Tena koutou katoa. Nga mihi atawhai nui.

They’re back!! And what a joy it is to hear the chatter and laughter of our junior students as they have come back onsite.

During my wandering around the classes, during the timetabled lessons and out in the grounds during the break, they all seemed delighted to be seeing their friends and teachers in person. Although some were struggling with having to get out of bed that much earlier to make it to the bus, or the lift they had organised to get into school. I think that was much the same for the teachers!! Having to plan again for that commute time is a bit of a shock to the system.

We are making sure we are following all of the Health and Safety protocols so thank you to all of the parents who have supported their daughters in reading and acknowledging the documents that were sent earlier.

We have set up new protocols for how we manage the Sick Bay area. We have physically changed the rooms to ensure we have a screened off area to accommodate any potential COVID cases. To identify these potential cases, we are implementing a series of ‘screening’ questions and list of symptoms that might indicate COVID.

If a student is identified as a possible case, we will be contacting parents and caregivers for immediate pick up – and we would ask that parents respond quickly if we contact them. We want to limit exposure to others in the College as much as possible.

We can’t stress enough that if your daughter has any coughs, sore throats, runny nose or is vomiting, the most effective Health and Safety protocol that we need your assistance with is to NOT send them to school in the first place.

With our high vaccination rates for both students and staff, the likelihood of an outbreak is greatly reduced – again, thank you for that.

So, as we settle back into our daily school routines, ‘we give thanks to the presence and the gift of those in our community. Help us all to be respectful of each other and attentive in your presence.’