Covid19 Learning at Home
Guidelines for Whānau – Hurupaki School Distance Learning
General Expectations:
- Make time for fun, view learning timeframes flexibly, and have a balance between online and offline learning during this time. Even though the learning might be received online that doesn’t mean everything needs to be done online.
- Teachers will be online between 9:30am and 12:30pm each day, Monday to Friday.
- Check your emails/Seesaw every day and reply if necessary.
- We hope to use zoom or google hangouts for meetings with year 4-6 children, as well as phone calls, texts or emails for general communication. Let the teacher know if you need help.
- Remember teachers will be with their families too, so know they will respond to your emails and give feedback as they can.
- The Ministry of Education is providing many resources to support families with distance learning during this time. This includes a pack of physical resources that we hope each of our students will receive. Children without a device to use at home will hopefully receive a Hurupaki School chromebook to borrow. The ministry has also provided a helpful website https://learningfromhome.govt.nz to support families with lots of ideas. The Maori television channel will be a great resource during this time, as will a new learning television channel which can be found on TVNZ channel 2+1 (Freeview channel 7), on TVNZ OnDemand, as well as on Sky Channel 502. It is well worth a look.
- Before getting your child to use a device, remember to discuss internet safety. Agree with your child about what they can and can’t do online. Regularly check the sites and apps your child is accessing and who they are talking with. Remind your children that anything they post online will be permanently on the internet. It is a good idea to have children use the internet in an open, common area of the house. Netsafe is available to provide support around online safety. To report an incident, go to https://www.netsafe.org.nz/reportanincident/ . If you think your child is a victim of online exploitation, report it to the police. You can also sign up for Switch On Safety, a free service that filters out the worst the internet has to offer. Go to switchonsafety.co.nz to find out more
- Put your health and the health of your family first. Give time for the 5 daily mental health practices; applicable for children and adults:
- CONNECT – talk and listen to each other, build relationships with those around you
- GIVE – your time, your words, your presence; do something nice for your family, a friend, a stranger
- TAKE NOTICE – be curious
- KEEP LEARNING – embrace new experiences, see opportunities, surprise yourself
- BE ACTIVE – do what you can; enjoy what you do; move your mood.
It is a good idea to form some kind of daily routine when possible. This is up to you but could look like:
9:00am – 9:30am Get moving, do something that gets your heart rate up, then have a snack and a drink so you are ready to learn.
9:30am – 10:30am Learning time, choose and work on up to two activities from the online and/or physical learning pack/list/menu. Connect with your teacher online- e.g. email or google docs, and be punctual for any arranged zoom meeting or the teacher could phone or text about your learning.
11:00am – 12:00pm Learning time (same as above but may include some passion project time)
1:00pm – 2:00pm Free learning, explore curiosity – things you are interested in; explore creativity – make or create something; explore skills – practice a skill that you would like to get better at.
Optional activities, play outside, cooking/baking, play games with others in your bubble, watch learning channel on television, construct, read, draw, sing, dance and create.
Links to distance learning activities for each pod:
Here are the links to each pod’s blog page – some pods are posting the activities that students are doing during the lockdown:
Many of you will have seen the item on Seven Sharp with Nigel Latta, reinforcing our message that well-being and mental health is your main priority. It’s worth a watch if you haven’t seen it already – you can watch it here: How to cope with kids learning at home during the lockdown
Thank you for your support. Stay safe and take care of each other. Kia kaha.