Beginning next week, students will start returning to school for 2022. For some, particularly in Auckland, it will be the first school day in a long time.
How schools are run has changed so much thanks to Covid-19 that there is a new normal.
However, with the country moving to the Red Light setting, schools face new challenges even before the school bell rings.
Kia Aroha College in South Auckland has been closed for nearly six months due to the Delta Covid-19 outbreak in August 2021, and principal Haley Milne says the emergence of the Omicron variant and subsequent return to the Red Light alert setting has her school whānau concerned.
"We're now in this weird situation where we've been closed for six months, because of the impact on our community, the low vaccination rates, because of things like face coverings and the ventilation issues.
"And now we're going to have to say to our whānau 'Kia kaha. We're going to have to manage this but we really need our kids back at school."
Under the Covid-19 Protection framework, otherwise known as the "Traffic Light System", schools remain open and must follow public health measures. Students Years 4 and up must wear face coverings when indoors and when in close contact with others, while staff and teachers must wear face coverings when teaching or supporting students from Year 4 or above, including in the classroom or assemblies.
To help address some of the changes students have become accustomed to over the past two years, Kia Aroha College has changed its opening hours to begin at 10.30am and finish at 4.30pm to help students readjust to having to wake up and leave home to get to school.
Kia Aroha College in South Auckland will reopen its doors next week to students for the first time since August 2021. photo/file
'A little bit problematic'
"We've already had a number of whānau contact us concerned about what that looks like for them. In our community, we've still got low vaccination rates, and our community has been one of the hardest hit in both outbreaks so far," she says.
She adds, however, that Māori communities and the Otara community where her school is located are resilient and will take the Red Light in its stride.
"We're used to having a whole heap of things thrown at us and we're just like 'OK, that's a bit of a bummer but we'll work out what the solutions are'."
She says that resilience has been reflected in the school's NCEA results despite the disruptions.
"Our results over the last couple of years haven't been that different from what they would have been having our young people at school. They're not quite as great but we already have really good results anyway."
However, she wants the government and education and health ministries to prioritise Māori education needs.
"Is this good for Māori? And if the answer is no, what are we going to do differently rather than 'is this good for everybody?'"
Milne says young people haven't been able to experience education in the way that they could have done for two years now.
"So while they're getting a whole heap of new skills, from being online and spending a whole heap of time with their whānau and all of that, the impact is that all those behaviours and systems that happen in a kura setting, preparing them for work and all of that has been interrupted.
"| just hope that two years of interruption had given our government an opportunity to really change how we prioritise things."
Impact on extra-curricular activities
The Red Light setting could also have an effect on extra-curricular activities at school, such as kapa haka. While kaupapa like kapa haka are permitted under the red light setting, the practicality of doing so will be affected.
Milne points out that Kia Aroha College has been a mainstay in Division 1 at the annual Polyfest competition but now, while the kapa can practise, it has to be outside, and with one-metre social distancing.
Although no decision has been made yet for the 2022 event, Polyfest was cancelled in 2020 because of the initial Covid-19 outbreak in Aotearoa, while the 2019 festival was called off midway through the event because of the Christchurch terror attacks.
Under the current Covid-19 alert settings, events such as Polyfest would need to follow My Vaccine Pass requirements, something Milne says raises concerns.
"Your vaccination status is supposed to be private. If we have teams up there performing, then we can assume they're vaccinated and, if we don't have teams up there performing, then we assume that they're not.
"And I'm really concerned about assumptions because assumptions are more often than not always correct."
Milne also says for the first time, Kia Aroha is considering not starting the year with a full school pōhiri.
Benefits of lockdown learning
While the past two years have been difficult for Māori school staff and students, Milne is proud of how some of her students adapted quickly when faced with bigger challenges other school communities may not have.
"At the beginning, 97% of my youngsters didn't have a device or internet access."
Having worked hard to find solutions, including helping provide students with devices and internet access, Milne says students and staff are heading into a potential third year of remote learning with plenty of practice.
"There are some really awesome benefits from that. And those young people moving into jobs where they might have to work online, they've got skills that we probably wouldn't have had to teach if we weren't online.
"But the impact is always no kapa haka, no pōhiri and that kind of whakawhanaungatanga that is all of the things that all of our kura, that all of our young people love about being with their mates."
Milne says despite the disruptions caused by Covid-19 in recent years, it has also led to exciting opportunities to look at the way education is delivered for Māori and Pacific young people.
"Things like changing starting times, redesigning what our day might look like. We're thinking about what is important and what is not important.
"For us as a kura we're looking forward to buying more laptops and having more young people have access to all of those things. And the exciting thing is all their whānau have access to those laptops."