Principal’s address to the De La Salle Community
Greetings Parents and Young Men of De La Salle College,
Like me, I am sure you have followed with interest the announcements made by the Prime Minister on Thursday afternoon.
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.
The Prime Minister advised that in Alert Level 2 schools are safe environments for our young men 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.
However for next week starting on Monday May 11th we will continue to provide online teaching for our young men.
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.
This will be strictly enforced when all of our students return to school.
If you have any questions about our health and safety plan, or have a son who might be vulnerable to serious illness and would like to discuss a plan for him, please contact your son’s Year Level Dean.
I will be in touch again next week to update you on our plans as to how De La Salle College will operate at Alert Level 2 and the likely start date for all students.
Have a great weekend and stay well.
God bless
M.Hogarty
Principal
