KingsWay welcomes and anticipates all Senior School staff and most Year 11-13 students to return to KingsWay on Tuesday 2nd November. We also continue to supervise registered children of essential workers on the Senior Campus.

The staff and leadership are committed to maintaining the health and safety of the KingsWay community. We have recently updated our COVID-19 procedures to minimise the risk of transmission while at school. We aim to update these again when students and staff in Years 1-10 return.

We underpin these COVID-19 procedures with KingsWay School’s Five Principles which include the Ministry of Education three tenants of safe practices. KingsWay’s staff and leadership are committed to promoting and practising KingsWay School’s Five Overarching Principles to undergird health and safety procedures.

The Ministry of Education’s three tenants are:

• Reduce the risk of someone getting infected in the first place
• Ensure we can identify and contact anyone who becomes infected
• Understand that any return to school during a lockdown is not business as usual.

KingsWay School’s Five Overarching Principles

1. Maintain effective and safe hygiene practices.
2. Ensure that people with COVID-19 symptoms stay away from school.
3. Maintain physical distancing.
4. Contact tracing and minimising contact with adults outside the KingsWay School bubble.
5. Common Sense.

Procedures can only go so far in protecting the community. Staff and parents must engage in common-sense decision-making while attempting to maintain the integrity of the overarching principles.

Existing Alert Level 3 Requirements that Will Continue

There is an extensive range of health requirements and measures at Alert Level 3 that will remain in place:

• Staff and children who are unwell must stay at home and get tested for COVID-19.
• Students at higher risk of severe illness must remain home where possible.
• Staff who are do not have a negative COVID Test and are at higher risk of severe illness must remain home.
• It is mandatory for staff and students in Years 9 to 13 to wear a face covering.
• We permit only essential visitors onsite, and all visitors on site will need to wear a face-covering
• Classrooms must be well ventilated
• High-touch surfaces must be cleaned and disinfected each day
• Physical distancing should be adhered to wherever practicable, particularly between adults, and physical distancing of two metres will be in place from people you don’t know.
• QR code posters for the COVID App will be displayed
• A contact tracing register is in place for everyone coming onsite, including students and staff, through the attendance register, timetable and visitor register.

Additional Public Health Measures

In recent weeks, the Ministry of Education worked with the Ministry of Health to refine public health measures that would need to be in place when young people return to school.

Cabinet agreed on these additional public health measures on Monday 11 October:

• Face coverings are now required on school transport for anyone aged 12 and over and recommended for all others
• Time outdoors for students and staff will be maximised, including breaks, lunchtime, before and after school (unless the weather does not allow), and rooms aired during breaks
• Exercising and singing will take place outdoors.
• Groups meeting indoors, including assemblies or staff meetings, will be avoided.
• Exams can go ahead while maintaining physical distancing of a minimum of 1.5 metres between desks.

Face Coverings

Under the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Health Order, it’s a legal requirement that all students in Years 9-13 wear a face-covering in an Alert Level 3 area when they are inside at school unless they have an exemption.

Face coverings are not required to be worn when outside. However, as is the case for all New Zealanders, face coverings continue to be strongly recommended, especially when unable to distance from people you don’t know.

Exemptions from Wearing Face Coverings

You can find information on face-covering exemptions on the Unite Against COVID-19 website.

Students Aged 12 and Over

The exemption from wearing face coverings for students on school transport has been revoked under the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Health Order.

This mandate means that from 11.59 pm Friday 22 October, everyone 12 years and older legally must wear a face covering on school transport services (both Ministry and regional council-operated) at all alert levels unless they have an exemption.

This mandate includes charter buses hired by schools to transport students and staff.

Please note bus drivers are not required to enforce the wearing of face coverings. They will report any non-compliance to your school’s bus controller (noting that some students may be exempt from face-covering requirements for health and safety reasons). KingsWay will manage any non-compliance just as they currently manage behavioural issues of school transport users.

Additional KingsWay Protocols

1.   Maintain Effective and Safe Hygiene Procedures

• Effective washing and drying of hands and good cough and sneeze etiquette remain fundamental to preventing the spread of an illness such as colds, flu and COVID-19
• Hand sanitiser and disposable towels are available in all areas of the school. The expectation is that staff lead by example by sanitising at the start and end of every lesson or activity.
• Disinfect any shared equipment before and after use.
• Clean and sanitise any area used for lunch preparation, and place rinsed dishes immediately into the dishwasher.
• We clean toilets thoroughly at the end of each day. Staff and students are encouraged to disinfect the toilet area and taps before and after use.
• Students are discouraged from bringing along toys, games or sharing sports equipment.
• Only one student is allowed into the Health Centre at a time. Students must wait outside for appointments with the nurse.

2.   Ensure people with COVID-19 symptoms stay away from school

• Any children, young people and staff should remain at home if they are sick and will be sent home immediately if they display any symptoms.

3.   Maintain Physical Distancing

• Young people and staff must maintain physical distance and avoid breathing on or physical contact with each other.
• No sharing of food or drinks is permitted. Drink bottles are encouraged to avoid drinking from water fountains.
• We have postponed all school trips until further notice.
• There will be no assemblies or large group meetings.
• We have postponed all face-to-face community gatherings until further notice.

Lunch and Morning Tea Arrangements:
Staff

• Staff are encouraged to bring along food that requires minimal preparation to avoid cross-contamination during food preparation. Please maintain physical distancing when consuming or preparing food.

Students

• Students must practise physical distancing and good hygiene habits. They are free to move around the campus as they usually do, however need to avoid the far field as that is designated for the supervision bubbles to use. We will continue to supervise children of essential workers during breaks.

4.   Contact tracing and minimising contact with adults outside of the KingsWay school bubble.

The school will keep track of people who enter the school sites– through the attendance and visitor registers. In the event of a confirmed transmission within the KingsWay community, it is essential to track the extent of transmission.

• We require all visitors to sign in at the gate using the COVID App, and if leaving their vehicle, they must sign in at reception using the blue contract tracing button on the VisTab.
• Parents should communicate through phone or email and avoid coming onto the site unless essential.
• We continue to supervise children of essential workers at the Senior Campus and use Lower Bolam hardcourt as the drop-off and pick up area. There is now no limit to the size of bubbles, but we continue to separate students in a Junior and Senior bubble.
• We require staff to maintain a log of their interactions with outside agencies and contractors to assist with contact tracing.
• Staff and students are requested to leave school by 5:00 pm daily to allow for the site to be cleaned and secured.

Contractor Procedures

• All contractors need to sign in and sign out daily at reception before undertaking any work on site. There they will be briefed by a receptionist regarding the school’s current Alert procedures.
• All contractors are required to maintain physical distancing procedures while onsite and record areas accessed for tracking purposes.

5.   Reported Cases of COVID-19 in the KingsWay Community

• In the event of a reported case of a parent or student, KingsWay’s leadership will liaise with the Ministry of Education and Health and enforce a mandatory shutdown of the school. The Executive Principal will contact parents via the KingsWay School app and other communication tools.

6.   Health Centre

• Senior School Students Year 11 to 13
  FIRST AND FOREMOST- to protect students and staff while at Level-3 – NO unwell students should be at school.
  The student is to come to student reception where they will be screened by the nurse before they come into the health centre.
  If a student is coming from a class, please send them with a health centre pass as normal. During morning tea and lunch the student does not require a pass.
• Students in Supervised Bubbles
  FIRST AND FOREMOST- to protect students and staff while at Level-3 – NO unwell students should be at school.
  No students should be sent to the Health Centre without first a phone conversation with the nurse on duty.  Please click on the link for full explanation of the process and roster of which nurse is on site.
  Health Centre Information – for Teachers Assisting with Student Bubbles in Level 3

7.   Tuckshop

• The tuckshop resumes service on 2 November. You can make orders online. Sorry but no cash transactions until further notice. Queues must maintain physical distancing requirements.

8.   Uniform Shop

• The uniform shop remains closed and we continue to encourage parents to purchase online. All online orders received by end of Sunday 31 October will be available for contactless pick-up from the main reception on Tuesday 2 November between 10:00 – 12:00. Should you wish to exchange or return an item, please mark this clearly and hand in at the main reception no later than the end of Wednesday 3 November. All exchanges and other online purchases (received by end of day Wednesday 3 November) will be available for contactless pick-up from the main reception on Friday 5 November between 10:00 – 12:00. Please scan in at the gate before coming onsite.
  Thank you for your understanding and co-operation.

9.   Sport and Sport Practices

• We have postponed all school sports until further notice.

10.  Afterschool Programmes

• We have postponed all afterschool programmes until further notice.

11.  Itinerant Music Lessons

• We have postponed all itinerant music lessons until further notice.