Community News Update 18/5/22

Community News Update 18/5/22 - News & Events - News - Kaipara College

18th May 2022

Community Update: Kaipara College Omicron Uptick Response Plan

Kia ora e te whānau

With the increasing impact of COVID on our school community I regret to inform you that we are no longer able to sustain running the school safely. We have a high number of leadership, teaching, administration and support staff absent, as well as an increasing number of students.  For this reason we are moving to learning from home for all students for the rest of this week and next week, through to Fri 27th May. 

Teachers will post work on Google Classrooms and be on-line from Friday this week, using tomorrow (Thurs) as preparation time. Students are to use tomorrow (Thurs) as a catch up time. From Friday this week students are to be online via Google Meet at the start of every period with their teachers, following their school timetable. Work will be posted on the Google Classroom for each subject. Students will have the opportunity to ask questions and get feedback from their teachers. If the teacher is unable to attend online (e.g. due to illness) the students will be notified via Google Classroom. There will still be work available for them on-line.

Teachers will be marking attendance for every lesson. Please notify the school in the usual way if your student is unwell on any day. Absent texts will still be sent for students who do not attend class online and for whom we have not been notified as being unwell.

Sport and trainings will continue as normal unless students are advised otherwise by their coaches. Other school based extra-curricular activities such as Band Factory and school production rehearsals are on hold until we return to school in person. Gateway courses are also on hold until further notice.

We will review the staffing status throughout next week and notify you of the plan for the following week as early as possible. Our options include: to fully open, to roster year levels home as we did in Term 1, or for all students to remain learning from home. How we proceed is dependent on the level of staff who are able to attend school.  

On our return to school we will be reinstating the compulsory wearing of masks for all students and staff while inside. All students with a mask exemption will be required to show evidence of this to their whānau teacher in the first instance.

If your student is under 14yo and there is no-one at home to supervise them they are able to come to school to be supervised doing their on-line learning. Please let us know if this applies to your student by completing this form.

 I do apologise for the lack of warning of this. COVID moves rapidly as we know. I also apologise for the inevitable disruption this will cause. We have not taken this step lightly.  Our focus as always is to support the learning, safety and wellbeing of our rangatahi and we continue to be here to support you as well.

Please don’t hesitate to contact your student’s whānau teacher, kaitiaki or me, if there is something you need assistance with.

Thank you for your ongoing understanding and support. 

Ngā mihi

Cindy Sullivan

PRINCIPAL