Parkvale School principal Mark Gifkins said they were not putting pressure on families not returning this week but would be reassuring them of new health and safety measures. Photo / File
Parkvale School principal Mark Gifkins said they were not putting pressure on families not returning this week but would be reassuring them of new health and safety measures. Photo / File
As schools return for the first time in eight weeks, principals expected the majority of their students would be at school come Monday.
President of the New Zealand Principals Federation and Hastings Intermediate principal Perry Rush said while the situation was a bit "wait and see" numbers were expected tobe high.
He said many schools had surveyed their communities and were expecting attendance to be about 90 per cent.
But he also acknowledges a considerable number of schools had not done surveys and for those who had, not all families responded.
Parkvale School principal Mark Gifkins said of their roll of 520, 28 students would not be returning this week.
But most of those families had indicated they had just wanted to "give it another week" as opposed to waiting until level 1.
Rush said the low Covid-19 case numbers New Zealand had the past week and the start of getting the economy back up and running at level 2, had built confidence about the safety of returning kids to school.
The Ministry of Education has encouraged schools to take a "gentle" approach and work with parents who are concerned about returning children to school.
New Zealand Principals Federation president Perry Rush said schools which had been surveying their communities were expecting high student attendance on Monday. Photo / File
Rush said in a week or two if kids were still not returning schools may then "get a bit sharper" regarding the issue.
Gifkins said he did not want to put any pressure on parents choosing to keep students at home but was reassuring them about the new health and safety measures in place.
He said when speaking to his own granddaughter, she said she was excited to return to school but was also nervous.
"It's about realising there is this nervousness out there and working out how best we can support them".
The best way to support students returning was "a friendly face" and listening to students.
At Flaxmere College acting principal James Hay-Mackenzie said he expected all students to be returning on Monday.
"If there are parents or whānau who are concerned about their return, I will talk with them individually. We are expecting all our students to return on Monday," he said.
Strict hygiene contact tracing for visitors and social distancing measures were being put in place.
"We're a small school so we won't have to change our breaks unlike the bigger schools, so it is business as usual at the school with a lot more cleaning and hygiene guidelines.
"We will have hand sanitiser available in all our classes, and all surfaces being cleaned properly each day.
The school is also asking individual water bottles and pencil cases or Ministry of Education stationery packs to be brought to school, uniforms be worn and that students will not be allowed off-site during breaks.
He said the school had good social distancing protocols before the lockdown but some areas that needed addressing had been raised.
"Sharing kai is a really important part of our culture and that's something that we're going to have to restrict during this time but again it will be done with consultation with our students, whānau and our teachers."
In the return to school, NCEA students were a big concern but programmes were being developed to ensure teachers had time to "get students back up to speed".
"As a team we will look at ways of catching our students back up to where they should be, and we will make sure that we develop individual plans for our students so that they will succeed this year."
Under level 3 numbers attending schools had been lower than expected.
On Friday, 844 students attended 78 schools in Hawke's Bay, Tairawhiti which is 3 per cent of total roll numbers.
