risk of a severe illness you must keep them at home. If your child is sick please also ensure you keep them at home.

In order for us to plan the next stage we need to know of your intentions with your student. Please fill in this Google form as soon as possible. On the basis of this information, we will be establishing a level 3 lockdown school roll and we will only accept students at school who are on this expected roll.

Students who are at school will be following the remote learning plan, the same as students who are at home. We will be providing supervision for groups of up to 10 students in one place, but in order to ensure the safety of those children and our staff who do come to school, we will be operating with strict enforcement of health and safety measures. We will provide more details of these measures in a further communication.

I want to assure you that we will continue to support your child’s learning at home.

The Ministry of Education has advised that they are working closely with health to develop clear guidance that will support schools to safely re-open their premises to students and staff. This will help us work through the public health requirements that we all need to meet. As you will be doing, we want to be sure that what we do will keep our community as safe as possible.

For now, we will continue to support your child’s learning by distance while we progress our planning for what Alert Level 3 will mean for you and for our school. We will be in touch again soon with more information. As you have been doing, please keep connecting with your teachers with any questions you might have.

Mauri ora

Dominic Killalea, Principal

Update 16.4.2020

Kia ora koutou

I am writing to you today with information in relation to four areas:

the foreshadowing announcements for level 3 made today by our PM,
information to help students stay safer online from home,
if your child is unwell and unable to participate in online learning, and
some links to resources that may be useful that the ministry have asked me to share with you.

The level 3 foreshadowing announcement today

Our Prime Minister today outlined what level 3 will look like foreshadowing that students up to year 10 could be accommodated at school physically where needed. Before this announcement, Ministry of Education communications had already indicated that they have been looking at various scenarios based on health considerations and requirements under Level 3, particularly managing physical distancing. A hybrid model of both distance learning and on-site learning is very likely at least in the early stages of Level 3 and Public Health requirements will affect each school differently.

The ministry has assured us as a school that we will have some time to prepare for physically re-opening the school and welcoming back on site some of our staff and some, but not all, of our children/students.

Assuming the alert level does change, current planning assumptions are that staff will have Thursday 23 and Friday 24 April to fully access our site and undertake a property inspection and necessary maintenance and cleaning. Monday 27 April is a public holiday (ANZAC Day observed) and Tuesday 28 April will be a teacher-only day. We therefore anticipate Wednesday 29 April will be our first day with some of our students/children able to attend in person – at this stage that looks like being some students in year 9 and year 10. This information may change after the announcement today and I will write to you again when I know more about this.

Helping students stay safer online from home

As you know, children’s online safety is important. At school, Network for Learning (N4L) helps keep your students safe from the bad side of the internet. During lockdown, the students’ place of learning shifts to their home. So N4L has worked out a way to help parents keep their children safely connected at home.

N4L have set up a safety filter that parents can set up on their child’s learning devices from home. Just go to switchonsafety.co.nz to find clear instructions on how to do this.

The free N4L safety filter (by global cyber-security leader, Akamai) blocks websites containing known cyber threats like phishing scams, malicious content and viruses, while also protecting children from content deemed the worst of the web (like adult sites).

It is an extension of one of the many safety and security services we have in place at schools and is a valuable layer of protection to help keep children safe online. Please remember that technology is not a silver bullet and the filter should be used in combination with Netsafe’s online parent safety toolkit – https://www.netsafe.org.nz/parenttoolkit/.

Once a child’s device is set up, all internet search requests will go through the safety filter which checks if the website they are trying to visit is safe before allowing access. If it’s a website that’s known to be unsafe, then it will be blocked. The safety filter is applied to the child’s device, so parents’ devices are not affected.

If your child is unwell and unable to participate in online learning

If your student is unable to participate in online learning because of illness, could you please let their rōpū teacher know. The easiest way to do this is by using their 3-letter cypher (which is on the parent portal in your student’s timetable) and emailing them: eg abc@whs.school.nz

Resources to assist all students

The Ministry of Education has asked me to forward the following information to all families. Below is a TV schedule for the Home learning TV channel and some other links below this to resources that will be useful for all students but may be particularly useful for Pacific families and Pacific students.

Home Learning TV: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/home-learning-tv Here’s a possible timetable for the new Home Learning TV channel that started Wednesday 15 April on TV2+1:

9:00 – 9:10 am	*Parenting with Nathan Wallis* Nathan is well known to many schools for neuroscience (brain development) presentations around the early & adolescent years of life. You can check out his posts around Home School for Parents in his FB page or in YouTube search Nathan Wallis.
9:10 – 9:25 am	Early learning
9:25 – 9:40 am	Junior Health (ages 5 – 8)
9:40 – 9:55 am	Junior Literacy (ages 5 – 8)
9:55 – 10:05 am	Maia the Brave
10:05 – 10:30 am	Beginning Te Reo
10:30 – 10:50 am	Junior Science and Maths (ages 5 – 8)
10:50 – 11:00 am	Kai 5
11:00 – 11:15 am	Middle Literacy and Language (ages 9 – 11)
11:15am – 11:40 am	Middle Maths (ages 9 – 11)
11:40 am – 12:05 pm	Junior Project
12:05 – 12:30 pm	Animals
12:30 – 12:40 pm	*Parenting with Nathan Wallis*
12:40 – 1:00 pm	Aotearoa History
1:00 – 1:30 pm	Senior Literacy (ages 12 – 15)
1:30 – 1:55 pm	Born to Move (Teenagers)
1:55 – 2:25 pm	Advanced Te Reo
2:25 – 2:50 pm	Senior Project
2:50 – 3:00m	Daily Diary

Weave Kono Online Course Giveaway: HETET School of Māori Art is offering free how to weave a Kono. Check out this great learning opportunity (which, by the way, involves maths skills!!): https://www.hetetschoolofmaoriart.com/weave-kono-course-free-online-course
Latu To’omaga’s wellbeing videos: Latu is a NZ-born Samoan solo father of three living in Porirua. Latu is a qualified teacher & presenter for Brainwave Trust Aotearoa, educating about neuroscience (brain development) for the early and adolescent years of life. He’s also a fitness instructor. Check out Latu’s videos in this article to help people through the lockdown: https://www.mpp.govt.nz/news-and-stories/educator-shares-knowledge-online/
Prepare Pacific NZ: Check out “Prepare Pacific NZ”, a new website dedicated to providing information for New Zealand’s Pacific communities to help stamp out COVID-19. It’s a one-stop shop portal. Counties Manukau Chief Executive Fepulea’i Margie Apa says Pacific peoples are faced with a lot of mixed messages about COVID-19, and PreparePacific.nz aims to help them find what they need in one place. “Our Pacific communities told us they have to look at many different sources to find information which at times is difficult to understand,” Fepulea’i says. “We listened to their insights and designed PreparePacific.nz around their needs.” Features include panels in Pacific languages, health messages from Pacific doctors, contacts for family and sexual violence, financial support information and a list of essential services and Pacific providers. The work is underpinned by the latest health information from the Ministry of Health and various DHBs. https://preparepacific.nz/
Tagata Pasifika: Check out some Pacific groups to follow on Facebook during lockdown through “Tagata Pasifika – the Pacific voice on NZ television”: https://tpplus.co.nz/community/pasifika-facebook-groups-to-follow-during-lockdown/

Ngā mihi nui

Dominic Killalea, Principal

Update 9.4.2020

Kia ora koutou,

I realise that we are living in challenging and uncertain times and I hope you have been able to keep yourself and your family safe during this time. I apologise in advance for the length of this update but it is to clarify our expectations for students for the start of the new school term. Next Wednesday 15 April will be the official start of term 2 and our remote learning plan will again be actioned. Hopefully, the days before the holiday break would have been an opportunity for your student to start to get used to working in this way.

Firstly, our plan has involved students broadly sticking to a normal timetable. This has been a practical and structural support to keep students in routines as much as possible and allow students and teachers to be able to organise their day. However, we have a number of teachers who are also looking after their own children during this time and it is not possible for them to be online at all the times that they might want them to be. When this is the case, I have advised teachers to make it clear that they are unavailable by noting this in the Google Classroom or whatever organisational tool they may be using. Aside from this constraint, the timetable structure will continue.

Secondly, there needs to be flexibility in any planning for school. In many subjects, it will be enough for your student to make contact with their teacher once in the week, know what they are doing, and do what they can manage. Other subjects may need more contact time. Students will need to build their skills of self-management in this regard but they have teachers and you for support. We are not expecting students to be online for 8 hours a day – this is neither feasible nor healthy. We will continue to update the faculty plans each week.

Thirdly, teachers have already and will continue to keep an eye on engagement. This might be through interactions with resources and Google classroom, meetings, or weekly feedback to the teacher. We will be in touch if we have concerns in this regard and similarly, please contact us if you are concerned. The first point of contact should be a student’s rōpū teacher who will then refer appropriately.

Fourthly, there are some practical-based subjects where it is difficult for students to continue as normal and an online environment does not necessarily cater for the needs of students in such subject areas. For example, our year 9 students all do taster courses in Art, Music, Drama, Food Technology, Fashion Technology, Design Technology, Design Visual Communication and Financial Literacy over a full year, two a term. Given that most of these courses emphasise a very practical approach, it is not worthwhile to try to sustain these subjects in the short term. We will make appropriate timetable arrangements to cater for all students when we return from a lockdown situation. This will also free up 4 hours a week for these students to have time away from screens and pursue other activities.

Fifthly, I am expecting that teachers will stay in touch with their rōpū class and aim to meet either individually or collectively at least once a week. This is a good chance for students to touch base with other students outside of their immediate peer group and I encourage all students to invest in and commit to these meeting times.

Finally, some of you may have concerns about NCEA assessment. My instructions to teachers at this point are that NCEA assessment won’t proceed unless there is absolute certainty that it is going to be equitable. In making such decisions teachers need to consider students with special assessment conditions, students with device or connectivity needs that haven’t been met, and students who are struggling to have the same level of engagement because of the technological barrier. The current policy in relation to suspension of the assessment calendar stays in place. When we do return to school this calendar will need to be recalibrated.

Emails home

I realise that several subject teachers emailing various expectations could get quite overwhelming for students and for you. I am asking teachers to refrain from email communication unless on a 1-1 basis and use scheduled meetings and Google Classroom as a communication point.

Keeping safe online

The Ministry has forwarded the following advice to me and I am forwarding this to you. I am sure that many of you will have been navigating this area with your children but for others, the advice below may be helpful considerations. At this time I am encouraging you to discuss internet safety with your children and come to agreements about what they can do online including sites they can visit and appropriate behaviours including:

reviewing and approving games and apps before they are downloaded
reviewing privacy settings of sites and applications
checking children’s profiles and what they are posting online
check the sites your child is accessing
reminding children that anything that is posted online will be permanently on the internet
taking the time to understand what sites they are visiting and who they are talking with and check in regularly
some social media sites have age restrictions to join, check these before letting your child use them or join them
monitoring a child’s use of the internet and consider having them use it in an open, common area of the house
making sure your children know to report any activity they don’t feel comfortable with to parents and caregivers straight away.
Netsafe (https://www.netsafe.org.nz/) continues to be available to provide you and your parent and caregiver community with support for online safety. They have information for parents and caregivers and have pulled together their top tips for online safety during the lockdown. To report an incident To Netsafe – https://www.netsafe.org.nz/reportanincident/
If you think a child in your care is the victim of online exploitation or abuse, report it to Police – if you or a child are in danger or a crime is being committed, call 111 or visit your nearest Police Station immediately.

If we all work together to make sure children are safe online, we can make the internet a great tool for people of all ages.

Flutracking

This is a note from the Ministry of Health. Flutracking is an online survey which asks if you have had a fever or cough in the last week and which can help us track COVID-19. Registering online will help our surveillance efforts by providing early detection of community spread of the flu and also of COVID-19 symptoms. We encourage people to register online at https://info.flutracking.net/ .This is a practical thing everyone can do to help us monitor flu and COVID-19 symptoms throughout NZ.

More providers offer childcare options for essential workers

Parents who are essential workers can get additional childcare support if needed during the lockdown. The Government has increased the range of national home-based providers, with some offering care for children aged 0-14, and others ages 5-14. The Ministry of Education website has more details and will be updated as new providers are identified – http://education.govt.nz/covid-19/home-based-care-options-for-children-aged-0-14-of-essential-workers/

Update 27.3.2020

The Ministry of Education has been keeping us up to date with information in relation to COVID-19 and I have been passing this information on to you throughout. This new phase of New Zealand’s response to COVID-19 is very different from anything most of us have ever experienced. I wanted to reassure you that our school staff and Board of Trustees will continue to be available to support your student’s learning and wellbeing after the holiday break.

You will understand the importance of routine for your family. If your routine has been shaken up, like you’re now working from home, it’s good to structure your time. Routines are reassuring, and promote health and physical wellbeing. I refer you again to our remote learning plan – for lots of ideas on how to spend your time during this period. In addition, the Ministry of Education has suggested the following template for how a day could look.

Daily Schedule

Before 9:00am	Wake up	Eat breakfast, make your bed, get dressed, put any dirty clothes in the laundry
9:00-10:00	Morning walk	Family walk with the dog, bike ride, Yoga if it’s raining
10:00-11:00	Learning at home	School-led learning or Sudoku, books, flash cards, study guide, journal etc
11:00-12:00	Creative time	Legos, magnatiles, drawing, crafting, play music, cook or bake etc.
12:00 pm	Lunch 🙂
12:30	Helping at home	# wipe all kitchen tables and chairs # wipe all door handles, light switches and desk tops # wipe both bathrooms – sinks and toilets
1:00-2:30	Quiet time	Reading, puzzles, nap, radio NZ stories
2:30-4:00	Learning at home	School-led learning or iPad games, Prodigy, Educational show
4:00-5:00	Afternoon fresh air	Bikes, walk the dog, play outside
5:00-6:00	Dinner 🙂
6:00-8:00	Free TV time	Kids shower time
8:00	Bedtime	All kids
9:00pm	Bedtime	All kids who follow the daily schedule & don’t fight

Some good news to support you either working at home and/or studying at home – Spark, Vodafone, Vocus/Slingshot, 2Degrees and Trustpower have all advised they have removed their data caps and the possibility of any extra charges based on usage.

For our Pacific families, if you are not aware the Ministry for Pacific Peoples has been working to ensure useful information is available to Pacific peoples. A one-hour special will be aired on Tagata Pasifika’s segment on Saturday 28 March at 9am, and on Sunday at 7.35am, Tagata Pasifika will share messages from community leaders. Please help reach out to all your family members, community groups, friends and group chats to ensure our Pacific community groups are watching the programming on both days.

A big thank you to all of you for taking the lockdown so seriously. As the Prime Minister has noted, staying at home will break the chain and save lives; breaking the rules could risk someone close to you and if the rules are not complied with, this could risk the lockdown period being extended or could risk the virus being spread to thousands

Please note the support information we have written at the bottom of the remote learning plan. Our counselors and other support agencies are still available in these challenging times.

Update 24.3.20

With yesterday’s announcement by Government, we are implementing with urgency our plan to support your student’s learning from home. We appreciate this is a sudden and significant change, and will be heavily disruptive to many people in our community.

Today and tomorrow we are taking care of children of essential workers. You may wish to check if you are considered an essential worker – https://covid19.govt.nz/government-actions/covid-19-alert-system/, however, those roles include doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and police.

For all other children, we will be supporting their learning from your home in the following ways:

Our remote learning plan – https://www.whs.school.nz/newsnotices/remote-learning-plan/
Our detailed faculty / course plans – https://tinyurl.com/w85luvv
Learning from home resources – https://learningfromhome.govt.nz/ – this is a Ministry of Education support website

This week, teachers will be reaching out to their classes and establishing connections with as many students as they can, reassuring them, and setting out the ways in which remote learning will work. The plans for remote learning will be in place for the rest of this week which is now the last week of term 1. The school holidays commence from this Saturday 28 March and continue until Tuesday 14 April. The first day of term 2 will be Wednesday 15 April, but no one will be physically attending school on that date. The remote learning plans will continue from then. This week will be a good chance to support your student’s routines with remote learning. We have created guidelines for supporting your student with their school work during this period – https://www.whs.school.nz/wp-content/uploads/Learning-at-home-A-handy-guide-for-students.pdf.

If you have questions about the learning, please direct these to your student’s teacher in the first instance. If you have questions about pastoral issues, please direct these to your student’s rōpū teacher or Dean in the first instance.

Please note that the NCEA assessment calendars are suspended for the period of the lockdown and we will give more advice in relation to this at a future date. This does not mean that there will be no assessment during this period, it just means that expectations in relation to assessment will be conveyed by teachers directly to students.

As I mentioned yesterday, your young person will be looking to you for guidance about this decision. Parents, caregivers, whānau and teachers will have a particularly important part to play in reassuring children at this time. If you haven’t already done so, you may wish to read the information put together by the Ministry of Education to support your conversations with your children – Talking to children about COVID-19.

As noted by the Prime Minister these restrictions are our best chance to slow the virus in New Zealand and to save lives. We all have a clear role here to slow the spread of COVID-19.

I will continue to communicate with you as more information becomes available but this will probably be my last communication for this term. Thank you for your ongoing support of our school in unprecedented circumstances. Most of all, enjoy the time with your family over the coming period.

Ngā mihi

Update 23.3.20

The Prime Minister has just announced that the COVID-19 alert level has been lifted to alert level 3 and alert level 4 in 48 hours. This means that for Tuesday and Wednesday our school will provide supervision to children of essential services workers only. From Thursday, all schools will be closed.

I am sending a form separately to this communication to collect details of students who will need to be supervised for the next two days. Essential services workers are those people working in such areas as health, emergency, utilities, and goods transport.

As the situation has escalated we have been able to plan for remote learning. I refer you to our online learning plan – https://www.whs.school.nz/newsnotices/remote-learning-plan/. Students will be able to access the work for each of their classes. At the moment our expectation is that students will follow the timetable of a normal school day and they will be able to access support from staff during the time that they would normally have that class. A detailed plan for remote learning will be sent to you tomorrow.

I want to say that the most important thing at the moment is that we look after each other and that we support each other through what are unprecedented times. I don’t think anyone should become too obsessed with online and remote learning. We know that school is just a part of a young person’s education and that good books, movies, games and music and the opportunity to spend time with family are vital to a child’s growth. We must remember that we are all dealing with something that we have never dealt with before. This is where your parenting becomes even more important as you have the discussions that help your young person to comprehend what is happening, as you also start to comprehend this yourself. A lockdown situation means that students will be away from each other and this will be hard for them. They need your help to understand what this means and you will need to be creative in using your time together. A few years ago, we created a list of ‘homework ideas’ which are essentially activities that you could do at home that help in the education of your young person. I draw your attention to these – they are located on the Whānau section of our website under the heading Homework Ideas and they are grouped by faculty area. I notice, looking at them today, that some are out of date, and many aren’t possible in the current situation, but there are plenty of ideas that will help when you need something new.

Please continue to stress the importance of good hygiene practices as I have stated in previous communications. I am sure there will be more information coming about the school closure situation and I will communicate again with you when I know more.

Update 22.3.2020

I am updating you on a Sunday evening because of the announcement yesterday that New Zealand has moved to Alert Level 2 – Reduce Contact for COVID-19, which means that people over 70 years of age and those with compromised immunity and certain existing medical conditions are asked to remain at home as much as they can from now on and avoid any non-essential travel.

This will no doubt affect some staff and students and I am asking you to follow this advice with your young person if they are ‘at risk’. High-risk individuals include people with underlying medical conditions, such as:

a compromised immune system
liver disease
cancer
kidney disease
heart disease
diabetes mellitus

Further information is available at:

Please note that our instructions in relation to cough / cold symptoms have not changed and students should be kept at home if they are presenting with these symptoms.

Our senior leadership team has met today and we have decided that given the information we have about our staff, we are still able to run classes as normal tomorrow, although there will be some relief involved. We will obviously need to review this on a day to day basis.

Supporting learning at home

It is most likely that there are going to be a number of students at home and a number of students at school. Students who are well but staying at home will access learning remotely.

Lessons under these conditions will mean that a teacher needs to be available to students in the physical class during the allotted period but they will be accessible outside of class times if students have questions about their remote learning. Students will need to email or leave a message on Google Classroom and the teacher will aim to get back to them when they are available to do so. I draw your attention again to our remote learning plan on our website.

School transport

The school transport network has a number of school bus drivers over 70 years of age and the Ministry of Education is working with the bus companies to assess the impacts on school transport. We will know more about this in the coming days.

Updated COVID-19 graphic

I have included an updated version of what I sent to you on Friday with this email. There are a couple of changes based on increased data. I assume families will post this information in a prominent place at home.

Update 20.3.2020

With so much information and misinformation swirling around about COVID-19, I wanted to share with you what will happen if we were to have a case in our school community. We have been planning for this and are in a position to respond quickly.

As soon as a case is confirmed in our immediate school community (eg. a student, staff member, or member of their household), the Medical Officer of Health and Ministry of Education will inform me about this, and we will work together to get quick and clear messaging out to you.
If there was a case confirmed of someone in our school, we will likely be asked to close temporarily by the Medical Officer of Health. This will allow time for close contacts to be traced, appropriate testing to be undertaken, and a careful clean of the school to be undertaken.
If our school does need to close temporarily, we have a plan in place to support student’s learning. See: https://www.whs.school.nz/newsnotices/remote-learning-plan/

We know COVID-19 feels scary and of course people are concerned for the wellbeing of our children. Please be assured that with no case confirmed in our school, your children are safe here.

Good hygiene is a priority at our school, and we are reinforcing this regularly with all students and staff. We know that practising good hygiene is still the best thing we can all do to prevent illness.

I recommend the following Government website to you as the most accurate up-to-date information related to COVID-19 – https://covid19.govt.nz/.

If you know of people for whom English is a second language, please inform them that the Ministry of Health has information available in other languages too.

I’d like to stress the importance of Physical Education at this time and we have been speaking to Physical Education New Zealand (PENZ) about our practices. Based on their advice we have made some changes, namely:

We will not share bibs, these won’t be used in classes
We will avoid games that involve tagging/touching
Our Touch rugby unit is stopped and the related tournament won’t happen
We will sterilize gear after lessons (where appropriate)
PE lessons will start with requiring students to wash their hands and finish with this.

Please feel assured that we are continuing to access the most up to date advice and guidance so that we can confidently make informed decisions about the safety and wellbeing of our school community.

Update: 19.3.2020

Learning Conversations cancelled

We have decided to cancel our learning conversations day scheduled for Friday 27 March. This will now be a normal school day. Thursday 9 April remains a Teacher-Only Day, so the school will be closed for students then.

Sports and Arts

College Sport Wellington has advised us that all summer sports in Term 1 have been suspended as of Wednesday, 19 March. This decision was made with the knowledge that in all likelihood, these competitions will not be resumed. Other activities where students gather across the city, such as debating, have also been suspended.

Assemblies and trips

We have decided to cancel assemblies until further notice and we are currently reviewing trips. The Whanganui river trip scheduled for next week and an International trip scheduled for week 10 will both not be going ahead. Alternative arrangements will be made for a later time.

Preparations for a school closure and online learning

At this stage, the Ministry has said that they are not expecting widespread school closures. There is planning for temporary closures, but as the World Health Organisation has confirmed, the risk to children remains low and parents should continue to send their children to schools and early learning centres.

The Ministry of Education will make any decisions about school closures on a case by case basis. In the meantime, unless students are unwell themselves, then schools continue to be safe and the best place for our students to continue their learning.

Online learning

We have a plan for supporting learners in the event of a school closure. You can read about this here.

Hygiene and wellbeing

We would like to reiterate the advice from health authorities about the importance of good hygiene practices. I hope you are all focusing on prevention of spread including through:

Washing hands with soap and water for 20 seconds and drying thoroughly – before and after eating as well as after attending the toilet
Covering coughs and sneezes with clean tissues or with an elbow
Putting used tissues in the bin

Classrooms are being cleaned every day and the cleaning of the school has been stepped up.

Talking to Young People about COVID-19

This is a difficult and stressful time. Events are moving quickly and there is a huge range of information available online, some of which is alarming. If your student is finding this upsetting, please encourage them to make contact with our guidance counsellors, their Dean or rōpū teacher. You may find this advice useful: Talking to Children and Young People about COVID-19 (Coronavirus): Advice for Parents and Schools

If students are unwell

Students need to stay home if they are unwell in any way. If your student is at school presenting with cough / cold symptoms, their rōpū teacher may be in touch to suggest that you keep them home until they are well. Please understand that in this environment, students who present with coughs and colds can alarm other students at school and we have a responsibility to look after each other during these times.

Self-isolation requirements

There is now a 14 day self-isolation requirement for anyone arriving in New Zealand from other countries. In line with Ministry of Health advice, any member of our school community who returns to New Zealand from overseas, or has been in close contact with someone confirmed with COVID-19, is required to self-isolate, stay away from the Wellington High School for 14 days, and register using Healthline’s dedicated COVID-19 number 0800 358 5453. Where practicable we will provide work for students who are not able to be present in timetabled classes. We respectfully ask you to consider postponing these trips if at all possible.

NCEA Assessments

Under normal circumstances our internal assessment guidelines from NZQA dictate that if students are sick and cannot attend an NCEA assessment they must have a medical certificate. NZQA has asked us to show flexibility with these guidelines. Currently, we will accept a note from parents explaining student absence from NCEA assessments, if they are off school sick.

International Students

This is potentially a very distressing time for our international students, who in most cases, are away from their families. Our International Team is providing daily guidance and support to them and we are grateful for the excellent care which they are also receiving from their Wellington homestay families. It is important to note that anyone in New Zealand who is suspected of having an infectious disease or potentially in need of quarantine will be eligible for publicly funded health services in order to address the risks to other people. This applies regardless of their length of stay or immigration status.