Covid 19 Update

Kia Ora Koutou

A warm welcome to 2022 and the new school year.

Many of you may be wondering what the move to the Covid-19 red setting means for our return to school and our school specifically.

At this point in time we have not received any specific information form the Ministry of Education. What we have via the Media and the Covid-19 website is all we know alongside you. We have been told to expect an full MOE update on Tuesday afternoon with more details for the red setting and returning to school. So it will be Wednesday before we will update you.

A couple of key things we do know.
1. Schools will remain open at the red setting.
2. Children in Year 4 and above must wear a face covering.

Once we do have those specific details from the MOE we will update you so you and your children can prepare for the return to school. Our students start back at school on Wednesday 2 February.

We will be sending out further information about the return to school including the new Before and After School Care over the coming week. We hope you enjoy the last full week of these school holidays.

Ngā Mihi
Grant Stuart
Principal

2022 School Stationery Lists

Dear Parent / Guardian,
We’ve teamed up with OfficeMax to make getting school ready faster! Our back to school stationery lists are already loaded and ready to go on the OfficeMax MySchool website.
We encourage you to order early to ensure your child has all their stationery requirements ready to go in plenty of time for the start of Term 1.
It’s easy to shop online at myschool.co.nz. Just search for our school, select your child’s class and/or subject lists and follow the instructions on the easy-to-use website.
If you prefer you can call the OfficeMax MySchool team on 0800 724 440 Monday to Friday, 8.30am – 5pm.
OfficeMax makes it easy to get back to school ready with these great benefits
Free delivery on orders over $46*
Pay now or in easy instalments – internet banking, credit cards, debit cards or pay in 6 weekly, interest-free payments with Laybuy*
School Rewards – when you shop on myschool.co.nz we earn rewards* that can be used to purchase extra resources for school
Price match promise – shop with confidence, if you find a lower price OfficeMax will match it*
Save valuable holiday time – avoid queues and busy shopping malls by shopping online from the safety and comfort of your home
We look forward to your child having a successful start to the new school year!

MySchool

Here is the link to the latest newsletter.

Newsletter

Below is the link to the last newsletter of the year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! https://www.smore.com/6k98s

Last day of school is tomorrow!!!! School will finish tomorrow at 2.45pm for all Yr 0-7 students. Wednesday is ONLY for our Yr 8 students.

Prizegiving – Final Mass – Y8 Leavers Function

Prizegiving – The video for today’s prizegiving will be available later this afternoon on the school FaceBook page.

Final Mass – The Mass tomorrow will be live streamed.

Yr 8 Leavers Function – the video and photos from the leavers function on Wednesday will be shaered with the Y8 families.

Christmas Themed Mufti Day!!

The final day of school, Tuesday 14th December.
Donation of a food item for the Society of St Vincent de Paul is appreciated.
Please place your food item in the bins outside Room 1 as you arrive at school.

The latest school newsletter is now available.

T4 Wk 7 Newsletter

Year 0-3 Swimming Lessons start tomorrow. REMEMBER TO BRING TOGS, TOWEL & GOGGLES in a swimming bag. Notice home from 19 Nov attached:

Year 0-6 Swimming Lessons 2021

Year 4-6 remember your swimming gear tomorrow and Tuesday. 2 more lessons!

Chickenpox- We have been advised by a parent that their child has confirmed chickenpox. Please be aware of this if your child feels unwell.

Year 4-6 Swimming Lessons start tomorrow. REMEMBER TO BRING TOGS, TOWEL & GOGGLES in a swimming bag and shoes to walk in.

Swimming Lessons for Year 0-6 – information attached.

Swimming Lessons Year 0-6 2021

School Lunches

School lunches are back!
Parents will be able to order Sushi and Subway starting on Monday next week.
Log in via Kindo to see the range of options!

mykindo

Kia Ora Koutou Here is the latest newsletter:

Term 4 Week 5

Information about return to school for all students under Alert Level 2 tomorrow Wednesday 17 November.

All students are welcome back tomorrow – the previous communications about part-time schooling no longer apply.

Return to school Alert Level 2 Wednesday 17 November

Moving to Level 2

Kia Ora Koutou

With the 4pm announcement that Waikato is moving to Alert Level 2 from 11:59pm Tuesday 16th November we are awaiting advice from the Ministry of Education outlining guidelines for a return to school. As soon as we hear, and have made a plan, we will let you know.

Students registered to attend a bubble can still attend tomorrow as planned.

Nga mihi
Grant Stuart
Principal

For students returning on Wed/Thurs: PE Uniform option, return of devices and BYOD.

Dear Parents,

Today the teachers met to discuss some more of the details around students returning this week. These decisions have been made:

– Children will not be changing between their school uniform and PE uniform at school, because this would mean congestion in our toilet blocks. For this reason, children can wear their PE uniform to school all day if they prefer. They will stay in either school uniform or PE uniform all day.

– Many of our devices at school have been loaned out for Distance Learning. We now these returned to school for children onsite to use please. We also encourage students in Year 4-8 to BYOD (bring their own devices) from home to use under Alert Level 3. 

We look forward to seeing students at school on Wednesday OR Thursday

 A-L surnames on Wednesday
M-Z surnames on Thursday

Thank you.

School Reopening – Wednesday 17 November

School Reopening – Wednesday 17 November

Kia Ora Koutou

Thank you for your patience and understanding at this time. It has been a busy 48 hours with a number of key decisions being made as we look to reopen the school at Level 3.2. All decisions have been made in the best interest of keeping our students and staff safe.

Below is the link to the plan to reopen the School part time on Wednesday 17 November. Please take time to read it and explain to your tamariki that school will be very different to school at Level 2.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ocn8aQgGHQDuMnl1ZPHGEuEkpswbUzLu/view?usp=sharing

School Reopening Plan

Information about schools beginning to open from Wed 17 November.

Kia Ora Whānau,

You will have heard today during Minister Hipkin’s briefing, that primary schools in Waikato and Auckland will begin the process of welcoming students back to school on Wednesday 17th November. Our teaching team is excited to be back on site for learning together, but it will be in a very different form.

Schools are guided by the public health guidelines that accompany such announcements.  At this early stage, we do not have those guidelines that will inform the organisation of this return to school and are awaiting this from the Ministries of Health and Education.

What is clear, is that we will not have the capacity to welcome our entire school on-site on the same day.  For this reason, we are looking at rotating which families are on-site at school each day. Once we know more about the public health guidelines that dictate how this should look, we will be able to organise groups of students to return to school. We will get this information to you as soon as it is possible.

What we already know is:

– masks will need to be worn all day by children in Years 4-8.

– children from different classes will not be able to mix with each other, so they will have separate break times and separate areas to play in.

For now, we cannot accept any more students at onsite at bubble school, as these numbers also heavily impact our ability to open for our whole school next week.

We know that some families will be excited about returning to school, and others will be anxious. We can assure you that we will continue to do our best to implement the guidelines, once we have clarity about them.

If you will be making the decision not to send your child back to school next week, could you please let us know to assist our planning. Email admin@stjosephs.school.nz.

We know you will have lots of questions, but please give us time to plan once we have the full information from the Ministries. Thank you for your understanding.

Events Update: Kia Ora Koutou With the current situation with Alert Level restrictions and Covid cases continuing to rise in the community..

Kia Ora Koutou

With the current situation with Alert Level restrictions and Covid cases continuing to rise in the community we now have to make some of the hard decisions around some of the Term 4 events. With some much uncertainty around when the students will be back onsite it is impossible to make every event happen. 

Where possible the school will try to modify events to ensure students still have the opportunity to take part in a range of activities. Other events that can not be modified to fit within Alert Level restrictions will just have to be cancelled. 

Unfortunately, the Year 4-8 Athletics that is to take place next Tuesday 2 November at Porritt Stadium is now cancelled. When we do return safely onto the school site the teachers will be able to facilitate the different field events that the students would normally do on Athletics Day during the school day. 

Another major event that will be postponed is the Year 7&8 production (with the Year 5&6 choir), the new date will be early in 2022. With the current restrictions in place the students can not rehearse. This is especially disappointing for our Year 8 students who have worked so hard on the production. Tomorrow the office team will start working on refunding the cost of tickets. 

We anticipate that most of the inter school events will be cancelled for the term. Our Year 0-3 team gymnastic lessons at Hamilton City Gym have also been postponed until 2022. 

A separate email will be sent to parents of our Year 8 students about end of year events for our Year 8’s. This plan outlines the commitment that we have as a school to ensure we farewell them in a memorable way. 

We know that at the moment times are tough and with some much uncertainty around makes it hard. I would like to thank you for your ongoing support and cooperation as we try to navigate the next seven weeks until the Christmas break. Below is a link to an article in the Herald this morning around How to survive another term of homeschooling during lockdown. 

Lastly, I would like to thank our staff. They have and continue to do an amazing job in providing online support for our learners at home and for our students that are onsite in bubbles. Thank you!   

Ngā Mihi

Grant Stuart 

Principal  

Herald link: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/covid-19-delta-outbreak-how-to-survive-another-term-of-homeschooling-during-lockdown/KDPJORHQHGW6QCISVPVZHWDAMU/?fbclid=IwAR2bPa7feM5nwHUi2-QAmXmcyei7d5GXXTYtb1tMRDYLZklZrj3dSq94M3c