Emergency Communication and New Reading Recovery Teacher

Emergency Communication - Winter is here and it is timely to remind you that for urgent school messages (eg school closure, bus breakdown) we use a text service that send texts to all parents/caregivers – please ensure your mobile phone details are up to date with the school. The service we use for these messages shows me if the message has been delivered to the number. If any messages are recorded as undelivered to a family then you will get a phone call from a Board member. The Facebook/Twitter information text service we have running is School App and completely separate to the urgent school messages service. For those new to our school we have a process we follow if have to close the school - if the decision to close the school is made, it is made after getting information from the Selwyn District Council, parents/families who live at critical points in our enrolment zone and bus runs, weather forecast information, surrounding schools, our bus drivers and any official information from the Ministry of Education. We also consider the ability to get children and staff to and from school safely. Generally these decisions are made in the morning – by 7:00am based on the information we have available. If the decision is made to close the school after school has started for the day please remember our first priority is taking care of your child/ren. A child will never be left at school alone. The principal and teachers will remain responsible and continue to provide them with care until they can be reunited with parents and or caregivers. The same applies to children who travel on the bus. If the bus home is cancelled, we will contact you to make arrangements. Please be aware if the power goes out the schools phone system and internet will not operate and we will only be able to use cellular services to update messages on the schools App and Facebook page. We do attempt to use all communication tools available to us but sometimes no power will prevent this.

Reading Recovery – Today we welcome Jo Blackler as our new Reading Recovery teacher. Fortunately for us Jo has been able to start today which means it is a seamless transition from Kirsty Burlinson. Jo also works at Burnham School as part of her Reading Recovery role.