Monday 20 April – Info

Monday 20 April

I hope you’ve all had an enjoyable weekend. It’s certainly going to be an interesting week. At Ao Tawhiti we’re finishing up our work from last term this week and getting prepared to start Term 2.1 courses next week.

Last Week of 1.2

Firstly a reminder that this is the last week of our 1.2 schedule. There are classes on from Monday – Thursday and 1:1s on Friday.

2.1 will begin next week. We will share this info with you as soon as possible. We’re just waiting on any interesting announcements that might come through from the Government before we do so. With that in mind ….

Alert Level 3

Obviously the Prime Minister’s announcement last week about what Alert Level 3 would look like sent the education sector into a bit of a spin. I’ve been asked so many times in the past 3 days if I can tell people what it is going to mean in practice. There seems to be a hope that Principals are getting information behind the scenes, before the public does. The truth couldn’t be more different. If you watch the government’s afternoon briefings, then you are hearing the latest “news” at the same time I do.

The Ministry of Education is yet to make firm plans for what schooling will look like at Alert Level 3. They intend to finalise the details of this with schools once a decision is made by the government regarding a date for moving to Level 3.

I appreciate that the media is currently speculating what it will mean for schools. I also appreciate that you are likely to be starting to think about the implications of any change to your personal situation. There is however very little point speculating about what it will look like at Ao Tawhiti until we have clear guidance from the Ministry of Education.

The message from me for right now is just to engage with your learning for this week. We are still at Level 4 and the school has a good system set up for this week. I ask that you make that your priority for now.

Once a decision is made on today by the Government, I will be able to work with the the staff to establish what this will look like for our school.  We have already started these discussions but it’s challenging to make concrete plans without any guidance from the MOE yet.  

Good luck with your lessons today and remember to ask for help if you need it. 

Steven Mustor – Director