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Alerts – Level 3 AND Level 4 – all at once!

April1

Anniversary Day – 1pm – and we sit down to watch the what have become ‘normal’ 1pm announcements from Dr Ashley Bloomfield, the Director General of Health and the Prime Minister, Jacinda Adern, about our current situation. It was this announcement where the PM stated that we were moving to Alert Level 3 – those who can work from home, schools closed to all except essential worker’s children effective of Monday night, social distancing (2m away from others outside your ‘bubble’) and increased limits on border control (only NZers allowed back into NZ and everyone had to self isolate for 14 days). COVID cases were increasing – all were associated with overseas travel, however there was fear that there were increasing concerns about community transmission. Level 2 was effective immediately, Level 3 from 48 hours time – midnight Wednesday.  Level 3 would see all of NZ go into lockdown – isolation in our own homes – for 4 weeks – 28 days!

First call to the Board Chair – he was also listening to the announcement too – and our discussion lead to how Tuesday would look, with the intention of the school closing on Wednesday night. Teacher Only Day as we had planned it (twice already) was over – and our plan for closing and distance learning in the future was instigated.

My next thoughts were with our family.  Anniversary Day meant we were home and our response was to think about what we would do for the next four weeks – ‘stuck’ at home, ‘stuck’ with each other – with nowhere to go!  What would we do?  What did we need? A shopping trip to Farmers, Smiths City, The Warehouse and Mitre 10 saw supplies of slippers, (more) board games, LEGO, flannel sheets, gardening supplies, paint, ping pong balls – and hair dye!! . . . (No food? The government had made it very clear that Supermarkets would remain open so we didn’t see food as a priority!). Our shopping trip was what I imagined a Grocery Grab to be like over a number of shops – but we had to pay!

Back home and I had to switch to school mode.

  • What was the priority for teachers on TOD?  Their minds would be with their families and preparing for that. Yet we needed to have something organised to consider for ‘distance learning’ in three weeks time. (The holidays were being moved forward – and then after Easter Term 2 would begin).
  • How could we ‘keep in touch’ – ensure everyone was ok in this time – while all being well apart?
  • What did my office staff need to do tomorrow in preparation for 4 weeks (at least) off site?
  • What did my property staff need to do? Rubbish? Rodent control? Security? Devices out of sight?
  • How would we run our planned BOT meeting?
  • I needed to send out a newsletter to our community – and an email to the staff
  • What else did we need to consider – teachers needed to remove their recent shells from beach trips, remove food  . . .

I wrote lists – lists for myself, my admin staff, my staff, my groundsman. I went to bed, but was up soon after adding more things to the list. I decided a FB group would be ideal for our staff to keep in touch – we could share photos, have conversations and know that some of our more vulnerable were looking after themselves. I can’t remember if it was late night or early morning but the group was made and set up.  I just needed to make sure that everyone could access it – and knew how to – and added that to the list for Tuesday morning with the staff.

I was awake again at 4:30 – wide awake. Going through the lists again – adding to the lists. What did I need to work from home – another list of things I needed to get and bring home in order to continue to work. I grabbed the biggest suitcase we had and parked it at the door so that I wouldn’t forget it. I decided I’d pack up my office and bring it home – in the suitcase (and probably another bag or two). I sent the odd email to avoid forgetting things when I got to school – my mind couldn’t stop – I couldn’t stop – forgetting something now would have no return after midnight Wednesday.

I set up a Google form – we needed to know if we had any essential workers who needed their children at school on Wednesday.  Yet another newsletter had to go out to the community about what we planned going forward . . . and I had to pack up my office – what did I need to pack? ERO bits and pieces (they will still be coming), BOT pack, Property folder (we have developments coming up), DT (we have work to build on), Community Trust info (we have a large grant coming our way and this is the chance to get it underway) – and the pandemic plan needs updating!!  This is what a pandemic really looks like! The list was growing and I just needed to get to school – I did – by 6:15am!

Teacher Only Day came and went – albeit with social distancing, a clearing of classrooms and teachers putting together programmes for post holidays – while we are still on lockdown. We decided we weren’t expecting ‘lessons’ this week.  Children needed to feel safe, families needed to get their heads around this new situation, everyone needed time. We had all felt a bit hard done by not being able to say ‘see you later’ to our children. It was decided that teachers would email each family personally to say ‘take care, see you later’ by the end of the week, that I would update the school FB page with activities that families could do, and that on April 15th I would upload the work that the teachers had planned for ‘distance learning’.

I emphasised to all staff that they needed to be off site on Tuesday afternoon.  We hadn’t had any essential workers indicate that they needed their children at school on Wednesday, the MoE had rung and I’d checked with them that I could close the school effectively immediately – they were happy with that. Being offsite Tuesday meant that staff still had 24 hours to think about anything else that they might need to come to school for – before we were banned – for the 28 days (at least).

Midnight Wednesday 25th March – we were in lockdown and physically isolated from the rest of the world – for 28 days – at least.

 

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