Red Cross Grant Applications

The Red Cross Grants Processing Team would like to notify you of a new grant that was launched on the 1st July; the Winter Assistance for School Aged Children Grant.  

The aim of this grant is to assist people with school aged children aged 5 to 18 years who are living in their significantly damaged homes caused by either September, February or June earthquakes. The significant damage must include serious compromise to the insulation of the home or significant damage to the main heating source. This grant assists households with their electricity bills over the Winter months. this grant is for $400 in total and will be made up of three monthly payments, the first payment will be $200 and the subsequent ones for $100 each which will be paid directly to their electricity retailer.

For the most up to date information on grants visit the Red Cross grants website www.redcrosseqgrants.org.nz or call the grant line on 0800 754 726.

The Can Can

 

Here is a great idea which is supported by NZDF. Any questions please email or call Cherie Mansel, our lovely Community Services Officer.

Helping children after stressful events with John Cowan

 

Based on a resource John Cowan wrote for parents after the Canterbury earthquake, this video gives advice that will help with children who have been upset by any stressful episode: an accident, bereavement, a spell in hospital, relocation or a family disruption. Much of the advice will also be useful to ease the general anxiety that children sometimes experience as they grow up – and might even help adults with their stress as well! 

This webinar is free and is only 20 minutes long...

Variety Children's Charity

Here is something that just came in - a funding source for supporting families who need help:

 

Variety still has funds available to help children affected by the earthquakes - please visit www.variety.org.nz or call 09 520 4111 to apply for funding for things like warm clothing and bedding for the coming winter, essential childcare items, school fees and uniforms, toys and replacement mobility and medical equipment.

Variety Children's Charity are continuing to raise funds to help children in Christchurch.

 

 

Grants may be applied for by individuals, families or organisations working with children. All applications should be forwarded on the general Grant Application Form.

What an amazing school we have

There is something incredibly soothing about listening to the sound of children laughing and having fun after last week. I believe coming back to school is such a healing thing for our children and the stunning team we have in our school. If at any time any parent/caregiver or family member wants to come and join us, you are all most welcome.

We are really lucky to have our entire team at school this week. Our staff did a brilliant job of ensuring that the re-opening was calm, smooth and 'heading towards normality' - especially for new children and whanau. Our focus is in providing a caring, nurturing and calm environment where every child can learn to deal with the challenges we are facing in their own way. This means that class programmes will accommodate the needs of the children in a variety of ways. More on this later...

I'm keen to explore ways we can look after each other as a community, including new whanau and children to our school, but also the adults in our community. This is a time to really look after one another.

We've are welcoming a large number of new enrollments every day so this is an extremely busy time as we work to ensure children and new families transition as smoothly as possible, regardless of whether they are short or long term in our school. We have additional staff and volunteers to allow us flexibility in meeting the kids' needs at this time and appreciate the many offers of support. My thanks go to Louise and Tracy from BOOST, as well as many others who have helped in a range of ways - providing lunches, bags, lunch boxes, fruit, baking and moral support to make new people feel welcome and supported.

Thanks Room 6 for organising this!!

The work that the NZDF are doing is simply incredible in Christchurch and I want to take this chance to thank them for the amazing support they are providing the region.

Our kids and teachers make a difference - check out these links showing how classes are already working at making a difference to people affected - WOW!!! Please support our mufti day and bake sale tomorrow if you can.

http://burnhamrm1.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-people-are-helping-after-earthquake.html

http://burnhamrm2.blogspot.com/2011/02/students-update-on-what-is-happening_28.html


http://burnhamrm6.blogspot.com/2011/02/room-6-earthquake-plan.html


http://burnhamrm7.blogspot.com/2011/02/room-7-support.html

That's about it for now, I will keep you posted during the week.

Earthquake Support Package

Recognising the effect of the February earthquake on Christchurch business and workers, the Government has implemented an initial support package to support the recovery and rebuilding of Christchurch.


The Christchurch Earthquake Support Package provides support to employers and employees in Canterbury affected by the February earthquake. 


While any affected business in Christchurch City is covered, businesses located in Selwyn, but substantially affected by loss of Christchurch City trade should also apply for special consideration.


The Christchurch Earthquake Support Package is made up of two components:

• Earthquake Support Subsidy - a subsidy for employers who believe they are going to remain in business and want to keep their staff. They'll get $500 gross per week or $300 gross per week to cover part time staff for up to six weeks.
• Earthquake Job Loss Cover - a $400 a week in the hand payment for a period of six weeks paid to fulltime employees, ($240 in the hand for part time employees). This applies to those who are unable to contact their employer or the business has closed permanently.

The Earthquake Support Subsidy gives companies up to six weeks space to get back into operation while keeping their staff.


The Earthquake Job Loss Cover is available as an alternative for those who cannot make contact with their employer, or whose employer has closed permanently.
Earthquake Employment Support Package information on the Work and Income website

Earthquake Support Subsidy – For employers
What is it?
Earthquake Support Subsidy is an initial payment for employers to assist them to pay their employees while they deal with the initial impact of the earthquake. The subsidy is also available to the self employed or business owners who draw a wage.
If the workplace can re-open, we want to support employers to maintain their business and keep Cantabrians in work wherever possible.
The payment will be made directly to the employer who will then pay the employee.  The wage subsidy will be paid:

• for up to 6 weeks from 22 February 2011.
• at a gross rate of $500 per week per employee for full time employees (over 20 hours per week) or a gross rate of $300 per week per employee for part time employees (anyone working 20 hours a week or less).

Who does qualify?

• New Zealand owned business
• Christchurch City Council area based employer or
• self employed, sole trader, or contractor
• be unable to access the workplace due to damage, a cordon, or an essential service is not available, or who can open but are experiencing significant loss of trade

Employers who have business interruption insurance should contact their insurance company in the first instance. If insurance payments will be delayed, employers can access the Earthquake Support Subsidy to cover the intervening period, but will be required to repay it when the insurance payment is received.
Who does not qualify?

• employers who can continue to operate and/or meet obligations to pay employees
• government or government-related organisations
• international and large national organisations

Those with staff who have been injured or bereaved and who are receiving weekly compensation from ACC, cannot also get the Earthquake Support Subsidy for those staff members.
What constitutes the Christchurch City area in terms of these payments?
The Christchurch City Council area, which includes Akaroa-Wairewa, Burwood-Pegasus, Fendalton-Waimairi, Hagley-Ferrymead, Lyttelton-Mt Herbert, Riccarton-Wigram, Spreydon-Heathcote, and Shirley-Papanui. There may be exceptions to this and employers are encouraged to call and discuss their circumstances.


** SELWYN BASED BUSINESSEES WHO HAVE BEEN SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECTED DUE TO LOSS OF CHRISTCHURCH TRADE SHOULD ALSO APPLY**
How to apply

• Online at www..workandincome.govt.nz.
• By phoning the government helpline on 0800 779 997 (this line is operating 24/7).
• At a Work and Income office if there is no access to internet or phone

What information is needed?
Employers need to provide their business IRD number, business bank account number, and the details of the staff requiring the subsidy (employee name and IRD numbers). This information will be confirmed by IRD before payment is made.


Employers need to contact Work and Income and their employees and make them aware of what is happening.  Where employees have already applied for Earthquake Job Loss Cover before hearing from the employer, they will be transferred to the Earthquake Support Subsidy.

School Re-opening - Update 3, 27 February

Dear Burnham School Community,

We have now completed all checks including buildings, services, and staff welfare. We are delighted to be able to open for a normal school day tomorrow. Our amazing staff is prepared and ready to care for our children next week. Thank you to our Board and PTA for their support as we re-open.
We are expecting a number of new children of families who are displaced as a result of the earthquake and aftershocks. We trust that we can ease the transition through joining our supportive, caring and fun learning community.

For new families to our community, welcome, please know we are here to support you. You do not need to provide immunisation/birth certificate information - but we do require emergency contact details. Please use the forms on the enrollment page on our web site. If you are enrolling on a permanent basis, email uniforms@burnham.school.nz to let our PTA know the uniform sizes your child(ren) require.

A number of people have offered various supports such as a place to stay, blankets and other essential items in our Burnham Helping Hands noticeboard linked from the school web site. Other information and resources are available at our EQ Resources page here...

Any parents/caregivers that wish to have a coffee/chat are welcome to spend some time in our staffroom after drop off or prior to collection any day this week.

Access to the school:
Because all camp gates are closed we are in what is known as 'limited lockdown' mode. The only access to the school will be via the Godley Road gates at the following times:

• 8.15-9.15am for drop off
• 2.30-4pm for collection

If you require access to the school, or if anyone needs to leave please ring the office on 347 6851 or text Rob.

Other Information:

• Parents/caregivers are welcome to join us at any time during the day - just let us know.
• All visitors must sign in at the office and sign out again when leaving.
• If you feel your child(ren) is not yet ready to come back to school, that is fine. Please send an email to admin@burnham.school.nz to let us know if this is the case.
• You can keep in contact via email, text, facebook and via our web site. We are texting this information out this afternoon and hope this text arrives this afternoon rather than during the evening! Apologies for texts that were delayed due to text messages being 'pulsed' in bulk as the network is repaired.
• We will be closely monitoring all children throughout the week and in upcoming weeks. We will inform you if we believe your child requires you.

Please let anyone you know may not have internet/email access know of this, or forward it to those you may now who intend on joining us.
We hope you and your loved ones, and homes, are safe and well.

Our thoughts and wishes are with those most affected in Christchurch and those who are more vulnerable in our community. Please ask if you require support and stay safe.

Warm regards,

Rob Clarke, Principal
Angela Cameron, Board Chairperson
On behalf of the staff and Board of Trustees team

School Closure - Update 2, 23 February

Dear Burnham School Community,

Following Ministry of Education instructions, we are closed all week and until further notice.

We hope you and your loved ones, and homes, are safe and well.

We want to take this opportunity to thank our amazing staff, Board members and parents for their professionalism, care and dedication in ensuring a safe and calm end to the school day yesterday. We truly appreciate you all.

Our thoughts and wishes are with those most affected in Christchurch and those who are more vulnerable in our community. Please ask if you require support and stay safe.
Further information will be on the school website, via email and our Facebook page.
Information about re-opening will be posted over the weekend.


Rob Clarke, Principal
Angela Cameron, Board Chairperson

School Closure - Update 1 - 22nd Feb

Dear Burnham School Community - we are closed until further notice following Ministry of Education advice.


We will update you as the situation changes. 


Please stay safe and look after your loved ones and friends. 


Ask if you require support. 


Rob and the team.

EQ - Developing Resilience

Recent events have tested everyone in one way or another and are a powerful reminder of how lucky we are, as well as how adaptable we are. This is an area of learning which is of great interest to me because it impacts on all other areas - the issue of developing resilience.

Our school values research indicated that Strength/Self-Belief was one of the top rated values by parents, children and staff. This important value is an essential component of all learning and it comes under the general area of emotional intelligence.

In this week's newsletter I briefly touch on the idea of how our children gain strength. I believe children gain strength/self-belief mostly from the role models around them but they also gain this from the environment in which they develop.

Some of key messages from our Community Support Meeting, run by NZDF personnel last week, included:

1. Children gain their strength from us as the key adults in their lives. This means that if we aren't coping well, this is likely to affect our kids. Get help or ask for it if you need/want it.
2. Every reaction to traumatic events is normal - everyone responds in different ways. Many children may not respond/react straight away, so monitoring our kids for the next few weeks is important.
3. Providing reassurance, love, positive communication and hope are key to learning to become more resilient.

Some authors believe resilience comes into three main areas, as follows:

I HAVE

• People around me I trust and who love me, no matter what
• People who set limits for me so I know when to stop before there is danger or trouble
• People who show me how to do things right by the way they do things
• People who want me to learn to do things on my own
• People who help me when I am sick, in danger or need to learn

I AM

• A person people can like and love
• Glad to do nice things for others and show my concern
• Respectful of myself and others
• Willing to be responsible for what I do
• Sure things will be all right

I CAN

• Talk to others about things that frighten me or bother me
• Find ways to solve problems that I face
• Control myself when I feel like doing something not right or dangerous
• Figure out when it is a good time to talk to someone or to take action
• Find someone to help me when I need it

Some questions you might like to consider over the dinner table:

• How does our environment enable our child(ren) to gain self-belief/strength?
• What is the relationship between making mistakes and developing self-belief?
• How can we work more closely with school to further develop self-belief in our child?
• How does self-belief/strength link in with self-esteem and how can we maximise this?

Here are some great links for further reading that I've found...

If you have ideas please feel free to make comments on this blog post.

Acts of Kindness

Staff and volunteers have worked hard to ensure the school is a safe and nurturing environment as children learn to cope with the aftershocks and how to Drop, Cover & Hold. We've had support from a number of people who I'd like to acknowledge: Steve, Tracy, Zoe, Kelly from BOOST, Paul K, Joe M, Ange and Kala, Jackie, Liz, Sue, Joe T who supplied us with some soldiers who made a huge difference.

The support we received last Friday gave the staff time to prepare for opening this Monday. We've also had additional staff on deck this week to support where required. Please welcome Melissa Lewthwaite as an additional Teacher Aide in our school until the end of term. Melissa is on loan to us from Halswell Residential College.

Burnham School would like to thank the personnel from the New Zealand Defense Forces for their support in helping with clean up after the recent earthquakes. In addition to this support, Plimmerton School has sent us care packages and cards. We greatly appreciate these acts of kindness. Thank you, your support makes a huge difference!

Welcome back

There's nothing quite like being a teacher in Canterbury this week - especially after what we've all been through over the last week. Here are some photos of our wonderful children, amazing staff and school:

School Closure - Update 6 - Ready for Action

Just a quick update for everyone. The school is safe and the physical environment has had a thorough clean up today. Huge thanks to the staff team who came in to work the day, as well as a number of parents, BOOST staff, as well as a number of soldiers who helped out. Without this help we may not have been in a position to re-open on Monday.

Now the physical environment is safe and tidied, we turn to supporting, nurturing and strengthening our emotional environment. The team have had a full staff meeting this afternoon to look at the timetable for Monday which is published for you to see, as well as strategies for ensuring we are best-prepared to help our children transition back to school.

We've got access to Ministry of Education and Army camp resources and services for supporting adults and young people who are dealing with trauma. We've also got additional staff on deck on Monday and may have more if required during the week. Our camp padre, Leon O'Flynn, is available to parents on Monday 2-3pm for a chat in the library if you wish, as am I as the principal.

Any parent/caregiver wishing to join their child or children during the day is most welcome, as long as you first sign in at the office. Our procedures are rigorous and we will be training children how to cope in the unlikely event we encounter further events. This training is future-focussed and aims to support children to be prepared and know how to respond. It will also ensure children can talk if they wish to which will help process and move through any trauma.

This is an excellent site to explore with the kids!

We will be posting resources for parents on our web site, along with some homework for the weekend leading up to school on Monday. For Monday all children need to bring and we will be asking for:

1. A full water bottle for drinking.
2. Every family to confirm their contact details including mobile numbers, emails, and emergency contact details. You will be given a slip to confirm or amend.

Rob and the team.

School Closure - Update 5 - Clean Up Friday, Opening Monday

Dear parents/whanau and friends of Burnham School,

I hope you are managing to get some rest and are starting the process of recovery as a family from the events of the last week. We've now managed to get all the essential services required to run the school back 'on line' and are preparing to have our clean up tomorrow.

We've been briefed by Burnham Army Camp psych services and are well-supported by the Commander and his team and are truly appreciative of their support. The padre service and Community Services Officer is available to anyone requiring support, as are the staff of the school. We've been meeting with other groups such as the Ministry of Education traumatic incident response team and other schools to ensure that we are well-prepared to support the kids when we re-open on Monday.

Tomorrow morning at 10am there is a special Community Support Meeting held at the Community Centre (opposite BOOST and down the road from the Four Square) which is open to everyone in our community. I urge you to consider this and take the kids. Check the attached flyer for more information. Also attached is a handout from Civil Defence which is the most up to date advice on coping. We will be producing resources for parents/kids as well as providing you ideas leading up to school starting on Monday.

At 11.30am we'd love 10 or so adult volunteers to support staff in the clean up. We anticipate clean up will only take a couple of hours and should be complete just after lunch time. 

If you are able to offer a hand, please text me on 021 590 572 to indicate who is able to come and bring: a bottle of water, your mobile phone, gloves to protect hands from glass/rubbish.

Sleep well and we'll see you on Monday, if not before.

Rob and the team.

School Closure - Update 4 - School Closed until Mon 13th

Dear parents/whanau and friends of Burnham School,

The decision has been made, in conjunction with Ministry of Education advice and liaison with other local professionals, to close the school until Monday 13th September. No one is allowed to enter the school site without express permission by Rob Clarke the Principal.

If you require support please text or call us:

• Rob - 021 590 572
• Cherie - 021 245 5099

At this stage we intend on initiating the clean up and planning of re-opening process this Friday, however this may change based on other factors. We will keep you informed.

If you have internet at home and want something to do with the kids - why not get them to blog to their class blog a joke or to write a story (clean jokes only please!).

Kind regards,

Rob Clarke - Principal

Ange Colenso - BoT Chairperson

School Closure - Update 3 - School Closed until Wed 8th

Dear parents/whanau and friends of Burnham School,

On behalf of the Board of Trustees and staff team we hope everyone is managing during this challenging time. This is certainly a test of our resilience and ability to cope. The school has sustained minimal damage and is amazingly untouched. There is minimal mess to clean up in most areas, in fact chairs are still on desks!!!!

Please know that we are on hand if anyone in the community requires assistance of any kind, just ask by texting Rob 021 590 572 or Cherie 021 245 5099 and we can help. If there are children who require assistance please also consider asking for our support. Even a reassuring phone call can sometimes help. It may be worth showing your children the photos at the end of this post to reassure them that the school is in great shape!

We have been in close contact with a range of other professionals over the weekend and early this week and have managed to get the entire school assessed for safety. We have confirmed the following:

1. Sunday: a visual check around the school (including playground, walls, fences) and through every space by Ange and Rob.
2. Monday: a thorough check by a structural engineer and a fire safety engineer to check structural integrity of buildings - the whare and hall are closed until we get more in depth assessments completed. Every other space is safe.
3. Monday: checks of water contamination and quality have been undertaken by a qualified water technician - ph levels are good and we are receiving chlorine via the camp water supply. Water pressure is unaffected
4. Tuesday: a glazier has been booked to replace 3 broken windows. We will confirm other elements of our infrastructure today or tomorrow such as electrical supply, communications and sewerage.

While we have declared that the school is safe for staff and adult volunteers to begin the clean up process, given the frequency and strength of aftershocks we believe that it is counter productive to begin this until we can ensure the wider environment is safe and that everyone involved in the clean up has had space and time to ensure the emotional safety of their family. 

The Ministry of Education and Civil Defence have not yet been able to advise us as to the timing of our clean up, so we have decided to delay this and close the school on Wednesday to children. 

Clean Up Wednesday:

• At this stage we intend on staff and a small group of adult volunteers to support the clean up process beginning 1030hrs Wednesday. 
• No adult is to enter the school site without permission from Rob Clarke, Principal. It is essential that this clean up process is strictly controlled and everyone on site is known to the staff team. 
• If you wish to offer help for this, please text Rob on 021 590 572.

On Behalf of the Board of Trustees
Rob Clarke - Principal
Ange Colenso - Chairperson