Welcome to our school website!

This website has been designed for our students to share their learning journeys with everyone and to inform whanau of current events and information specific to our school.

Back to School, Monday May 18!

The staff and Board of Ahipara School are excited to welcome back all Ahipara Learners this coming Monday.

It almost feels like the start of the year all over again!

Just like the start of the year, we do need to give you some instructions and information, so everyone can be happy and safe when they come back to school on Monday.

School is SAFE!


Guidelines for coming back to school

  • All children need to be dropped outside the school gates.
  • We can only have Whānau coming onto the school property for emergencies, special purposes. We then have to provide Track & Trace details for those people. So please only go to the office and not the classrooms.
  • We will have school staff at each gate welcoming people and making sure everyone knows where to go (and manning hand sanitizer stations).
  • When our children enter the school grounds, they need to head straight to their normal classroom. A teacher will be waiting at the door to greet them, make sure they sanitise and show them to their place. There will be no playing in the playground before or after school.
  • Each learner has their own chair and special place to sit and put their things.
  • Each child needs their own lunch and their own drink bottle. Our school drinking fountains have all been shut down.
  • We will be limiting the numbers of children on our Adventure Playgrounds.
  • School Times
    • We are happy for children to arrive at school between 8:30 a.m. and 8:45 a.m.
    • Morning tea will still be at 10:10 a.m.
    • Lunch will be at 11:50 p.m.
    • School will close at 2:45 p.m.

Picking up your children

Walkers will be released at 2.40 and will be asked to go straight home.

Oscars will be released at 2.40.

Others will wait with their class until whanau is at the gate - please just one family member for pick ups.

All other children must be picked up outside the school gates from 2:45 p.m. onwards.



Arohanui - can't wait to see you all on Monday!!!!


Update 7 May 2020:

Kia ora koutou

Like me, I am sure you have followed with interest the announcements made by the Prime Minister.

It is reassuring to hear how well our country has done at minimising the impacts of COVID-19. Alert Levels 4 and 3 have not been easy and I thank you for your ongoing support for the work we are doing.

Today, the Prime Minister advised that in Alert Level 2 schools are safe environments for children, young people and staff and that additional public health control measures are in place to prevent the spread of disease and to support contact tracing.

The good news is that when we are able to, we will be ready to welcome all students and staff back to our school site.

The key Public Health approach is to minimise the risk that someone gets infected in the first place, and second to ensure we can identify and contact anyone who has been in close contact with a person, if someone in a school is infected.

As we have done in Alert Level 3, you can be assured that in Alert Level 2 we will know who is at school, who our staff and students have been in close contact with and take appropriate measures to keep everyone safe.

Physical distancing is a good precaution to prevent the spread of disease. We do however know it is challenging in schools, so good hygiene practices and regular cleaning are even more important here. This includes staff and students coughing into their elbows, handwashing and drying and regular cleaning of commonly touched surfaces.

Under Alert Level 2, we advise any students and staff to stay at home if they are sick, and we will send anyone home immediately if they show any symptoms.

Our school has safe and sensible practices to maintain the health and safety of everyone on the school site. As described by Dr Payinda in his NZ Herald article, “Covid's not measles or chickenpox, it doesn't hang in the air for hours waiting to infect passers-by. It travels on invisible drops of spit. You don't have to cross the street to avoid anyone. Just avoid getting in their 'moist breath' zone”. We all just need to remember to have some breathing space at Alert Level 2!

It’s important however that not just at school but at home, safe hygiene habits are practised by everyone, as this is essential to minimise the risk that someone gets infected with Covid-19.

For more information about the public health measures at Alert Level 2, you can visit the covid19.govt.nz website: https://covid19.govt.nz/

If you have any questions about our health and safety plan, or have a child who might be vulnerable to serious illness and would like to discuss a plan for them, please contact me.

We will be in touch again soon to update you on our plans.

Ngā mihi

Jackie Osborne

Update 28 April 2020:

If your child can be cared for at home, please keep them at home under Alert Level 3.

If your child continues learning from home

Your child’s teacher will lead their learning at home via our digital classrooms. Continue to stay connected with them to see what they have prepared for the day.

If you need more hard copy packs let us know.

Check the Home Learning TV | Papa Kāinga TV schedules. Note the times of segments that may interest your child. The channel is free to air, on TVNZ channel 2+1 and on TVNZ on Demand, as well as on Sky Channel 502.

Stay connected with your child’s teacher and let them know if you have questions or concerns. We are here to help.


School commences Wednesday 29 April for those children who cannot be cared for at home. If you can care for your child at home, please keep them at home. The school will continue to support your child's learning remotely.

Every child able to learn from home enables the school to work with reduced numbers and therefore supports the capacity to implement physical distancing.

At this stage we will be running 'bubbles' at school from this Wednesday. Each 'bubble' will have 4 staff members and bubble sizes will include no more than 10 children. The same staff will remain with your child for at least the next 2 weeks.

We will be following strict safety and hygiene practices as advised by the Ministry of Health.

If your child must be at school, the following will help us

  • please do not send your child to school before 9.15am
  • provide your child with a water bottle (water only)
  • "drop offs by parents and caregivers must, unless there is a valid reason, take place before parents and caregivers get to the school gate and ideally a reasonable distance away, to limit large numbers of people congregating" (Ministry of Education)
  • we will escort your child to the appropriate school gate at 2.00 each day

You will be receiving a phone call on Tuesday from a staff member in your child's 'bubble'.

The sacrifices being made are paying off, hopefully we can get out of Alert Level 3 soon and see all our tamariki back at school.

Remember to

  • stay at home in your bubble
  • break the chain
  • and save lives

Kia kaha

Update 21 April 2020:

Kia ora koutou

We hope that Term 2 and our distance learning programme has been a success for you so far. We know there will have been any number of challenges for you to deal with but we have been getting some great feedback about the learning that is happening and thank you for all your support.

Yesterday the Government decided that we will move into Alert Level 3 on 28 April. That means we will be open to receive students from the 29 April. We will start to prepare our site from tomorrow.

The key message for you is that if you can, you should keep your child at home. You should only physically send your child to school if you need to. If your child has a health condition that means they are at a greater risk of a severe illness you must keep them at home. If your child is sick please also ensure you keep them at home.

In order to ensure the safety of those children and our staff who do come to school, we will be operating with strict enforcement of health and safety measures.

I want to assure you that we will continue to support your child’s learning at home.

We will contact you later this week to find out whether you can keep your child learning from home, or need your child to attend in person.

The Ministry of Education has advised that they are working closely with health to develop clear guidance that will support schools to safely re-open their premises to students and staff. This will help us work through the public health requirements that we all need to meet. As you will be doing, we want to be sure that what we do will keep our community as safe as possible.

For now, we will continue to support your child’s learning by distance while we progress our planning for what Alert Level 3 will mean for you and for our school. We will be in touch again soon with more information. As you have been doing, please keep connecting with your teachers with any questions you might have.

Ngā mihi

Jackie Osborne


Term 2 starts on Wednesday 15 April and we are very excited to connect with our tamariki and help learning to continue.


Our school has been working hard at providing school loan devices for those children in years 4-8 who do not have access to one. This has been quite a process in a stage 4 lockdown but we are making good progress. As we get closer to delivery of our school devices, we will contact whanau via school loop (or phone) to confirm addresses.

All children in years 1-3 and those students in any year level who have not got connection to the internet and/or a device have had a hard copy pack requested for them to be sent to their homes from the Ministry of Education.

Until you receive your packs/devices please connect with the education TV channels starting at 9.00 am Wednesday and your packs/devices should get to you as soon as possible (in the next week or so).

For those students who can access any device, they can begin class mahi via our school website from day one of the term


Ahipara School website is the first point of call to access your child's class sites. Go to the class sites button on the top bar - click.

Then click your child’s room number and you are in… Welcome to your digital classroom. This class site will be your one-stop to connect with your teacher and will have that day's learning.


Hangout link - On your child's class site will be a hangout link which they will access daily.

Hangouts are such a valuable point of connection in terms of wellbeing and for connecting with tamariki.


Your teacher’s email address is also on the site if you have any queries or questions.


Please do remember that distance learning isn’t about sitting in front of a device for 5 hours and doing schoolwork, nor is it a mountain of adult-driven tasks. BALANCE is the key - letting children be creative, active, social (as much as they can be in a lockdown). Having playtime, family time, quiet time and letting them engage independently in what makes them passionate is how home learning is going to be successful. We are here to help.


Ministry of Education Distance-learning education package for students

Preparations are well underway to support students with distance-learning when term 2 begins tomorrow, Wednesday 15 April.

Every learner in New Zealand will have at least one way to access education, even if they do not have a device or an internet connection at home.

While New Zealand’s Alert Level 4 lockdown is due to end on 22 April, the Ministry of Education is planning for every scenario.

The Ministry of Education package includes:

  • Increasing the number of students who have internet access and devices.
  • Hard-copy packs of learning materials for different year levels.
  • 2 television channels that will broadcast education-related content for at least a month – for English and te reo Māori audiences, as well as tailored content for Pacific and other communities.
  • More online resources for parents on the Learning from home and Ki te Ao Mārama websites, and ways to connect with learning support remotely.

Learning from home

Ki to Ao Mārama


Devices and materials will be delivered in waves

The Ministry of Education is working with telecommunications companies and internet service providers to connect as many households as it can as quickly as possible. It is also working with our school to identify students who do not have a device at home. It will deliver as many devices and materials as possible to students who will benefit the most.

Supports are also being prepared for households with children under five, to help parents and whānau keep their children engaged in learning through play.

Media release from the Hon Chris Hipkins


Stay well whanau, and stay safe


Term 2 starts on Wednesday 15 April and we are very excited to connect with our tamariki and help learning to continue.

For those tamariki who have access to a device and internet learning can start seamlessly on Wednesday. We are working hard to plan how to deliver resources to those whanau who do not have connectivity. The Ministry of Education is also developing resource packs and exploring delivery processes. We will be getting in touch with those whanau who do not access our online learning to provide support to enable them to participate in learning from home.


Accessing and delivering devices currently in school.

We are keen to get devices in our school, out to our children’s homes in order to better support distance learning. The Ministry is working on a process for managing safe access to those devices and getting them distributed safely to our students during this lockdown period. They will advise more about this as soon as they can.


Ahipara School website is the first point of call to access your child's class sites.

Go to the class sites button on the top bar - click.

Then click your child’s room number and you are in…

Welcome to your digital classroom. This class site will be your one-stop to connect with your teacher and will have that day's learning.


Hangout link - On your child's class site will be a hangout link which they will access daily.

Hangouts are such a valuable point of connection in terms of wellbeing and for connecting with tamariki.

Your teacher’s email address is also on the site if you have any queries or questions.


Please do remember that distance learning isn’t about sitting in front of a device for 5 hours and doing schoolwork-nor is it a mountain of adult-driven tasks. BALANCE is the key - letting children be creative, active, social (as much as they can be in a lockdown). Having playtime, family time, quiet time and letting them engage independently in what makes them passionate is how home learning is going to be successful. We are here to help.


Do have a fabulous Easter and stay well.



Cybersmart At Home

While we are learning at home whanau please remember to keep our tamariki cyber smart.


  • Storing, charging and Chromebook use to be in a family area rather than a child’s bedroom
  • Keeping communication lines open with your child around online activity
  • Do you have a plan if your child is confronted with a difficult situation online?
  • Check the browsing history by using the history button or ctrl +H
  • Monitor the time spent on the device.



If you are using your child's device remember:

Learning comes first

Use the guest account



Links to Support Sites For Whanau:

Netsafe.org Instagram parent support

Facebook’s parenting tip YouTube parent resources



COVID-19 UPDATE

Kia ora

We have started into a new phase of New Zealand’s response to COVID-19 and it is very different than anything most of us have ever experienced. I wanted to reassure you that our school staff and Board of Trustees will continue to be available to support your child’s learning and wellbeing in the next weeks.

You will understand the importance of routine for your family. If your routine has been shaken up, like you’re now working from home, it’s good to structure your time. Routines are reassuring, and promote health and physical wellbeing. A school holiday version will likely look a little different, but some form of routine will still be important as we go through the lockdown period. There are links below to more wellbeing information to support your family during the lockdown.

Some good news to support you either working at home and/or studying at home - Spark, Vodafone, Vocus/Slingshot, 2Degrees and Trustpower have all advised they have removed their data caps and the possibility of any extra charges based on usage.

A big thank you to all of you for taking the lockdown so seriously. As the Prime Minister has noted staying at home will break the chain and save lives; breaking the rules could risk someone close to you and if the rules are not complied with, this could risk the lock down period being extended or could risk the virus being spread to thousands.

It's been very rewarding to see the number of students who have been joining their teachers and classmates in Google hangouts over the last few days. These hangouts will continue next term so please check your child's email for the invite. All information is available on our school website - click into class sites and look for your childs room number.

Information and resources to support wellbeing and support learning at home

Key dates reminder

26 March Alert Level 4 commenced

28 March School holidays begin

10 – 14 April Easter including the Tuesday after Easter

15 April Term 2 begins (through distance learning)

22 April Current date for ending of lockdown period

27 April ANZAC Day observed


Take care everyone, and stay well. Make the most of the opportunities to spend time with your lovelies.

Nga mihi,

Jackie Osborne.


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