The following was sent as an email to our College community:
I want to send through some further information to our community. The college is working closely with the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health around the Covid pandemic.
It is becoming apparent that New Zealand is following other countries with the Omicron outbreak. These are challenging times and I feel that it is important to provide up to date information to the Cullinane College community.
Firstly I want to assure you that we are opening for instruction for all of our students. There will be some changes from normal. Some of these are changes present some challenges for staff and students. For many of our young people these changes will generate some levels of anxiety, please do take the time to support them in this regard.
Omicron presents as a highly transmissible variant. In recognition of this, the Ministry of Education has mandated the use of face masks for all people inside. I am hoping that you are able to send your child in with his/her own one. If that isn’t possible the college will supply these for students (or if one breaks during the day). There is a process for some students with specific needs to get exemption certificates, which means some of your child’s peers may be maskless inside.
The Ministry has a process for the confirmation of a positive case within our community (advice is that this will happen eventually for all schools). At the point that this happens I will send this information, an action plan, immediately via this email system, Facebook and school website. It has been indicated that confirmation of a positive case won’t default to a closure of the school.
We have learnt and developed good practice around hand washing, avoiding direct contact, hand sanitation etc. We are well stocked in this regard. Please send your child to school with a water bottle (which can be refilled onsite).
Students who are not well will need to be picked up from school. Thanks in advance for any family for which that maybe the case.
The best advice available for our wider community is to keep healthy, fit and use preventative measures (all the staff at the college are double vaccinated). If anyone is suffering symptoms associated with Covid, get tested as soon as possible and isolate until results are back.
All classrooms have good ventilation and all lessons will be taught with as much air flow as possible. The Ministry of Education is working on a possible supply of air purifiers.
The college is now operating under vaccination passport conditions. So visitors will need to bring their vaccination passport when visiting the college (wearing masks). For pick up’s and drop off’s to school can you please avoid unnecessarily coming on site. Typically Term One will have several community events (Meet the Teacher night and Endorsement Celebration night). We are unable to run these given the Covid Red status of our district. Events such as School Ball, O’Shea Shield and Athletics will be reviewed as we get closer to the time.
There are good sources of information available for parents. Here are the two key links we use…
Naturally there will be parents/caregivers with questions and queries. Please don’t hesitate to contact the college on 349 0105. We are happy to help.
Yours in Christ,
Justin Harper Principal