The Ministry of Education has moved the school holidays forward, starting Monday 30 March to Tuesday 14 April. Please give your children a break from learning during that time. As I said in my facebook post, please focus on making your child feel safe and just being with them.
The official start of Term 2 is 15 April which is still during the closure of schools. Your child’s teacher will have learning activities ready in Google Classroom.
Our teachers will be available online for your child’s questions etc for 2 hours a day from 15 Apri. They will organise the specific times with the students directly through Google Classroom. Please remember that our teachers have their own families to care for as well while working from home.
Our expectation is that your child will do between 1-2 hours of learning a day. Learning tasks will be a balance of things to do offline and things to do online. Remember that cooking with you, washing the car, keeping up with their chores, jumping on the trampoline, playing with their siblings are all important learning tasks too.
We are well aware that many of you will be working from home during the lockdown and need to juggle work commitments with looking after your child/children. Please don’t be stressed about home-schooling or re-creating school at home. You decide if and when your child engages with the learning activities. One important thing to note is that Google Classroom also provides a safe way for your child to stay connected with their classmates and teacher.
Don’t worry about your child ‘falling behind’. When we are back in the classroom, we will meet them where they’re at and get back into it again. Our teachers are experts at this!
Finally, our school’s core values are mana~identity, manaakitanga~care, mātauranga~knowledge. Our children will learn about who they are, how to care for others, and what is important by watching you and doing things alongside you. Teach them to cook their favourite meal, look through your photo albums together, tell them your family or childhood stories and memories, spend that quality time together.
Please continue to be safe, be kind and check in with each other!
Arohanui, alofaaga, ‘ofa lahi atu, kia manuia!
Melini Fasavalu
Principal
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