An Update from Mr Fairley
Week in Review
As another week draws to a close, we can now reflect on what has been a groundbreaking week in New Zealand.
Each day we are all presented with the news of increasing COVID cases in the wider community. As previously mentioned, Massey High School like all other schools in our community see increases in students needing to isolate (many as they are household close contacts) as a result.
We again remind our community that in line with guidelines from the Ministry of Education, we will only notify parents of identified Close Contact students to indicate this along with detail on self-isolating and testing. However, since the move into phase 3 of the Red Light setting of the COVID Protection Framework the definition of a close contact is now very narrow. In most instances, only household contacts of positive COVID cases meet that definition. We do encourage all parents and whānau to continue monitor their child's health and notify the school as soon as there are changes to the situation at home.
We are again thankful that our students who attend each day take wearing of their masks as second nature while in class and on school buses – mindful of keeping each other safe. We remind our parents and caregivers who may have misgivings that school remains as safe as possible for our students and staff.
While we are aware that households that are faced with a positive case may have contacting the school as one of the last things on their minds, we do ask that you make contact with the school to advise us as soon as possible if your child is needing to isolate. This information, together with the date of the positive test (either for the student or the household close contact) should be emailed to [email protected]. We can then code the attendance (including the correct period of isolation) accordingly.
Our teaching staff are now moving toward hybrid teaching methods albeit with the focus remaining on those students who are physically in classrooms. However, to support those who must isolate parts of their lessons are now being live streamed/recorded. Materials are also being uploaded to classroom TEAMS to provide support and keep isolating students as up to date with their learning as possible. We remind our students who are isolating to remain connected to their normal classes through these means.
We also remind isolating students that our Student Support Services are available to them if needed.
As mentioned above, school remains the best place for our students, not only in terms of their classroom learning, but also (and just as importantly) for their involvement in wider school life.
Most of our co-curricular activities continue (under current guidelines) as it is important that our students remain engaged in pursuits that enrich their time at school and strengthen the bonds with each other. Our Cultural Groups preparing for Polyfest are an example of this, as are the forthcoming trials for our Winter sports teams. Added to this are the many activities that take place in the school each lunchtime.