May 15, 2022
Kia ora koutou
Thank you for your support on Friday. This day was one of the staff only days that the Government has mandated to support the implementation of the new NCEA framework, including the new literacy and numeracy qualifications that all students will need to achieve before gaining an NCEA qualification. These qualifications have been delayed due to covid and are expected to be piloted next year and in place for Year 11 students in 2024. The staff in our Years 1- 6 community used the day to continue their professional learning around supporting literacy development.
Here is a link for more information about the upcoming changes to NCEA qualifications. NCEA change program
Students with peanut allergies
We have a couple of students with potentially life-threatening allergies to peanuts. Anaphylactic shock can impact the breathing of these students if they are exposed to peanuts. Please continue to keep peanuts and products with peanuts in them at home. We appreciate your support in keeping all our students safe at school.
Covid Update
I would like to thank our whānau and students and staff for their continued support of the public health guidelines in the orange traffic light settings. We continued to have high attendance on site last week which is great. I think people’s willingness to follow mask recommendations and other guidelines helps us keep slow the spread of covid. It is also nice to see more whānau able to come onsite and work with our community.
We had an increase in case numbers from Sunday to Wednesday last week and then this slowed down with only five new cases reported from Thursday to today. Last week the cases reported to us were:
Learning Advisors x 2
Year 13 x 1
Year 12 x 3
Year 11 x 2
Year 10 x 2
Year 9 x 5
Year 7 x 1
Apologies if I have missed any other positive cases. If your child does test positive then please email us at covid@aotawhiti.school.nz. This helps to support our health and safety decision making around covid.
Please continue to keep your child at home if they are unwell.
Here is a link to the updated education guidelines under the COVID-19 protection framework.
Here is our dedicated email address for any Covid related questions. Covid@aotawhiti.school.nz
New NCEA study group on Fridays
To support our NCEA learners we are launching a study group on Fridays. Students can meet with their peers and work together to build their capacity for achieving NCEA qualifications.
The study group will run in the existing hapori time slot from 11.20am to 3pm on Fridays, on the 4th floor. This will provide a sunny quiet space where groups can work collaboratively. Students will be able to decide their field of study and who they want to work with and when, by identifying their own learning needs.
Greg will be overseeing this and supporting students to organise their time and connect with others who can support them with their study. If you have a student working towards NCEA, please make sure they know about this initiative, especially if they generally use Fridays for off-site study. The first session will be Friday May 20.
Matariki
It is that time of year again! Celebrating matariki at Ao Tawhiti is a highlight of the school year. This year, we will run our usual celebrations on Wednesday 22 June from 2-7pm. We would LOVE you to be involved. Click here to see how you can help, and here if you or your child/ren want to perform. Any queries, please contact niki.stephenson@aotawhiti.school.nz/ 027 226 4017
Have a great week everyone.
Ngā mihi nui
Anita