Principal's Message Start of 2022

Kia ora Parent and Whanau

A very warm welcome to our students and families who are starting a new term at Northcross for the first time. We certainly look forward to working with you and your child over the next two years. We know during these years our students will have the opportunities to achieve to the best of their abilities across the depth and breadth of the New Zealand Curriculum.

To our returning students also supported by their families, it is great to have you back, we certainly look forward to working with you throughout 2022 as our Year 8 students and leaders of our school.

Our 2022 term will start in the Red Setting of the Covid19 Protection Framework. The positive aspect of this is, our students will be physically attending school for term 1!

To comply with the Protection Framework we have had to make changes to our start up procedures in order to negate large numbers of visitors on site.

Our first day (Tuesday 8^th of February) has been primarily an Interview day; to ensure the safety of our students we have had to make adjustments to normal routines.

Year 7 parents will have interviews but these will be virtual and conducted off site. Wendy Naidu, Deputy Principal will be sending out information on interview times later this week. We ask that Year 7 students attend these virtual interviews with their parents. Year 7 students will remain at home on that day. If year 7 parents need to meet with the school nurse regarding important medical information on their child, there will be an onsite interview for this.
Year 8 students will start school, 8.45 am, on the Tuesday 8^th February, going straight to their classes. As they have already had a year at Northcross and understand the protocols we have decided to postpone their interviews until the end of the term. Any new year 8 students please come to the office and they will be taken to their classes.

Health measures in place at school

As always, safety and wellbeing will continue to be a priority for us at Northcross with the same public health measures you are very familiar with will remain in place:

continue using and encouraging good hygiene practices including; regular handwashing; cough and sneeze etiquette; regular cleaning of high touch surface.
contact tracing systems in place
vaccination requirements for workers (paid and unpaid)
if students are sick, they must stay home and get tested. Thank you so much to our parents for your ongoing support regarding this matter.
good ventilation.
face coverings will be required at school when indoors for students and staff.
we ask that only essential visitors come onsite. We have really appreciated our parents/visitors respect for limiting on site visits over the last 2 years. As a school, student social distancing is very difficult to patrol especially when outside, our best line of covid defence has been keeping our bubble safe with limiting on site visitors. If you need to come on site to discuss student wellbeing, progress etc, we ask you make an appointment through the office. As always we appreciate your support regarding this matter.

Parents and caregivers are asked to do drop offs and pick-ups from outside the school grounds. This again ensures the safety of our students who use the main drive to exit and enter the school.

We certainly look forward to working with our parent community throughout the year, communicating school events, student achievements and happenings through newsletters, by visiting our website; www.northcross.school.nz and dispatches such as this through our Student Management System.

Nga mihi nui

Jonathon Tredray and Team
Northcross Intermediate