Tena koutou katoa. Nga mihi nui atawhai.
We are back to onsite learning and we are continuing to ‘build the plane while we are still flying’. This time round, (to extend this metaphor) we had a few more main structures in place for the transitions between Alert Levels but we are constantly having to make major adjustments to the rudder and move the air crew around.
So far, we have adapted our Options Evening into an online version. That required additional work for our staff, especially our Heads Of Departments, to get these set up for everyone.
We have removed our Practice Exam week to give as much teaching and learning time as possible for our senior students. We are able to do this as the NZQA guidelines give us other ways to collect evidence for these externals.
We know that, when we returned from the first lockdown, we allocated additional resources to our pastoral team to support any increased levels of anxiety for some of our students. We are doing the same this time.
Our e-Pulse software, that we launched last week for our students, gives us a real time indication about how the students are feeling. We encourage all of our students to do their weekly check-in so we can continue to support our learners. Please click HERE for further information.
Looking further out, we will need to adjust some of the Term 4 events to take into account the Alert Level changes and the lost onsite time.
On the bright side, to return to our initial metaphor, our plane is still flying and we are still making positive progress towards our destination. Our integration of digital and online tools in our usual classroom learning has meant that we have been able to continue these programmes of learning online during our ‘at home stopovers’ and this has kept the disruption to a minimum.
We continue to adapt and adjust to the changes as they happen. We continue to support our learners to be safe and hopeful.
‘It’s best to not confuse optimism with hope. Optimism is a psychological attitude toward life. Hope goes further. It is an anchor that one hurls toward the future, it’s what lets you pull on the line and reach what you’re aiming for and head in the right direction. Hope is also theological: God is there, too.’ Pope Francis.
