As the school year begins, Covid-19 has already made its way into some educational facilities. But, it’s not hampering learning as it did over the past two years.
By Kate Nicol-Williams and Jane Nixon
The Ministry of Education confirmed that, as of 11.30am Tuesday, 14 schools and 10 early learning facilities around New Zealand were managing cases.
“We have not heard of any impacted schools being closed for onsite learning and understand that the students self-isolating as close contacts have access to distance learning,” Ministry of Education Te Pae Aronui’s Sean Teddy told 1News.
He said the Ministry of Education was working closely with Regional Public Health Services to support schools currently managing positive cases.
"The local DHBs have prepared health advice for school staff, students and their communities and we will continue working along [with] the schools throughout their response," Teddy said.
Some schools have been forced to put their Omicron plans into place quickly. (Source: 1News)
In Auckland, Pakuranga College and three early learning centres have been affected by Covid-19 cases.
In Waikato, nine schools and one early learning centre were managing cases.
Melville Intermediate principal David Cooke said it’s been a hectic few days for the school since he was notified of a student testing positive for Covid-19 on Saturday night.
“We worked until we left here at 10.30 Saturday night.
“I had senior staff working with me notifying whānau and parents through Saturday night, we were back again early Sunday morning, most of Sunday was here, getting the messaging to the parents absolutely spot on and according to the Ministry guidelines,” he said.
Close contacts of the infected student include 22 pupils and four staff members, who are now isolating.
Isolating students are being contacted about learning from home and the principal’s pleased with the behaviour of students at school.
“The mask-wearing is spot on, the distancing is spot on, taking care and sanitising as they come into classrooms, today I’ve noticed it as 100 per cent in line with the safety policy we have at school.
“Last week I couldn't quite have said 100, today I can,” Cooke said.
The Bay of Plenty region has recorded three schools and five early learning centres, Hawke's Bay one school, and Nelson one kindergarten.
Te Mata School principal Patrice O’Connor is feeling confident with how the school has responded following four students testing positive for Covid-19 after attending a birthday party a week ago.
Two of the four students attended school while asymptomatic but contagious last week.
The variant is being treated as Omicron.
“It is unfortunate this has happened within the first week of school starting, our children barely had three days at school but for the most part we're just going to keep running, we knew that this would possibly happen and we're just going to make learning fun.
“Just like Auckland schools and Auckland teachers, we're just going to run with it and really make sure that we succeed regardless of this,” O’Connor said.
While 55 students and three teachers are now isolating and preparing to do remote learning, the rest of the school is open for learning with ramped up scheduling of break times to keep students separated, and playground areas separated for use by different classrooms.
O’Connor said the school community has responded with offers of help for affected whanau.
A testing centre set up near the school was busy today.
"The schools are doing a great job providing up-to-date health information and calm assurance to their students, staff and parent community that everything that needs to be done is being done and their safety and wellbeing is the top priority," Teddy said.
"The support we offer all schools and kura includes a single point of contact who is available seven days a week through our regional education offices to advise and support.
"They are there to help schools through the contact tracing process, with their communications and to answer any questions they have.
"We are also meeting regularly with school leaders to support their continuity planning and preparedness.
"We would encourage any school, kura or centre who is facing staffing challenges as a result of self-isolation requirements to reach out to their regional office," Teddy said.
On Tuesday night, Mana College in Porirua also confirmed they had a Covid-19 case among the school community.
The college confirmed it would remain open on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Health said Covid cases in schools "is not unexpected following the start of the school year".
"A range of public health measures have been established to help ensure our tamariki are well protected from Covid-19 at school.
"Vaccination continues to be New Zealand’s best defence against Covid-19, and vaccination of those currently eligible will help to both protect children and further lower the risk of transmission in schools. All staff in schools are required to be vaccinated and the vaccination programme is well underway for 5 to 11-year-olds.
"There are requirements for mask-wearing such as for visitors, and for staff and students in Year 4 and above, when at Red. Where not required, mask wearing is encouraged, especially in higher density indoor settings where there is an increased risk of transmission.
"We also continue to encourage good hygiene practices and urge parents to keep children home from school and to be tested if they have any symptoms that could be Covid-19," the ministry said.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins said the Omicron variant has the potential to “put schools under more pressure than they've been before.”
He said schools should be realistic with the challenge of teaching both students remotely and in the classroom.
‘We’ll be providing support to schools where we can, we have to acknowledge that Covid-19 and this phase we're in at the moment, where we're expecting to see a much bigger outbreak than we've experienced before, is going to have a disruptive effect on a lot of different places and institutions.”
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