Covid 19 coronavirus: Northland schools prepare to return under alert level 3

Northland schools will reopen next week - but not as you know it.

There won't be hundreds of kids rushing through the gate, children probably won't be in their normal classroom with their usual teacher, playgrounds will be roped off, and not even morning tea and lunch time will be the same.

From 11.59pm on Monday, April 27, New Zealand will move to alert level 3 which means schools will reopen for children and young people in Years 1 to 10, who are not able to stay at home.

Northland principals have been working hard since then to determine what that means for their school and how they will keep their children and staff safe.

"We'll probably only have one or two teachers actually teaching on site," Tauraroa Area School principal Grant Burns said.

"The vast majority of families seem to understand that we are still in lockdown, people are to stay home unless they absolutely can't come up with any other arrangements."

Public health control measures will be put in place in schools including children and young people staying home if they are sick, physical distancing - 1m inside and on school transport and 2m outside - contact tracing, and hygiene requirements.

Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has also recommended schools have a limit of 10 children per bubble.

Burns said it looked like there would only be one bubble at his school so far with responses indicating fewer than 10 children would return.

If there were more than one bubble; drop-off, morning tea and lunch, and pick-up times would be staggered.

Burns said students at school would continue the distance learning they had been doing at home, except they'd be doing it at school with the supervision of a teacher.

School property manager Greg Walker has been hard at work getting the school ready to reopen next week. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Tauraroa Area School property manager Greg Walker has been working long hours ensuring the school grounds are safe and ready for the return of children and staff.

"My role has become more health and safety and trying to organise how the school is going to run with the distancing and stuff like that.

"I'm doing nine hours a day at the school - mowing lawns and organising cleaners - but I'm going home and doing another four hours on the computer."

Walker has been going through the ministry's health and safety guidelines and has been co-ordinating people, including the cleaners.

He said usually he has a team of five cleaners, now he had seven working.

"Everything that possibly can be touched is being cleaned and we're sort of going through the processes behind the scenes to see whether we need a fulltime cleaner on site."

Tauraroa Area School new entrant teacher Christine Alford will not be returning to school next week but will continue distance learning. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Tauraroa Area School new entrant teacher Christine Alford would not be returning to school on Monday but was keen to go back.

"I think everybody wants it to return to how it was before but obviously that's not possible. We have to go through these steps and stages."

In the meantime, she would continue distance learning.

"I teach with another teacher, there's two of us, so our main focus has been keeping the connection with students there," she said.

Meanwhile, Whangārei nurse and mum Sarah Swain will be sending her two daughters back to school next week because she has no other options.

"I'm a nurse and my husband is a practice manager at the same GP clinic so we are both essential service workers. My parents - our support system - my mum is still working as well so we're kind of limited in our ability to have other people in our bubble to look after the children as well."

Swain said Covid-19 didn't bother her when it came to sending her kids to school, she was more "dubious" about the "lack of teaching".

"It's more a babysitting service rather than anything. There's only going to be 10 - well not even 10 in the classroom they're going back to.

"My biggest concern is more the fact we've been told they will still be doing the work that their teacher will be giving them online and the teacher that's looking after them will not be helping them if they get stuck," she said.

Te Kura o Otangarei principal Myles Ferris said the message for parents was to keep kids home unless they really needed to send them to school, but there was concern some parents would ignore that advice.

"We would be disappointed if parents were sending their children back who didn't need to come back at this point. The spread could increase, and teachers are worried about themelves and their own family. That's why we're hoping parents will really make an effort - if they have another adult in the home - to keep them home."

Ferris said there was a bit of debate between principals across the country regarding whether they'd send kids away if they didn't need to be at school.

"That's the challenging part because while the majority of parents can see this for what it is and the need is really about getting people back to work, we know there are parents who have decided they are going to send children back to school even though there will be an adult in the home."

Ferris said in the case of a child being unable to keep their distance due to poor impulse control, schools would be able to send them home.

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website