Covid19 Updates – Alert Level 2

Year 1 – 10 Preparing to return on site Wed 29th. 

Dear Parents and Caregivers
As you will have seen on TV at 4pm today, our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern has advised that New Zealand will drop to Alert Level 3 on Tuesday 28th April 2020. Cornerstone Christian School will be physically open to cater for years 1- 10 students onsite from Wednesday 29th April 2020. Distance learning will also continue for all years 11 to 13 students. It is important that we make clear however that if there is a parent or caregiver available to look after children at home and school children have access to distance learning, please continue education at home. This is the directive from the Ministry of Education.

How school might look for those that do attend:

1. There will only be minimal staff in place as many Cornerstone staff are obligated to look after their own children or live in bubbles where there is higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19.
2. Students attending school will be supervised and will complete what the rest of their peers are doing via distance learning.
3. A number of strict health measures will be in place:
   • Parents MUST keep any sick children at home. If a sick child comes to school, they will be sent home immediately.
   • Hand sanitiser must be used by all students on entry to classrooms and in all bathrooms – and regularly throughout the day
   • All School playgrounds will be out of bounds and there will be no use of shared classroom or sports equipment such as scissors, balls or skipping ropes.
   • Initially the number of children must be limited to 10 in a school bubble, but this may be increased to 20 once all processes are running smoothly.
   • Parents will not be allowed to enter classrooms and entry times must be staggered to minimise gatherings of children or parents.
   • Breaktimes will be staggered as will start times and finish times to the day. Bubbles will not be allowed to mix during breaks
4. To support contact tracing students will sit in the same place each day, with 1m physical distance between all children, young people and staff. Students must maintain 2 metre physical distance outside and 1m inside during breaks and 1m on school transport.
5. All school surfaces will be disinfected and cleaned daily.
6. Contact tracing registers will be set up to identify which children are in each teaching space and who they have contact with during the day.
7. The Feilding and Ashhurst buses will not be running until further notice

So we can plan for this stage, can I please ask that ALL families take one minute to fill in this Level 3 survey about your child’s attendance. This will allow Cornerstone to gain a clear picture of which students will need to attend school because there is NO parent or caregiver available to look after children at home, and which students will continue to remain at home completing distance learning.

Cornerstone at Level 3 survey

If you would like to ask questions or comment on this update, please email: chris@cornerstone.ac.nz. Alternatively, comments or questions can be left on the online survey form.

After all of that sobering news, let’s end on a positive Bible verse that has been going around and around in my head today:

Philemon 1:4-7: I am always thankful to my God as I remember you in my prayers because I’m hearing reports about your faith in the Lord Jesus and how much love you have for all his holy followers. I pray for you that the faith we share may effectively deepen your understanding of every good thing that belongs to you in Christ. Your love has impacted me and brings me great joy and encouragement, for the hearts of the believers have been greatly refreshed through you.

Can’t wait to see you all again. Blessings,

Chris Mitchell
Acting Principal

Term 2 Distance Learning

• Primary year 1-4 – provision of work set will mainly be around online apps that students are familiar with such as Reading Eggs, MathSeeds and Mathletics. Teachers may also arrange project work and various reading / writing tasks via email.
• Primary year 5-6 – In these years groups the distance learning will be a blended approach consisting of a range of online tasks using OneNote, Reading Eggs and Mathletics and various other reading / writing tasks.

• 

  Secondary year 7-13 – provision of work set will be predominately via Microsoft OneNote. This is a programme that most secondary students are already using and are familiar with. Teachers will check in with students as they are able via email and other online tools within the Microsoft Office suite. Please note that communication will continue to be based within school-based apps. There is no expectation for teachers to communicate with students via their own personal emails/social media/cell-phones. We are yet to receive any advice from the Ministry of Education around changing NCEA requirements.

• Educational TV: Don’t forget to use the excellent resources being provided by the Ministry of Education. In particular ‘Education TV’ airing on TV2+1 looks excellent. 

NB: Please remember that most of our teachers have their own children at home and will be balancing looking after their own household alongside trying to assist Cornerstone students with distance learning.

Five Key things to keep in mind as we enter the next phase of Lockdown:

1. Focus on what you can do
   Significant events that are largely outside our control, like the spread of COVID-19 or a school closure, can create a lot of anxiety in both children and adults. Remember you don’t have to be a superhero in this time. Give yourself space and time. Pray and pray and pray again. Give kids responsibility for tasks at home to help make them feel more in control.
   When there is this kind of uncertainty and confusion, it’s important to focus on the things we can do as this can help to allay some of those larger anxieties.

   

2. Establish a daily routine
   I know I am preaching to the converted but over the next two weeks it will be really important to establish good routines in your household. This will look different depending on the age of your child – for example, older children are more likely to adhere to a timetabled school day (even if they may get up later than younger ones!).
   If you are struggling to come up with a good routine for your child(ren) try the one I have attached (see ‘example of daily schedule’).
3. Stay connected
   While social distancing is vital, staying in touch with friends is also important for all children. Providing opportunities to interact socially with peers will help children maintain connections and boost their mood. So, if your child is at home, give them a chance to connect with peers during their breaks, like they would during morning tea and lunch at school. There are a host of technology options available to support virtual connections – whether it’s FaceTime with grandparents or having a Netflix ‘watch’ party with friends.
4. Stay active
   Our kids spend a lot of time moving around at school, so it’s important to ensure that they are still engaging in activities they enjoy while they’re at home. If it’s practical, spend some time outside riding, jogging or walking. It’s worth also looking into some of the many fitness apps available that can ‘organise’ your activity for you.
5. Handling anxiety
   Parents and carers must make particularly sure to listen to children and hear their concerns about what is happening around them. It’s important to provide them with age-appropriate information that is based on the facts. For example, for younger children keep answers simple, “sometimes people wear masks when they are sick so others don’t catch it”. Ask them what they already know so you can clarify any misconceptions they might have.

As always you will all be in my prayers over the next couple of weeks. Please don’t hesitate to get in contact (email: chris@cornerstone.ac.nz) if you have any questions or concerns.

Update 25th March

• 

  Parent-teacher conferences on the 7^th and 8^th April are now postponed. We will advise you of new dates as soon as we can next term.

• All normal academic reporting (secondary) is also suspended for the time being.
• As the school holidays have been brought forward, both James Rose (Sec. DP) and I (Chris Mitchell, Acting Principal) have asked our primary and secondary teachers to take a good break during the holidays. This is important so they can spend time with their own families and rest up to get ready for the new term. Please refrain from emailing teachers over two week holiday whilst they are on break. 
• From April the 15th, when the new term starts online, teachers will be providing classwork for as many classes as we are able. For secondary (year 7-13) students this will mainly be online via Microsoft Office Teams and OneNote. Our focus here will be on setting classwork, not individualised education. Teachers will attempt to keep you in the loop with the expectations they are setting for their classes via email. However, please be aware that this will be dependent on a number of variables including internet access in your home, and therefore, may not be possible in some instances. 
• We are aware that with much of the learning moving online, there is increased opportunity to misuse this technology. Please note that until the doors at school open again, our capacity to investigate and process problem behaviours will be severely limited. We ask that parents regularly and proactively monitor their children’s use of online media to ensure that our school values are maintained throughout. Respect, Diligence, Integrity, Kindness and Humility before God will all be needed across the board to ensure that the online learning is as safe as it can be for everyone. Any student the school deems to be misusing or responding inappropriately to the misuse of school-supported media will have their School Office 365 account suspended. This is because all online forums that teachers are using are to be treated as professional public spaces. As such we need to maintain a high standard of conduct. If you experience any concerns around online bullying through social media from any source, report the concerns to Netsafe. The following information was released from the MOE today. 

Netsafe
In response to the Alert Level 4 requirements, Netsafe have changed their Helpline hours to 9am – 5pm seven days a week and for now they cannot take incident reports over the phone.  People can still report in three other ways and their team will respond with expert incident advice:  
1.            Email help@netsafe.org.nz
2.            Free text Netsafe to 4282
3.            Complete a form at netsafe.org.nz/report.

• From the 15th of April, our secondary pastoral staff and Primary Team Leaders will do what we can to support parents. However again, this will be severely limited as staff are in isolation in their own homes. Our School Guidance Counsellor, Mrs Crowther will be sending an email out to parents with well-being information, support and advice.
• A reminder that the primary source of communication between school and student and school and home during this time will be via email. From this Friday at 3pm, we intend to shut down the Microsoft Teams video chat for years 5-13, for the holidays. It will open again from the 15th of April.

My sincere prayers for you all are that you remain safe and healthy, and that you enjoy the enforced family time together! Can I please ask that you follow the advice of our country’s leaders around isolation, physical distancing and hygiene. This along with prayer will beat this virus. Of course, this situation that we find ourselves in is not ideal and can create high levels of anxiety amongst children. At these times the example of our faith and dependence upon God as being our immovable place of refuge becomes really important.

Ma Ihowa koe e manaaki, mana koe e tiaki katoa.
The Lord bless you and keep you all!

Chris Mitchell
Acting Principal