Good morning RVS Community, You will have heard on the news yesterday that Marlborough will move to Orange on the traffic light system from December the 3rd, Friday. Please see below for information provided to us from the Ministry of Education regarding this move. I would also like to take the opportunity to welcome Mr Peter Olliver and Mrs Jenny Olliver who will be joining us next year in a permanent capacity. They both bring a wealth of experience and skill and we are privileged to have them on board. I also welcome Mr. Gareth Bolstad to the team. He will be teaching in the Middle School through to the end of the year.
The Y10 Graduation Dinner has been brought forward to this week due to the implications relating to the Traffic Light restrictions. Please see Mrs. Pigou's email for more.
May you and your families be blessed with the constant awareness of His goodness toward you in this time. Christmas is a precious time as we remember the stunning lengths taken to connect us back to our loving Heavenly Father through Jesus. God bless, Dave Pauling Principal From the Secretary of Education: The Prime Minister has confirmed all of New Zealand will move onto the COVID-19 Protection Framework (CPF) at 11.59pm on Thursday 2 December. The very good news for all schools is that there will be very little to no change needed for the remainder of 2021, regardless of which part of the country you’re in. (Level 2 rules will still apply at RVS) Schools will retain their existing COVID-19 settings until the end of the 2021 calendar year, but guidance will recommend that schools outside of Auckland align their practices with the COVID-19 Protection Framework settings, which will come into effect for all schools from 1 January 2022. New COVID-19 Protection (Traffic Light) Framework Elimination and the alert levels have worked well, with New Zealand having the lowest numbers of cases and hospitalisations in the OECD. While controlled, Delta is in our communities and the strategy now focuses on minimising its impact. With 85% of eligible New Zealanders now fully vaccinated, and by mid-December it is expected to be approximately 90%, this allows a careful reopening while continuing to protect New Zealanders. This means that we don’t have to change the way we are operating classes this year and everyone can continue to attend school onsite. For next year, we can confirm that everyone will be back onsite for learning from the start of the school year, regardless of what setting under the new Traffic Light Framework we will be in (Red/Orange/Green). This is good news and means we can plan for a great 2022. Health measures in place at school This year and next, health, safety and wellbeing will continue to be a priority for us and the same public health measures you are very familiar with will remain in place:
And if we are at Red at any stage next year:
With all these measures in place, public health has confirmed the risk of infection remains low when at school, with households continuing to be where COVID-19 is spreading the most. As noted by Dr Caroline McElnay, Director of Public Health: Our experience in New Zealand and overseas with COVID-19 shows that it does not affect children and teens in the same way it does adults. Children and teens don't become as unwell if they do get infected, and they don't tend to pass the virus on so much as adults when in a classroom setting. Compared to other places, schools and early learning services are not environments where we have seen significant spread of COVID-19. Household members and work colleagues who are in close contact with people with COVID-19, are the most common sources of transmission. However, if we do have someone confirmed with COVID-19 in our school, we have a plan in place to manage this and will contact you as soon as possible. If you’d like to learn more about the framework visit COVID-19 Protection Framework. Secretary for Education Iona Holsted Kia ora RVS Community,
As you will be aware, we are working through the vaccine mandate outcomes here at RVS. Privacy rulings limit what I can say but I do wish to update you as the mandate comes into effect tomorrow. Many of our staff have received the vaccine while a small percentage have chosen not to. I know this is the case in many other schools across the country. The situation is difficult and we have continued to do our best to support all people in our community while keeping the school in good stead. We are a united bunch, even if we don't agree on every detail. To the few staff not returning tomorrow, we pray for His provision for you and His blessing. You are still a part of our community, albeit from a distance. To those continuing on tomorrow, we pray also for continued blessing too. Regarding parents onsite and vaccination status. Parents are still able to drop their children off at school regardless of status but should only stay for the 5-10 min standard turn-around time, should remember distancing rules, and should not enter the classroom. We will update this as soon as any rulings change. I encourage you to continue to keep in touch with your student's teachers however you can. The isolation that COVID times can sometimes cause needn't be our story. Even with the loss of some of our much loved traditional ways of connecting due to Level 2, we can utilise other means. I thank you for your ongoing support and let's keep going, our young people are worth it! God bless, Dave Pauling Principal Kia ora RVS I hope you have had a great time with family and friends over the two long weekends. We managed some time in the Queen Charlotte Sound, boy we live in a beautiful part of the world. Speaking of landscapes, the COVID horizon continues to shift and we have been working through the education mandate lately. The implications for the RVS community are wide reaching but not insurmountable, difficult but we will find a way through. There may well be cancellations of activities as we struggle to staff different areas, we apologise in advance. I know for certain that there are many in our RVS community praying for the situation we find ourselves in and we are incredibly grateful. We have been advised by the Ministry of Education that they still wish us to avoid all gatherings for the foreseeable future, particularly under Level 2. For this reason, amongst others, the Board of Trustees has made the decision to cancel prize giving for 2021. This is done with a heavy heart as it is one of our favourite, God glorifying, positive celebrations as a community. We will still be awarding students but will use the new school magazine as a forum to present these award winners to the community. Every family will receive a copy of this magazine in the last week of term.
A big thank you to Mrs. Rebecca Silva for organising the 2021 Run for Bibles. Also to those who worked hard to raise funds for the Bible League. A magnificent effort providing 235 bible packs for others who need them. See more about the Bible League here. Thank you to all who filled in the recent Special Character Survey. The proprietors will collate these and use them to help guide planning in the future. You are a wonderful, busy community and the fact that so many took the time is appreciated.
The Special Character Review initiated by our proprietor Elim and facilitated by Mr. Mark Larson has been an incredibly positive experience. He spoke with many stakeholders, collected the community response and spoke with the BoT last week. He will provide feedback to the proprietor via a report. I will share a summary of the community survey when it is made available. COVID has caused quite a delay to the beginning of the next building project here at RVS. ‘F’ Block was planned to begin in October but will hopefully begin soon. ‘F’ Block is a northern extension off the Art/Tech room completing that block. It will be used predominantly by Y11-13 students and features:
With the continued growth of the school, we continue to experience need for more room, particularly at the junior end of the school. We had been looking at re-arranging the current staff-room/office area but could not meet the needs we have which are:
Building for this will start ASAP allowing our new entrant students to use this area early next year to release space for our Y12 students until ‘F’ Block is completed. God is good. I thank Doug Clark & Glenroy Housing for their consistent work behind the scenes to keep the ball rolling. Here is an image of the new Kea block. We will be starting back next year on Thursday the 3rd of February. Other 2022 Term dates can be found here - Term Dates 2022 So there is still much happening at RVS, even though it may sometimes feel like things have slowed or succumbed to the events around us. We talk often as staff about the importance of each day, hour even minute when working with young people and schools are a place with so much life in them. Stay in touch and God bless, Dave Pauling Principal |
Mr PaulingProud Principal of Richmond View School. Archives
February 2024
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