Dear Parents and Caregivers,

I hope you are safe and well in your bubble, that you have enjoyed Easter and the school holiday break.

STRUCTURED LEARNING

Term two starts tomorrow with stage 2 structured learning at home.  All teachers have been meeting, developing and communicating the different types of learning that they will be engaging children with during the next eight school days.  Teachers have worked together across their team to develop learning that is specific to different groups (eg reading) and areas that your children and your family can choose to do (eg topic work).  As we have always reiterated, do as much or as little as your family can. Think about this is an offer of learning, an invitation from your child’s classroom teacher to return to learning after the holidays.  Each household will have different routines they have created, different device access, different opinions on structured learning, different timeframes, we know you will do what you think is best for your family.

The Ministry of Education (MoE) requires us to continue to take the roll each day during stage 2 structured learning at home.  All Teachers have information as a guide to how this will happen in your child’s class.

Like you, this is new to us, as teachers we are enthusiastic to be able to share our structured learning ideas with you.  Every Teacher is committed to taking at least two online meetings per day, this may be with a small group or a whole class.  We see this as an important aspect of staying connected with your child and your family. At this stage Teachers are offering catch ups covering a wide variety of areas throughout the day.  At times there will be cross overs from class to class, we totally understand if your child is unable to attend the meeting. Perhaps the time does not suit as you need your device for work, perhaps there are multiple meetings at the same time for the children in your household and not enough devices. Don’t panic, Teachers will let you know when meetings are and you may want to structure which child meets.  As a school we are using Google Meet and Zoom, both of these are available as apps on smart phones – perhaps this is an extra option for your family rather than taking up a device.

Where Teachers have shared a timetable please know that this is not a rigid set format, use the routines of your home to guide the time you have available to engage in the learning.  If you see a block of 1.30 – 3.00pm this indicates when learning might happen rather than how long learning will happen.

Enjoy this time, if you need to, take a breath, if it’s a lovely day and you want to be outside you should, find what works for you and your family.

TIMEFRAMES

It is the Government’s intention that on 20th of April, two days before the current period of Alert Level 4 is due to finish, to make a decision on whether or not the Alert Level will change.

  • The Government will give some guidance on what life at Level 3 looks like.

The MoE has noted it would be wrong to assume that all schools will reopen at Level 3. Assuming the alert level does change, current planning assumptions are;

  • Thursday 23 and Friday 24 April limited access to the school to undertake a property inspection and necessary maintenance and cleaning
  • Monday 27 April is a public holiday (ANZAC Day observed)
  • Tuesday 28 April will be a staff-only day
  • Wednesday 29 April could be our first day with some students / children able to attend in person

Like you, next week we will know more.

 

DEVICES

The MoE are allowing us to go back onsite to get devices to send to families.  We will be able to offer chromebooks for Y5 – 8 students to support learning. We will be able to extend this offer further to families that have limited devices.  If you have a child in Y5 – 8 and need an extra device please email me ( andrew@stmartins.school.nz ) with the following details;

  • Parent Name
  • Childs Name
  • Childs Room / Class
  • Address

All devices will be couriered to home addresses.  We will need to order boxes from the MoE to send them and then organise delivery.  An estimated date for receiving the devices may be 20 – 22nd April.

 

HOME LEARNING / PAPA KĀINGA TV

Home Learning | Papa Kāinga TV will be shown, free to air, on TVNZ channel 2+1 and on TVNZ on Demand, as well as on Sky Channel 502. It will run from 9am to 3pm on school days with programming for children and young people aged 2 to 15, as well as for parents. Home Learning TV will initially be on air for one month – with provision to extend beyond that depending on the COVID-19 situation.

Tomorrows timetable is;

  • 9.00am – 9.10am Parenting – Nathan Wallis
  • 9.10am – 9.25am Early Learning
  • 9.25am – 9.40am Junior Health (Age 5 – 8)
  • 9.40am – 9.55am Junior Literacy (Age 5 – 8)
  • 9.55am – 10.05am Maia the Brave
  • 10.05am – 10.30am Beginning Te Reo
  • 10.30am – 10.50am Junior Science and Maths (Age 5 – 8)
  • 10.50am – 11.00am Kai 5
  • 11.00am – 11.15am Middle Literacy and Language (Age 9 – 11)
  • 11.15am – 11.40am Middle Maths (Age 9 – 11)
  • 11.40am – 12.05pm Junior Project
  • 12.05pm – 12.30pm Fanimals
  • 12.30pm – 12.40pm Parenting with Nathan Wallis
  • 12.40pm – 1.00pm Aotearoa HIstory
  • 1.00pm – 1.30pm Senior Literacy (Age 12 – 15)
  • 1.30pm – 1.55pm Born to Move – (Teens)
  • 1.55pm – 2.25pm Advanced Te Reo
  • 2.25pm – 2.50pm Senior Project
  • 2.50pm – 3.00pm Daily Diary

This also might be an option to explore.

On behalf of the staff at St Martins, we thank you for your support during this new learning journey.  We really appreciate the positive comments you are sharing. Great to see so many families out on bikes, walking, running or even at the supermarket.  Your kind words have been very uplifting.

As always, take care of yourself and your bubble.  Take your time to ease into structured learning. If you have any questions or queries please feel free to ask.

Regards,

Andrew