Pt Chevalier School caretaker Sesa Manu has rearranged all the desks to be 1 metre apart ready for school to reopen on April 29. Photo / Alex Burton
Pt Chevalier School caretaker Sesa Manu has rearranged all the desks to be 1 metre apart ready for school to reopen on April 29. Photo / Alex Burton
Auckland school principals have resolved to "do our bit" for recovery from the Covid-19 lockdown, but expect only a handful of children to turn up next week.
Auckland Primary Principals' Association president Stephen Lethbridge says he expects about 10 per cent of students to turn up at his Pt ChevalierSchool when schools reopen their doors next Wednesday, April 29.
Waikato Principals' Association's immediate past-president Hamish Fenemor said he had heard of schools with a range between 3 and 10 per cent of students expected to turn up.
All schools contacted by the Herald have sent clear messages to parents they should send their children to school only "if you need to so that you are able to return to work".
Lethbridge said there was no dissent in an online meeting of leaders of the 26 primary school clusters across Auckland on Tuesday, despite claims by Morrinsville College principal John Inger and the Early Childhood Council that reopening schools risked spreading the virus.
"We reaffirmed as an executive that now is our time to step up. It is essential that we do our bit as part of the recovery," Lethbridge said.
"We are leaders in our communities, so our communications and our approach need to reflect a degree of assurance and reassurance to our communities that we are prepared for this.
Stephen Lethbridge: "Now is our time to step up." Photo / Michael Craig
"We have read a lot of the articles and the opinions of some principals, and I don't think that would be representative of the feeling of schools around the country."
Christian Schools Association president Shaun Brooker said even private Christian schools plan to open "because of the heart behind wanting to be part of the solution, rather than creating more barriers for us to move forward as a nation".
Some principals, such as Tai Tokerau Principals' Association president Pat Newman, are taking a hard line on defining children who really "need" to be at school.
"We've had a couple who said they were sending their children back because they were working from home, and we said no, that's not okay," he said.
He asked any parents who wanted a child to attend school to give their employers' names.
Hora Hora School principal Pat Newman checked with employers to make sure parents are genuinely going back to work. Photo / John Stone, Northern Advocate
"In a couple of cases we have rung the employer and they said no, we're not expecting them to work, so we've rung [the parents] back and told them," he said.
But others, such as Brooker, acknowledge that there may be many reasons why children might be better off in school.
"There are a lot of places where home is not safe or there's a lot going on, and having school for six hours a day might actually release some of the tension," he said.
"We are talking mental health and we are talking about a lot of issues around family that are bigger than what Covid-19 is. When you bottle that up for four weeks or six weeks you can create some tensions."
Despite such issues, Brooker also expects only about 5 per cent of his 460 students at Hamilton Christian School to turn up next week.
In contrast, even though some teachers don't want to create risk for their own families by going back to school, all the principals who spoke to the Herald said they had enough teachers to cover the small numbers of students expected.
The Ministry of Education has said that students attending schools or early childhood services must be kept in "bubbles" of no more than 10, with each student sitting in the same seat every day and staying 1 metre apart from other students.
Lethbridge and his caretaker Sesa Manu started rearranging desks today for up to five bubbles, and says 75 per cent of his teachers are available if needed.
Sesa Manu is one of the caretakers for Pt Chevalier School who are rearranging classrooms to keep kids apart for alert level 3 during the Covid-19 coronavirus lockdown. Photo / Alex Burton
Newman, Fenemor and incoming Waikato Principals' Association president Marcus Freke of Hamilton's Endeavour School all said they are putting two teachers and eight children in each bubble so that there is always one teacher in the room if the other needs a break.
All schools plan to put family groups together in the same bubble regardless of ages, and all say the students at school will do the same online learning as those who stay at home.
"We need to make sure that the children who come to school are not getting any more or less than the children learning at home," Lethbridge said.
"This is a very conscious approach that schools should be taking both to address the workload of teachers and also addressing the worries that parents might have that they are missing out on learning that's happening."
Cambridge East School principal Hamish Fenemor, pictured here at his previous Tinui School, says between 3 and 10 per cent of students are expected to turn up at Waikato schools. Photo / File
All schools plan staggered break times to keep bubble groups apart, and most plan staggered start and finish times ranging from 8.30am-2.30pm to 9.15am-3.15pm. Those with several entrances are asking each bubble to use a different gate.
Ministry of Education head Iona Holsted said all state and state-integrated schools are required to be open for learning from April 29.
Private schools and childcare centres are private businesses and are free to decide whether to open or not. But the Early Childhood Council, which earlier said its 1300 centres would refuse to open in level 3, said today that its members were now willing to open if safety and funding issues were addressed.
