Principal's Message

My message for the newsletter this week is primarily about our return to school now that we have moved into Alert Level 2.

We have been well assured by both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education that it is safe for our staff and students to return to our carefully managed environment. We are very aware, however, that Level 2 is not yet business as usual and everything we do at school will have a health and safe spotlight on it so we can all be assured that our young people and the adults at school will be as safe as possible. For this reason, I am sending you all our planning document for return to school. In this, you will see that systems for movement around the school, minimising gatherings of students, equipment in specialist areas, sanitising of desks and so on has all been taken into consideration. Please read this document and discuss it with your children as needed, prior to them beginning with us again on Monday.

We look forward to seeing everyone in school again on Monday – please refer to recent emails about the return times for different levels. Students also received this information yesterday.

If your child travels on a bus that drops off and picks up at Kavanagh, please inform the office before Monday. We will keep this bus register for contact tracing purposes; however, we have no control over the public bus service. I suggest you check the ORC website for bus information and their health and safety protocols.

I would politely request that parents do not come on-site during the level 2 period unless you really need to. If you do need to, please follow the directions at the office and sign in as part of our contact tracing requirements.

Many of our students will be experiencing a number of emotions about returning. We suggest you keep talking with them positively and optimistically about the future. If you have any concerns at all about your child’s wellbeing, please contact the tutor teacher in the first place. As we transition into school again, we are recommending that staff are not working on-site past 4pm next week. While there are very few co-curricular activities happening initially, we would like students to leave school soon after school finishes to prevent extra gatherings within school.

I expect that many of us adults are also experiencing many different emotions at present due to the change in alert levels and the return to workplaces and routines outside of the home. Take care of yourselves during this time and we look forward to gathering as a school community sometime in the hopefully near future.

God bless.