Covid 19 Alert Level 3 and Selwyn Community Education courses

3 September 2020 update

Welcome back to our students.

We are enjoying seeing most of our courses up and running again and we have had positive responses from people attending. Most of you are glad to be in a learning environment again.

If you missed your class we just want to reassure you that we are easily able to maintain the required 1m distancing, all classrooms are being cleaned before and after classes and hand sanitiser is available in rooms.

We ask that you maintain physical distance in corridors and classrooms, check in QR codes every time you visit and use our hand sanitiser. We strongly recommend the use of masks.

Just a reminder, education-related activities (such as classes, workshops, research, etc.) are not considered ‘gatherings’ and are not subject to those restrictions (provided appropriate public health control measures are in place). As we operate tight attendance registers and therefore know who is onsite at all times, can provide tracing information for all students and comply with all required health measures, we are not restricted to the maximum of 10 for gatherings rule (although most of our classes have less than 10 students anyway). You can read more here

27 August 2020 update

Most courses are resuming onsite from Monday 31 August. In a few limited cases, some groups have decided amongst themselves to continue learning with Zoom for the meantime.

A few courses cannot resume yet due to space requirements especially where courses are held in council facilities which limit a maximum of 10 persons.

By the end of today, we will send emails to all class groups reminding when their classes resume.

Classes will be held with appropriate safety protocols in place including physical distancing and extra cleaning. We ask that students remember to scan our QR code or make a note each time in their contact tracing diary, maintain physical distance from others, use the hand sanitiser provided and we recommend that you wear a mask.

Selwyn Community Education is a controlled educational environment: we operate attendance registers and all students are enrolled with full contact details, so are traceable. It’s still important you use your contact tracing app though, as that is a much quicker solution should it be called upon.

Our office will reopen at 9am on Monday 31 August.

18 August 2020 update

Courses currently in progress: all students have now been contacted. Please first check your spam folder if you haven’t seen an email from us. Otherwise email us on info@selwyncomed.school.nz to check. Reminder: most classes have been deferred until the week starting 31 August.

Weekend programme 22 -23 August. All except three courses have been rescheduled and our customers emailed. We are yet to confirm new dates for Making Macarons, The Perfect Roast and Flavours of Africa.

Writer’s Weekend – courses have been postponed until 17 – 18 October.

Courses starting next week – most have been postponed a week with just a few to finalise.

15 August 2020 update

Due to Alert Level 3 restrictions, we will not be running any courses on site before 27 August. Optimistically assuming we revert to Alert Level 2 at that time, we will resume most courses at that time with appropriate safety protocols in place.

Today we have contacted 75% of courses starting next week and will finalise the rest on Sunday and Monday. Most courses already in progress have been postponed with classes resuming in the week starting 31 August.

A small number of courses will be delivered via Zoom during this Alert Level 3 period including:

• Chinese Mandarin Level 3
• Chinese Mandarin Beginners
• NIA movement
• Photoshop
• Spanish Conversation
• Spanish Beginners
• Spanish Level 3
• Many English classes
• Teachers will be in touch with students of these classes to provide links and materials

Any advertised Zoom courses (eg Te Reo Saturdays and How to Make More Money) will continue as usual.

We are in the process of rescheduling our weekend courses 22-23 August. We can confirm the Writer’s Weekend has been rescheduled to 17-18 October.

Next week’s Think Talk: Psychedelic Drugs as Medicine with Dr Suresh Muthukumaraswamy has been rescheduled to 20 October.

Our Think Talk: The Key to Combating Dementia is Early Detection with Dr Brigid Ryan on 25 August will be rescheduled. The date is not yet confirmed.

Thanks for your patience and cooperation.

12 August 2020 midday update

We have now cancelled most Wednesday classes planned for tonight. The exceptions are: Chinese Mandarin Level 3, Spanish Conversation which will run via Zoom and your teacher will be in touch today. Discussions are continuing for Tai Chi (Bruno), Pilates (Maryam), Te Reo 7pm (Anahera), guitar (Master) and Yoga Continuation (Liza) to see whether we can offer these classes tonight via Zoom. This will be finalised by 2pm and we will let everyone know. Most English courses will continue via Zoom so check your email for instructions from your teacher.

For the time being, we hope that our Monday and Tuesday courses can proceed as planned. We will review this on Saturday based on government announcements and will update further at that time.

For the time being, we are not making any changes to our weekend programme 22 -23 August. Again, when more information is available about the duration of Alert Level 3, we will review and inform you.

11 August 2020 10pm update

Dear customers, with the announcement of Alert Level 3 effective in Auckland from midday Wednesday 12 August, courses will not be held onsite at Selwyn College for the rest of this week, nor at Orakei Community Centre, Meadowbank Community Centre or St Marks Remuera.

Our office will be closed during this time and we will be working remotely.

Woodworking for Beginners and Xero Web-Based Accounting due to start 12 August will be deferred at least one week.

English ESOL courses – your tutors will contact you tomorrow to advise if your classes will run on Zoom and other information.

Drama classes for children on Wednesday and Friday will be postponed for a week.

Tai Chi @ Orakei due to start on Friday 14 August will be deferred a week.

Yoga @ Remuera Thursday mornings. Lynn Oram will be in contact with students on Wednesday with information on whether the class will be postponed or will run via zoom.

Te Reo Maori at Meadowbank Community Centre Wednesday mornings has been postponed.

All other Wednesday night courses in progress – most of these classes will be deferred a week. If there is a possibility of running your class effectively via Zoom, we’ll be in touch tomorrow.

Over the weekend, as the longer range situation becomes clearer, we will contact all courses in progress to advise whether next week’s classes will be postponed.

We ask for your patience (again) as we work through the task of reorganising hundreds of learners and courses.

The office will not be staffed Wednesday 12th – Friday 14th. We will clear phone messages when we are able to work in the office again. Sending us an email to info@selwyncomed.school.nz is the best way to contact us this week as we work from home.