Maeve Quirke, 5, is ready for school. Photo / George Novak
Maeve Quirke, 5, is ready for school. Photo / George Novak
Lunches will be packed, shoes tied and uniforms ironed as Tauranga families head back to school for the first time since the country went into lockdown.
Home has been the classroom for many students for the past few weeks but from today all children and teens can return to schoolin Covid-19 alert level 2.
One Tauranga mother, Helen Quirke, said her four children who attend pre-school, primary, intermediate and college are ready to go back to school.
"They are excited to go back," she said. "They are over being at home day in and day out. They miss their friends and their teachers. They miss their freedom."
Quirke, who is a teacher at Greerton Village School, said the positive to lockdown was being able to spend more time together as a family.
Quirke said the family tried to maintain a routine but were flexible with sleep-ins and watching TV but when online learning came into play everything changed.
"Most parents had to become the teachers because their kids needed support with their learning.
Maeve Quirke, 5, is ready for school. Photo / George Novak
"That was challenging. It was probably the hardest part with my mum hat on and my teacher hat."
The Greerton Village School teacher had three different learning levels to support with her children attending primary, intermediate and college.
"The biggest help for me was having my husband take over the cooking and cleaning while I focused on the kids. We were lucky we were able to do that."
Greerton Village School principal Kimberley Henderson-Ginns said she was "very much" looking forward to getting back to school and a "new normal".
"Our school has felt very empty over the past few weeks as we have prepared for level 2 – it will be wonderful to have it alive again with learning, laughter, love and the joy our children bring through the gates."
Henderson-Ginns said she had missed the people the most - her children and her staff.
"Although we have Christmas holidays off about the same time apart, this felt so different and we all really missed each other.
"We can't wait for them to come into the gates and burst our bubbles."
During lockdown, Henderson-Ginns said staff had all been on board with online learning and families who needed it were issued with technology and workbooks prior to alert level 4.
"Most families engaged with learning at home."
Henderson-Ginns said staff had worked hard the past week to ensure children and staff will be safe on their return to level 2, including strict hygiene measures and recording who was on school grounds at all times.
"It's going to be near impossible to social distance children during level 2," she said.
"This has been acknowledged by the Ministry of Education."
But the school would follow procedures including staff at school gates to ensure hand sanitising, recording names and three full-school cleans each day.
"We have shared explicit guidelines to our community so they know what to expect to prepare their students.
"Obviously we have some anxious children and parents but we are working hard to assure them that their children will be safe at school."
Drawing inspiration from The Spice Girls' song 'Stop', Otumoetai Primary School head staff have made a video to reduce student and parent anxiety about returning to school as well as promote health and safety measures.
Otumoetai Primary School had up to 56 students return to school under level 3 and principal Zara McIndoe praised the efforts of her staff who taught during that time.
"Going forward, we need to reconnect, relax and re-establish routines in our classrooms but we also need to keep in mind that a school's core purpose is to improve educational outcomes for all children.
"We are going to be working hard to do the best we can for our tamariki."
Mount Maunganui College principal Alastair Sinton said he was "absolutely" looking forward to getting back to school and had missed the people most of all.
"The best part of my job is working with young people and it has been really difficult not being able to connect with them with the sort of ease you can when you are together on site."
Sinton said obviously the lockdown required a huge shift in the way all staff operated and he was proud of his team who rallied for the community to try and minimise the negative impacts of alert level 4.
"Our school community really helped here with two-way communication being key. I know it has been really tough for some students and families so we are really keen to get back to making sure we can do all we can for every student."
Sinton said the college will be taking extra precautions and looking to ease staff and students back to a more normal routine over time.
"It will feel quite normal for students and I think that is really important," he said.
"Like most of the country, there was a really unsettled feeling at alert level 2 before the lockdown occurred and we are keen to avoid that this time around.
"Students will notice slight changes but, with precautions, the school days will be fairly typical."
