By now you will have started managing the employment processes for employees who did not receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by 15 November.

While working through this process it is important to ensure that there is no predetermined outcome. Your usual employment obligations still apply, including the duty to act in good faith, consider all reasonable alternatives, consult with the employee and take their feedback into consideration.

We acknowledge that this is particularly challenging at this time of year and as you plan for your staffing requirements for 2022.

You may wish to contact NZSTA or an alternative employment advisor for guidance with these employment processes. You can also contact employment.relations@education.govt.nz for advice.

If your employee has a medical exemption, you should follow the advice we have provided on our website.

Medical exemptions – Ministry of Education

Otherwise, you will need to work through the process in consultation with your employee to determine:

• if the employee is willing to be vaccinated
• if their work can be reasonably rearranged, to ensure that they do not have contact with children or students and are not onsite when children are expected to be present (not just until the end of the 2021 school year but also in the longer term). You should confirm with the employee their new working arrangements
• if there are other options such as extended leave without pay which are appropriate in the circumstances
• for roles where alternative duties cannot be reasonably accommodated beyond the short term, notice will be given to end the employee’s employment as a last resort.

We have provided a fuller overview of this process on our website and in this flowchart.

Managing employment processes – Ministry of Education

Process for school and kura employees [PDF, 170 KB]

If the employee is not willing to be vaccinated, alternative duties should be provided where feasible.

If no alternative duties are available, they may be placed on discretionary special leave while you work through the employment process. Whether that leave is with or without pay is a matter for the school board, but an employee who has chosen not to be vaccinated is arguably not “ready, willing and able to work” and therefore may not be entitled to pay. 

There may be cases in which a board decides that paid leave is appropriate, for example, in the case of an employee who is waiting on the outcome of a medical exemption application submitted to the Ministry of Heath by their doctor or nurse practitioner.

If you have found no suitable alternatives after consultation with the employee, you should move to give notice to the employee of termination of their employment. The notice period in the employee’s employment agreement applies.

For example, the Primary Teachers’ and Secondary Teachers’ Collective Agreements both require the employer to give permanent employees two calendar months’ paid notice of the termination of their employment.

If staff have been put on unpaid leave while you undertake the employment and consultation process described above, then the unpaid leave is not part of the notice period.

The employee will not be able to have contact with students or work on site at a time that students are present during this notice period. Therefore, the employee will need to continue with alternative working arrangements, or they should be on discretionary leave with pay during their period of notice.

In most circumstances you will be able to make payment in lieu of notice, and the employee’s relationship with the school would be fully terminated on receipt of their final pay.

This will provide you with certainty as you plan your staffing requirements for 2022. Your employment adviser will be able to provide further information about how this would apply.

While you will already be thinking ahead about how to manage your staffing for next year, it is important that you fulfil your responsibilities as an employer, including undertaking a comprehensive consultation process with affected employees before moving to give notice of termination of their employment.

You are able to advertise positions to temporarily backfill the role of the person who is not performing their usual duties.

However, you should consider whether it would be contrary to your employment obligations throughout this process (including not having a predetermined outcome) to start advertising any potential ongoing vacancies created by unvaccinated staff before their employment status is certain.  

Positions can start to be advertised after staff have been given notice of termination of employment.

However, if their notice period has not yet ended, an employee who gets vaccinated might ask to have their employment reinstated. You will need to give reasonable consideration to this and, as a general rule, we suggest that you reinstate the employee unless the ongoing role has been filled.

Tomorrow Friday 19 November or Monday 22 November, your regional office will contact to ask you for summarised data on the vaccination status of your registered teachers, teacher aides and other paid (non-teaching) staff.  

This information will be used to help us understand the national and regional vaccination status of the education workforce and to ensure we are providing you with the support you need. 

We’ve received a number of queries seeking clarification on whether the vaccine mandate applies to providers of services who are off site – for example, whether the mandate applies to staff working or volunteering for libraries, museums, public swimming pools, school camps, movie theatres and so on.

These workers (paid or unpaid) are not covered by the vaccine mandate because they are not working ‘for’ a school, school hostel or early learning service. While you might be receiving their services when you book or use their facilities, those staff are working ‘for’ the local council/owner/operator.

There is nothing to prevent you from checking on the vaccination status of offsite activity providers as part of your COVID-19 health and safety assessments, but you cannot require those offsite providers to be vaccinated under the Vaccination Order.

However, if any provider is coming on site to a school or early learning service – and at a time where children or students are also present – then the vaccine mandate does apply.

Providers must have had at least one vaccine dose before they come on site (and be fully vaccinated from 1 January).

The order also applies to any workers you employ directly (including any volunteers undertaking work for you) who are working off site and may have contact with children or students when carrying out their work.

The order looks to balance the safety of children and students with the implications for human and employment rights of mandatory vaccination requirements.

On balance, the provisions have been limited to workers who are carrying out work at or for an education service, which has been defined as a licensed early childhood service, registered school or a hostel. This is in part because the ability for children to choose to use these services is limited, particularly for children aged six to 16 who are required by law to attend school.

Find further information about the vaccine health order on our website.

COVID-19 Required Vaccinations Order – Ministry of Education

At Alert Level 3 Step 2, curriculum-related physical activities can go ahead outdoors (but not indoors). This includes swimming. Therefore, outdoor school swimming pools can be used for educational purposes.

You should be able to go ahead with swimming activities, but they will need some consideration to ensure that everyone is keeping a reasonable distance from each other both in and out of the pool – a one-metre distance is recommended wherever practicable, particularly between adults.

Where you have students grouped together for Years 0 to 8, they should be the only ones using the pool at that time.

Boarders in a school hostel can also use the outdoor school pool if this is usual practice (that is, the pool is an extension of the boarding facilities).

In every circumstance, all public health requirements must continue to be adhered to.

At Alert Level 2, you are able to go ahead with swimming activities, but they will need some consideration to ensure that everyone is keeping a reasonable distance from each other both in and out of the pool.

In Alert Level 2 areas, both indoor and outdoor pools are allowed to be open as public recreation spaces.

If your school pool is open and you give out keys to your pool, you must ensure your community understand what restrictions apply (for example, reduced numbers to enable social distancing).

You will need to have systems in place to ensure that visitors to your pool are familiar with the public health requirements for public venues before visiting the pool and comply with public health requirements while they are there including:

• keep two metres physical distance from people you do not know
• sign in using the NZ COVID Tracer app
• wash or sanitise your hands after using shared equipment.

Consider how you will limit use of the pool so that it doesn’t become overcrowded – you could do this by, for example, implementing a booking system.

A reminder that in Alert Level 3 public recreation facilities, including both indoor and outdoor pools, must remain closed.

These websites have further information:

Sports and recreation at Alert Level 2 – Unite Against COVID-19

Play, active recreation and sport at Alert Level 2 – Sport NZ

Sports and recreation at Alert Level 3 – Unite Against COVID-19

As always, anyone who is feeling unwell should be staying home and seeking advice about getting tested.

We’re aware that in some cases, parents and caregivers are using the exemption card so that their child does not wear a face covering in class when it is unlikely their child has a disability or health condition that would prevent them from doing so.

The Delta variant is more transmissible by droplets, so face coverings are a way we can protect ourselves and each other. Those who are wearing a face covering will be better protected than those who are not.

Not wearing a face covering when required to do so is a breach of the health order and is an infringement offense under the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 and misuse of a the system designed to support those with disabilities and health conditions is more than disappointing.

COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 – NZ Legislation

However, you are not required to undertake an enforcement role in this regard.

You will also know that there are many layers of protection in schools, including people who are unwell staying away, increasing rates of vaccination across the population including mandated vaccinations for staff and volunteers, good ventilation, other students and staff wearing face coverings, good cough and sneeze etiquette and more.

You may wish to focus instead (as you have been doing) on encouraging good practice.

There are some posters and resources on the Unite Against COVID-19 website which might assist you to encourage use of face coverings.

Cover for each other face coverings poster – Unite Against COVID-19

Please wear a face covering poster – Unite Against COVID-19

How to wear a face covering safely poster – Unite Against COVID-19

Face covering information in te reo Māori – Unite Against COVID-19

Posters in other languages – Unite Against COVID-19

As part of the COVID-19 Public Health Response Order, requirements including mandatory vaccinations for people working in educational settings and the wearing of face coverings has resulted in strong reactions from some people.

Over the coming weeks there may be times when an individual and/or a group's reactions to the government’s public health order requirements may impact on others.

Find guidance and ideas on how to respond to emotionally heightened situations on our website.

Responding to situations involving strong views – Ministry of Education

We’re aware that a journalist has made an OIA request to all Auckland schools for information relating to the vaccination mandate and the systems and processes schools have in place to ensure compliance with the COVID-19 Public Health Response Orders.

We have discussed the request with NZSTA and an approach to supporting schools to address the questions asked.

NZSTA is available to provide advice and assistance to schools on how to address the request to meet the obligations under the OIA and reduce double handling. NZSTA can also provide support on how to address any privacy issues raised by the request.

NZSTA can be contacted by phone on 0800 782 435 or by email at govadvice@nzsta.org.nz.

We have arranged coverage for school-owned digital devices that have been provided to students for summer learning. 

Please note, this only applies where the student has enrolled in summer school. We have clarified details of cover in four key areas.

The excess for handheld devices is $100 per claim, and the risk management scheme (RMS) treats all students enrolled in summer school as a single event versus one claim per device.

As such, damage, loss or theft of devices incurred by a school in the scheme during the 2021/22 summer holidays (for example, the non-return or damage to electronic devices sent home) will be treated as a single claim with a single excess for that school.

• Excess for handheld devices is $100 per claim (where one claim may cover multiple devices).
• RMS insurance premium costs of this scheme are deducted directly from each school's operational grant at a cost of $10.50 per student per annum. This is deducted in four amounts from each operational grant payment and already covers handheld devices.
• Schools placing a claim can work directly with our RMS loss adjustor to help manage the process. As repairs or replacement of devices will be needed during COVID-19, claims can be submitted as required and the excess will only be applied once.

Risk management scheme – Ministry of Education

We are not clear how each school’s private insurer will treat electronic devices being sent home during the 2021/22 summer holidays.

However, we understand the main commercial provider used by schools is not treating the 2021/22 summer holidays any differently to normal circumstances.

We would encourage you to clarify the cover of your devices during the holidays. If unsure, we recommend you contact your insurer directly to understand what cover you have and the risk to your school.

The following questions may be useful:

• are devices covered for at-home use?
• are the 2021/22 summer holidays being treated as a single event with a single excess covering multiple devices?
• is the excess the same for theft, loss, damage, unexplained disappearance, non-return, different device types (that is, laptop vs Chromebook vs iPad/tablet), individual devices, or can they be combined into one claim with one excess?
• is there a limit on the contents sum insured?

We advise that you take the following steps:

• approach your insurance provider in the first instance to receive the cover you have paid for
• claim back the excess by contacting McLarens and provide evidence of the claim and the excess charged
• claim back a loss not covered by your policy by contacting McLarens and provide evidence of the loss and your insurer’s advice of non-coverage
• the first $100 of excess for the 2021/22 summer holiday event will apply as it does for schools in the RMS, but all further excesses or losses will be covered.

Following a conversation with your insurer, you may decide to transfer your cover to our risk management scheme.

Risk management scheme – Ministry of Education

To discuss the complete insurance package we offer and any additional cover, your school can call 0800 293 031 (select option 2).

If, after considering the differences between providers you decide to switch to the RMS, please complete the application form and email RMS.mailbox@education.govt.nz.

This form has a date from which the cover will start. Please coordinate with your current provider so that the date you leave their scheme and join the RMS is the same.

You’re invited to read learnings from schools that have achieved low levels of bullying in a new report, ‘Tō Tātou Kura Atawhai: Our kind of school’.

Our kind of school – Office of the Children’s Commissioner

We partnered with the Office of the Children’s Commissioner to talk with hundreds of students, staff and whānau at a diverse group of schools with strong inclusive cultures.

The project team identified several key insights, which they hope will inspire other schools to create welcoming, inclusive environments for their students and whānau.

Common to all schools were six key characteristics:

• knowing and meeting the needs of each student
• strong and respectful school leadership which lays the foundation for a positive school culture
• commitment to tikanga and te reo Māori in the classroom, culture, and community of the school
• connecting with and including whānau and wider community in school life
• valuing and celebrating staff and student diversity
• quick and effective responses to bullying incidents.

Watch a video explanation of the project and findings:

Our kind of school – YouTube

You are invited to help us develop the new Pacific studies subject and apply to be part of the NCEA Pacific studies reference group.

Pacific studies reference group – NCEA Education

The reference group will be established to determine the scope of Pacific studies and its connection as a multi-disciplinary subject within The New Zealand Curriculum – as well as identify the big ideas of Pacific studies.

We’re looking for a range of voices and want to see a balance of relevant expertise, knowledge and experience reflected across the reference group. Experienced senior secondary teachers, industry experts, academics and community leaders across New Zealand and the Pacific are encouraged to apply.

If you are interested, send your CV and a cover letter noting your relevant experience to ncea.review@education.govt.nz by Thursday 9 December.