June 4, 2020

Good afternoon,

On behalf of the Board, I want to express my thanks for the way in which our community has come together through this challenging period. As parents, we have had to deal with the impact of the various restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 levels on our households and workplaces, and in addition, we also took on the responsibility of home schooling our children for a time.

It was wonderful to see our students return to school and the welcome we received as a community on the first day back was exceptional. It meant a lot to the children and to those of us dropping our children off to be greeted so warmly.

New Zealand has done a fantastic job of working together to eliminate Covid-19, and it will be a relief to move to Level 1 soon. Until then it is important that we continue to stay vigilant. We are obliged to apply the guidelines put in place by the Ministries of Education and Health for schools and to help ensure the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff. We appreciate everyone’s support in helping to follow and recognise the importance of these measures, even though they can be inconvenient at times.

I would like to acknowledge and express the Board’s thanks to Alister, our teachers, support staff and the leadership team. They have moved with speed, compassion for our students and their families, and a level of professionalism that highlighted how lucky we are to have such a wonderful and dedicated team. The online programme of learning and the teachers were available to support our children from the first day of the lockdown. It provided an excellent resource, in addition to flexibility and recognition of the multitude of situations and circumstances our families were dealing with at home.

It was and continues to be an incredibly challenging teaching environment. As a Board, we will fully support our teachers and leadership team to achieve the educational and other goals we agreed to for this year.

Outside of school, we are aware of the impact that Covid-19 has had on many families. We would ask that if anyone has had a change in financial circumstances or requires additional support, that you do reach out to Alister confidentially to discuss what help we may be able to offer.

Thank you again for your continued support. I know that our teachers have been very appreciative of the kind messages they have received from many of you. Please continue to look after yourselves and those around you and know that we are here to help in any way that we can.

Kind regards,

Riaan Geldenhuys
On behalf of the St. Joseph’s Catholic School Takapuna Board