IMPORTANT UPDATE - Moving to Alert Level 3

Kia ora koutou,

I hope you and your family are in a good state of well-being and that you are achieving success as we all adjust to the new ways of the remote learning and teaching world.

From Wednesday, 29 April, as New Zealand begins the second day of the new Alert Level 3, we will be physically open for a small number of Year 9 and Year 10 students where families need their children to attend school.

The Prime Minister and the Ministry of Education have clearly stated that if you can, you should keep your child at home. They have said that you should only physically send your child to school if it is absolutely necessary for you to do so. Wherever possible at all, adults and students are encouraged to work and learn from home.

If you must send your Year 9 or Year 10 child to school please note the following important details:

· Email me at principal@whs.ac.nz by 5:00pm, Sunday, 26 April so that I can have advance indication of likely student attendance.

· Students must be in full school uniform.

· Students will need to bring their digital device, lunch and water to school.

· Year 9 students must meet me at 9:00am every morning on the steps outside the Deans’ House.

· Year 10 students must meet another member of my Senior Leadership Team at 9:05am on the steps outside the Canteen.

· Full health and safety processes as well as the current physical distancing rules will be of paramount importance.

· Students must be on time – latecomers will not be accepted and will have to return home.

· Students will be placed into maximum group sizes of up to ten students and will need to remain in that group only throughout the whole school day while we are in Alert Level 3.

· Students will be supervised doing their remote learning by staff volunteers.

· The staff volunteers will be doing their own remote teaching of their own Year 9 to Year 13 students learning at home i.e. the students at school will be supervised but not taught by the staff volunteers.

· An overall paper attendance register and contact tracing register will be taken each day. Individual student attendance will still show as remote learning on KAMAR because students will be being supervised not taught.

· Year 9 and Year 10 students will have different break times during the day and will stay in their two separate parts of the school.

· Year 9 students will use one toilet block; Year 10 students will use another toilet block.

· Year 9 students will finish the school day at 2:55pm; Year 10 students will finish the school day at 3:00pm.

Please note that the great majority of our Whanganui High School staff will be continuing to work from home.

Our Main Office will be closed and our Student Centre will be closed during Alert Level 3. If you have any questions regarding digital devices or internet connection please email office@whs.ac.nz in the first instance and your email will be passed onto our IT team - they will respond as quickly as possible.

We want to play our part in continuing to keep our wider Whanganui community as safe as possible over the coming weeks.

Take care – all the very best.

Martin McAllen\ Principal\ Whanganui High School

29/4/20