Update March 11

Kia ora whānau.

You will be aware that a number of parents from across Christchurch have been enrolling their children at schools both in other towns and in parts of Christchurch that have been less affected by the quake.

As you can imagine this has caused a number of issues for the schools who have had an influx of students, the Ministry of Education that is trying to resource those schools without penalising damaged schools, and those of us who are damaged and will need to work out who we have returning and when.

Schools in Christchurch are now being asked not to enroll any more students from damaged schools. Instead the Ministry of Education is starting, on Monday, nine Learning Hubs based at nine schools with classroom space.

These Learning Hubs will provide meaningful engagement for children whose parents are desperate to see them back in learning. As soon as their usual school re-opens, it is expected that they will return to that school. They are for families who really need their children occupied to allow them freedom to work, or sort out shattered lives. Families who can, should continue to support children at home, and a range of resources will be online next week to help parents with this "home schooling" option.

I am expecting that the process for accessing these learning hubs, and their locations will be published later today and will update this blog entry when that information becomes available.

Keep safe.

John

Update March 10

Kia ora koutou.

Despite the fact that we have no children it has been another busy day at Freeville School today.

This morning we had a meeting with our project team. From that I can say:

• We expect the builders to start work tomorrow making repairs to our least damaged areas so that they are ready and safe for children to use.
• We had the insurance company's structural engineer on site this morning. He has given the go ahead for rooms 5-8 to be demolished and we expect that this will take place next week so that it is done before the children return.
• The sewerage experts or whatever you'd call them are writing a report on the state of our sewerage system. We expect that this will result in a septic tank and pump system being put in.
• What will happen with the library to Room 4 is still undecided. The engineers all say that repairing those spaces will require a lot of work and may be uneconomical. The final decision will come down to a cost analysis of whether it is cheaper to repair or rebuild.
• The relocatable classrooms leave Dunedin tomorrow. They will be going on to the grass area behind Rooms 17, 13 & 14. It is our continued expectation that these will be ready after the Easter holidays.
• I understand that water is on in the street but that we have a mains problem within the school so still have no water.
• We have power to the hall because it comes in off Willryan Ave. The rest of the school still has no power as there is an Orion problem at the entry point to the school.
• The trip hazards in the concrete and asphalt will be removed by the builders.
• We will be having our large trees looked at to make sure that their root systems have not been compromised and that they are still strong and safe.

Today at Freeville:

• Bags were made available betweeen 11 am and 12 noon.
• The large areas of liquefaction were removed.
• The library shelves were taken down so that we can transfer our resources to them after they have been put up in the hall.
• We boxed up and moved resources, tables and chairs to the storage containers.
• We ripped up carpet so that it can be used in the hall.

Tomorrow a number of our staff are going to a professional development course to learn about how to assist children to deal with traumatic events through the medium of art.

On Monday we will be moving Room 6 to the staffroom, and what can't fit into a container; and emptying the resource room completely.

Memorial Service at Hagley Park

I know that next Friday the Christchurch City Council and others are planning a memorial service at Hagley Park followed by a walk through town.

I am sure that many people will find this a useful event and it may help them to rationalise and process the events that have taken place over the last couple of weeks.

My request to you is that you think very carefully before you take your children along to this event, in particular the walk through town. My wife is going to attend the service and walk; but we have decided that our children will not be, particularly our youngest children. Ted and I will be staying home. This is not because we don't think it is important. It is because in our opinion he doesn't need to see all that damage and to be reminded of the power of the earthquake. He was traumatised enough.

So please think carefully about whether going along will be a helpful or unhelpful experience for your children, and then make the decision you think is best.

Hei kona, keep safe and well.

John

The Big Clean Up

For the last two days our staff have been hard at work. There has been much to do. Given that Rooms 5-8 are to be demolished, and Rooms 3 & 4 require significant remediation, those rooms have had to be completely emptied. You might find it a bit hard to believe but some teachers are compulsive hoarders. You never know when they might need that book from their childhood, or that roll of paper that was donated two years ago! In addition the whole library has had to be stored in a container.

So for the last two days the teachers and support staff have been moving furniture, packing books, lifting carpet, packing, cleaning and organising.

We have gone from this:

To this:

Thanks to a bit of this:

Room 7 now looks like this:

At one point the hall looked like this:

But now looks a bit more organised:

Tomorrow, we're tackling this!

We're looking forward to seeing those parents who can make it to school tomorrow, in the Learning Studio car park, between 11 am and 12 noon to collect school bags.

Keep safe and well.

John

Update 9 March - Collect Your Bags tomorrow

Kia ora koutou

Bags, jackets etc left in the cloak bays following the quake will be available for you to collect from the Learning Studio car park from 11 am to 12 noon tomorrow, Thursday.

We also have some care packages left from yesterday that will be available for you to take.

If you can't get there don't worry. We will look after the bags until they can be collected.

Hei āpopo
John

What a Great Day

Mōrena koutou.

What a great day it was yesterday at Freeville School, due to the generosity of our new whānau from Hastings.

It was great to catch up with many of our school community, most for the first time since the quake. It was also fantastic to have other members of our community in our school. School is part of the community and the community has never been more a part of the school than they were yesterday.

I must acknowledge and thank Gerard and Andrew from Hastings Intermediate for bringing the container of goods to us; their school community, the other schools who contributed, and the sponsors who donated product and services to make yesterday's distribution of care packages possible. You are now well and truly part of us.

Thanks also to Henare and the team from Tunutunu who provided the free BBQ lunch. You guys are amazing.

He waka kotuia kāore e tukutukua ngā mimira. The waka that is bound together will never be broken. You are now bound to us.

He mihi maioha, he mihi whakawhetai, he mihi matakuikui ki a koutou katoa.

John

Andrew and Gerard with the Freeville Team.

Emptying the container.

Update 7 March - Please note change of time for collecting Care Package

Ngā mihi ki a koutou.

Important Note: Remember to come to school tomorrow morning from 12 noon to collect a Care Package from Hastings Intermediate School. Please note the change of time!

This morning we met with the structural engineer to look at our buildings so that we could get an idea of a path to reopening. The structural engineer said that in his opinion:

• The staffroom and admin area can be made ready for use with a week and a half's work. (A lot better than was first thought!)
• That the resource room, library, and Rooms 3 & 4 can be repaired. He estimates that this is a big job that could take ten weeks of work. 
• That Rooms 5-8 need to be demolished and replaced.
• That a week and a half's work will see the hall, Rooms 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and the new Learning Studio ready for use.

(The structural engineer's opinion, particularly in regard to the staffroom to R4 block and the R5-8 block now has to be peer reviewed by the Insurer and agreed to by the Loss Adjuster. They could decide that it is too expensive to repair Rooms 3 & 4 and more economical to build new.)

From the structural engineer's feedback we have set Monday, March 21st as our likely opening date and will be working towards that. 

We have four relocatable classrooms ordered for our school but they will take 20 days to be ready for occupation from the time they arrive.

A March 21st reopening means that we have three weeks and four days until the Easter Holidays. We expect that the relocatable classrooms will be ready when  we return to school after the Easter break.

We have to be Freeville Flyers and be creative, caring and adaptable, particularly for the three weeks and four days of school up till Easter, to get school up and running. Our thinking at present is that:

• LT3 (Rooms 3, 4, 5) will all be in the hall for three weeks and four days. 
• Room 6 will be in the Staffroom for three weeks and four days. Then they will move to a relocatable.
• Room 8 will be in Room 16.
• Room 7 will be in Room 13.

This means that we are able to keep all children whose classroom is not badly damaged in their own room, we keep all our children at our school, and we are not having to double shift any classroom spaces or reduce teaching time. While it is not ideal to have three classrooms in the hall it is the best option available to us at present, and is only until the relocatable classrooms are available.

LT3 Camp - This will not be going ahead at this time. We will look at options to provide a camp experience later in the year.

Care Package Collection and BBQ -  I hope to see those who can make it, at school, from 12 noon tomorrow. It will be great to see you. Please note that children are not allowed to be in the school grounds. This is a Civil Defence rule. They can come in to the Learning Studio car park where the Care Packages will be given out but cannot go beyond there. It's just not safe. 

School Bags etc - These will be available for you to collect from the Learning Studio Car Park between 11 am and 12 noon on Thursday. If you can't make it don't worry. We will look after them until you are able to get to school to collect them.

Look after yourselves.

Kind regards

John

Update 6 March - School is one of the safest places your children can be

Mauriora koutou. I hope that you have had a good weekend and have managed to relax somewhat.

Tomorrow we meet with the structural engineer and our Project Team to discuss what will happen with our two most damaged blocks. I am hopeful that at this meeting we might be able to get an idea of a timeline towards reopening.

Our staff is meeting for lunch off site tomorrow. This will be our first get together as a staff since the earthquake and I will be thanking them on our parents behalf, and as a parent of Freeville School myself, for their outstanding work on the afternoon of the quake. They were all amazingly calm in what was a highly stressful situation. I find it quite incredible that we had only two minor injuries (a bumped arm and a skinned knee). Honestly we have more injuries in a normal playtime. There are 70 000 school children in Canterbury and I have heard of no serious injuries inflicted on any children who were at school. School is still one of the safest places that your children can be - and I think we need to remind ourselves that fact.

Depending on the discussion tomorrow I am hopeful that we may be able to have adults on site on Tuesday. This will allow us to tidy the undamaged rooms and plan for the recovery of resources from the damaged spaces on Wednesday. This will depend on the structural engineer.

Our staff will be brainstorming some options for getting school going while we wait for our relocatable classrooms to arrive and be made ready for use (about 25 days). There is no way we are waiting that long before getting underway so will be discussing how we can be creative with the spaces that we have like the hall and our two spare classrooms R16 and R13.

I'll update you tomorrow evening on how the day and the discussions and decisions go.

Nga mihi ki a koutou. Keep safe.

John