Community Comms – 14 August

Kia ora, 

After two days of meetings with staff, MOE and parents, we are now in a position to tell you about the plans for the rest of the term. Many staff have spent today reorganising lessons and moving out of affected Brook classrooms. We’re nearly there – and by later today new rooms should start to appear on timetables – they need to be checked very carefully!

We want to thank everyone for your understanding, messages of support, offers of help and advocacy.  We are extremely proud of our student leaders and those who were learning at Parliament today. Thank you to everyone who has sent messages of support. I’m sorry I haven’t had time to respond to them all, but please know they meant a great deal to us all.

• Leaving the Brook addition: We are not going back into the Brook addition for teaching and learning. This is the top two floors of Brook between the staircases. We are still going to use the extension. This is the office space for staff and one classroom on each floor that is not part of that 15% NBS addition. 

• Rostering home: We will have to roster one year group home a day until we have our latest prefabs up and running  – that date is expected to be 16 September. Staff were unanimous in the need to keep Y12 and 13 at school until derived grade exams start, so the roster will be as follows:

This means each year group will have between 2 – 5 days rostered home. Then, everything going to plan, the last two weeks of term we’ll have everyone on site and the new Tiakiwai 2.0 rooms will be able to be occupied. 

After that date, we think we can make it work – JUST – but everyone will be moving around the school a lot more. 

• The WGC Learning Hub: The MOE has leased the Royal Society, which is a one-minute walk from us, opposite Wholly Bagels.  We are going to use this as a Learning Hub. This means that students can come and work there on their rostered day instead of being at home. It will be staffed by a welcoming adult who is there to help students stay on task and supervise.  Year 10s can be the first to use it tomorrow! Students will sign in and out with a QR code. 

  Talk about what will work best at home, at the Royal Society or a bit of both. Feel free to set your expectations. Please note we will also be contacting some parents directly to suggest that their child comes to the Learning hub on their rostered day off.

• Online learning in 2024: We’re not talking Covid! The 2024 version of online learning will work like this:

  • Start the day watching the briefing. It will tell students if any teachers are sick or if there is anything else they need to be aware of that will affect the day

  • Students will follow the normal school day timetable at WGC 

  • At the start of each lesson, students will log in to their Google Classroom, and click on the Google Meet link for that lesson. 

  • Their teacher will take the roll on Kamar. You will be able to track attendance at the Google Meets by checking the usual WGC portal. 

  • The teacher will set up the lesson – this will be different for each person, but they will be available online for that time. 

  • Students will be required to have their cameras on. During Covid, students would leave their icon image up but then disappear and not be in the Meet. We need to see them. 

  • Teachers will monitor work is done in a variety of ways we have discussed in a staff meeting. 

  • There will be a clear expectation that the work will be done. The class will move on in the next lesson. 

  • There will be no wānanga time for the days the year group is rostered home so that they get a longer break off the screen. 

If a student is sick on their rostered day off, please follow the usual steps of contacting the school so that they can be marked absent. 

Here is the information about learning from home – here is the Google Slideshow. 

Our student leaders will be using Instagram to share tips and tricks, run promotions of the Learning Hub and keep students engaged. 

We are all in this together. It will be a strange few weeks, but let’s make it work. 

Ngā manaakitanga

Julia Davidson

Principal