Tēnā koutou katoa. Nga mihi nui atawhai.

We’re here! We’re back onsite!! And what a pleasure it is to see so many happy smiley students and staff around the grounds!

The student leaders arrived early on Monday morning and festooned the grounds, literally, with bright and colourful images and words of encouragement to all students and staff as they arrived on their first day back.

The day started with an extended Atawhai time so that the students could focus on reconnecting with their peers and sharing their experiences. We then held a series of year level assemblies in the hall to not only welcome them back but to also make sure we were giving the clear and simple messages about what learning at Alert Level 2 at school means.

For the seniors, we focused also on reassuring them about NCEA. Late last week, NZQA had made the announcement that they were moving all the external examinations back another ten days to give more learning time in school. This means that NCEA examinations will not start until 16 November this year. This change also means that all of our end of year dates for the Senior Prizegiving and Thanksgiving Mass have all had to be moved as well. These dates are now being updated on our Kamar calendar.

Going to each of these meetings, I asked the students to indicate how they were feeling about this return to school. There was obviously the full range from those who were very apprehensive to those who were all rearing to go.

These next two weeks will be focused on working out where each of our students are in their learning and easing them gently back into onsite learning, knowing that we are still being vigilant about hygiene and the other restrictions that are still in place at Alert Level 2.

Thank you to our Carmel community for your ongoing support during these very trying times and for your many messages of encouragement and acknowledgement of the huge amount of work that the staff have put in to make the online learning a positive experience for all of our learners.