Moving to Orange: Thursday 14 April 2022
Dear Parents, Caregivers and Whanau,
You’ll be aware that the Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins, announced yesterday the move to the Orange setting of the Covid Protection Framework (CPF) from 11:59pm last night.
The decision to move to Orange has been made on public health advice and reflects that we are moving past the peak of Omicron cases and our health system is in a better position to cope. We are seeing that cases are declining due to high levels of vaccination and natural immunity after infection.
Please note the following on what the move to Orange means for our school for the start of Term 2.
At Orange, face masks are no longer required at school. However, public health advice is to strongly encourage that face masks continue to be worn by ākonga (students) and staff in Years 4 and above when indoors. This will be especially important during assemblies and / or to support staff and students who may have health concerns or be immunocompromised, so please ensure that your child (if they are Year 4+) continues to bring a mask to school every day.
Wearing a mask is a key health measure that slows the spread of COVID-19 in indoor settings. For that reason, we ask that all visitors to the school, including parents and whānau, wear a mask whenever they are indoors on school grounds.
At Orange, students aged 12 and above are still required to wear a face mask on school or public transport.
We will continue to keep all the other health measures in place at school that we know slow the spread of COVID-19. These include ensuring our indoor spaces are well-ventilated, maintaining good hand hygiene and cough and sneeze etiquette, appropriate physical distancing whenever we can and, most importantly, staying home if we are sick.
We encourage everyone in our school community to get vaccinated and boosted if you haven’t already done so.
Year Level / Cohort assemblies will resume from the start of Term 2 (in well ventilated spaces), however we will not have MS / SC or Full school assemblies until further notice.
Physical and cultural activities such as sports practices, tournaments and Kapahaka can go ahead on site and indoors (all other public health measures will be maintained including good hygiene practices).
Music / instruments / singing / etc: Practices and rehearsals can go ahead – physical distancing of one metre is recommended where practicable especially for higher risk activities such as singing and using wind instruments.
We are looking forward to a few less restrictions and returning to school life that is a bit closer to normal as we return for Term 2 on 2 May.
Please continue to pray for our school community and for unity as we manage Covid-19 together.
Ngā mihi
Mike Vannoort
Principal / Tumuaki
