Community Update

8 September 2021

Kia ora e te Whānau,

It was really lovely to see many of our Matangi Staff back in school today, preparing for school to reopen tomorrow. We are all very excited to see our children tomorrow morning. We are looking forward to being back into the term, ready to continue on with our classroom programmes.

As mentioned in my update yesterday, under Delta Alert Level 2, we ask parents not to come onto the school site. If for some reason you find it necessary to come onto the school site, you will need to scan the QR code on either one of our school gates.

Please drop your child/ren off at the gates around the school in the morning. They will need to walk to their classrooms themselves. We have Teachers at each gate supporting children to arrive safely. Teachers will walk the students out to their designated gate each afternoon at 2:50 pm.

To support us with this process, we ask that you talk with your child/ren about the designated gate (Front Gate or Reserve Gate) your family is selecting so that your child/ren know where to meet you EVERYDAY.

If you need to visit a classroom, you will need to come to the Front Office, sign the register, and scan the QR code before making your way to the classroom. You will also be required to sign this register as you leave, via the Front Office.

If it is your child’s first day at Matangi School, you are welcome to come into school to support your child in this special event; we just ask that you come in via the school office, sign in, and scan the QR code. Before you leave we ask that you sign out on the register as well.

Tui House – If your child is attending BSC (Before School Care) or ASC (After School Care) please drop your children off, and pick them up, at the FRONT GATE – there will be a staff member there to greet them. There will be QR Code to scan, if you are needing to come on site for any reason. We will keep you updated if there are any changes to this process.

Remind your child that there is no sharing of food or drink bottles. Send open packets to school for them if they cannot independently open their food.

Send your child/ren with a full drink bottle NAMED. Drinking fountains are closed. Due to the hygiene factor, we will have limited PE gear out. We encourage your child to bring in their own ball (named), if they are able to.

We have had to make many changes to our School Programme. As a result some of our school events have either been rescheduled, postponed, or cancelled. Please look at our School Reminders that will be coming out tomorrow. This will have an update of all school events for Term 3 and for the beginning of Term 4.

Student-Led Conferences – were planned for next week. These have now been rescheduled for Week 2, Term 4. We will send out more information about this over the next week.

Rimu Trip – has been cancelled. Zero Waste have decided that, under Level 2, they can no longer able to accommodate us.

Winter Sports Prize Giving – has been rescheduled for next Tuesday the 14^th of September. We will endeavour to live-stream this. We will not be asking parents or coaches to attend this sorry, due to the restrictions that have been placed on us from the Ministry.

Matangi School Cross Country – has been rescheduled for Week 9 Tuesday 21^st September. More information will be coming out in regards to this over the next few days.

Senior School Speeches – will take place this term. Please look on the calendar for more information on this. We will also send out an update on how this will look for our senior students.

Online learning – please note that we will not be providing online learning for our students that have been kept at home. We will have activities available for our children on Seesaw and homework tasks that they will be able to work on from home, if they are unable to come into school. Your child’s teacher will be able to give you information as to what the class is focusing on and the topics that they are covering. Please keep in contact with your child’s teacher if your child is requiring that extra support with coming back to school after our recent lockdown.

Finally, I want to extend a huge thank you to every member of our community for the work that has been done to keep our students and region safe. Our collective efforts have made it possible to be back onsite tomorrow.

As we enjoy our limited sense of freedom at Delta Alert Level 2, our thoughts, once again, go out to those doing the mahi in Auckland at Alert Level 4.

Keep it up! It takes everyone to make small sacrifices, that ultimately make a big difference.

Ngā mihi,

Helena Kirkham

(Acting Principal).