Te iwi tahi tatou - We are one family.
Tēnā koutou, Konnichiwa, As-salāmu 'alaykum, Hola, Hello!
I am hoping that you and your whānau are well and are making the most of the 'bubble' time together. For those of you who are working with the public in essential services, we cannot thank you enough. By now you have probably developed a daily 'bubble rhythm'. Working from home brings its own challenges and benefits! I hope you are making the most of family time and are enjoying time to slow the pace of life.
I have been keeping track of the security of our school through daily reports undertaken by Armourguard. It is reassuring that our school is being checked regularly and is being kept safe.
Our staff are regularly meeting on Zoom and have been preparing for our return to "school" next week. This will be done remotely. Teachers will be checking in with students this week to make sure they are ready to go NEXT week, so if you get a text or call from your child's teacher then it is because we have not been able to contact them directly. If you are needing paper-based resources for next week, then we have left a pack of work outside the front door at School. If you live nearby then a short walk past there to collect a copy wouldn't go amiss :)
We have a lot of online work ready to go for students next week. Teachers will be resuming online conferencing (if they have set this up) and new learning will be posted to the online tools that they have set up for their classes. If you have any questions about this, then drop me an email (toby.stokes@swis.school.nz) or email you child's teacher directly using the email format FIRSTNAME.LASTNAME@swis.school.nz
When we physically return to school then we will be focusing on Health and The Arts as our integrated curriculum areas. This will mean that we are focusing on the mental health and wellbeing of students, their ability to be resilient in these changing times and investigating tools that build on these areas. There are a lot of expertly curated resources that are being produced that will help you, your family and everyone, including the school staff, as we return to what will be a new normal for us all. We will be making slight changes to our breaks so that students are eating with their teacher and we will be opening the library during both of our breaks to give students a quiet space if needed.
Everything we do will adhere to the advice and guidance we receive from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education. Once I get these details I will let you know what this means for us at school.
One thing I am considering is the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our community. Families may be facing more financial pressure than they have experienced in the past as well as families experiencing this for the first time. Please reach out if you need support. We have an informal lunch programme that may support your child during the next few weeks and this could be extended to breakfast programme if needed.
Learning at Home
Children will not come to any harm if they have a break from formal learning for a while. I am sure many of the experiences they are having at home with you at this time will be creating special bonds and memories for life. Do not feel any guilt over unfinished tasks.
There are some amazing online learning opportunities that you can easily find with a quick internet search. The Ministry of Education is adding to their bank of online resource links so do try some of these: https://learningfromhome.govt.nz/home
School Terms
School terms have been moved.
From the 28th March we entered into the school holidays with the start date of term two moved to Wednesday 15th April. Other term dates are the same.
This is a whole new experience for all of us and we don't want it to be overwhelming for anyone. So please remember that wellbeing comes first, then learning.
