The second term of New Zealand’s school year starts today, but nobody is going to class.

Schools are in lockdown along with the rest of the country and more than 800,000 teachers and students are now starting two weeks of remote learning.

The curriculum leader for Year 7-8 at William Colenso College in Napier, Shyna Kesha, said she and other teachers were looking forward to getting back to teaching, even if it was via phone and internet.

READ MORE: PM unveils new support for students on NZ’s ‘deadliest day to date’

“It will be great to see our kids again, I can’t actually wait, I can’t wait to see what they’ve been up to,” she said.

“Students need their teachers, but teachers need their students as well.”

Kesha said the focus would initially be on simply connecting with students.

“Making sure that they are emotionally okay, physically okay and just ensuring that they know that we are available to them,” she said.

“It’s really important to re-establish those relationships again, especially when our students are coming into a time when they don’t have a full understanding of what school might look like.”

Talking directly
Year 13 student at the college, Layla Christianson, said she was not worried by the prospect of online learning, and was grateful video-conferencing programmes would let her talk directly with teachers about maths and physics concepts.

“I’m going to miss being able to have face-to-face contact with my teachers, but we have the Zoom lessons set up where you’re still getting to talk to them,” she said.

In Northland, Horahora School principal Pat Newman said his teachers would be asking children to do things with the rest of their family.

“I used to suggest a lot of baking, but flour’s a bit hard to get. Checking the flowers that are out, checking what insects, how many birds you can see. If we can have families really getting together now that’s the really important part that will last and will benefit society in future,” he said.

Most teachers would be working with classes they already knew, but a few would be starting new jobs.

Among them is Laura Brennan, who would meet her students at Onehunga High School in Auckland for the first time today.

“I’m going to be introducing myself by a video which I’ll be posting on Google classroom just explaining who I am and that I’m going to be their new teacher,” she said.

Google hangouts
“We’re having Google hangouts and at that point I’ll with the other teacher be introducing myself to the class as well so I’ll be getting to know personalities through there and hopefully speaking to some of the students.”

The Education Ministry said it last week sent 23,664 hard-copy packs of education materials to children in Year 1-10 who attended decile 1-3 schools and it expected to send a further 40,000 this week.

It also sent yesterday laptop or chromebook computers to families that did not have one and expeted to send at least 5000 this week.

In addition, two educational television channels start broadcasting today.

English-language content will air on TVNZ channel 2+1, TVNZ on Demand, and Sky Channel 502, while Māori Television will broadcast content in the indigenous language te reo Māori.

The channels will run from 9am to 3pm on school days.

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

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The oldest and one of the largest universities in the Philippines has announced that it will continue online classes until the end of the second term as a precautionary measure against the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Founded in 1611, the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in the capital Manila has 45,000 students.

According to an advisory from the Office of the Secretary-General, online classes for graduating students will be from April 20 to May 16.

READ MORE: The university’s full Institutional Continuity Plan during community quarantine

Online classes for undergraduate students will be from April 20 until May 23.

Final exams for graduating students will start from May 18 and end on May 23 while final exams for undergraduate students will be from May 25 to 30.

“Due to the uncertainty of the quarantine period and the health risks of resuming classes while still at the height of the pandemic, the University decided to undertake the most practical step to still facilitate student learning amidst all the challenges that may come our way,” the advisory read.

Undergraduate students will receive a final numerical grade ranging from 1.0 to 3.0 only, while the applicable passing grade range will be used for students in the graduate level.

Graduation policy
A grade of INP or in progress will be given to students who are at risk of failing or unable to submit one or more of the requirements within the term. Graduating students with INP will not be eligible for graduation.

The memorandum also said the Office of the Vice-Rector for Finance would soon release guidelines for a partial refund of laboratory fees, miscellaneous and other fees.

All non-curricular in-campus and off-campus activities are suspended until the end of the term while curricular off-campus activities will be replaced with alternative activities online.

Administrative and academic officials will continue to observe work-from-home arrangements.

Work in the university will resume only when quarantine regulations allow, the advisory said.

On April 7, President Rodrigo Duterte approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to extend the quarantine until April 30, to further contain the spread Covid-19.

The Philippines has 4195 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 221 deaths.

The university’s hospital has admitted14 patients with Covid-19, aged between 22 and 80, reports The Varsitarian. Three of the confirmed cases have died, while one has recovered and 10 are still being monitored.

The Varsitarian is the university’s official student newspaper, founded in 1928 and produced mostly by journalism students.

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One of New Zealand’s best-selling and most-respected historians and social commentators, Professor Paul Moon, has been acknowledged for his contributions as a researcher, academic and teacher.

The AUT Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate excellence in the university’s community.

Professor Moon was awarded the top accolade – the AUT University Medal – this week for sustained and exceptional academic achievement, especially in Māori, Treaty of Waitangi-related issues and early New Zealand history.

The award at Auckland University of Technology comes as Te Ara Poutama’s Professor Moon prepares to launch a new online course, focusing on the Holocaust.

The paper is the first of its kind in New Zealand and will be delivered entirely online, enabling people to study from all over the world. It is anticipated that the course will be available next year.

Surveying the Holocaust, from its historic origins in European anti-Semitism, through to its implementation during the period of the Third Reich, the course will centre on the preconditions of the Holocaust in Europe, its subsequent implementation and scale, and recent historiographical issues relating to its enduring significance.

Students will have the opportunity to investigate in detail a specific case study relating to the Holocaust, and to examine the relevance of the Shoah in the contemporary world.

Interactive learning
There will be lecturer support, tutorials for students to participate in, interactive learning, regular feedback on students’ work, and a comprehensive range of resources. The technical aspects of the paper will be supported by AUT’s Centre for Learning and Teaching.

“Now, more than ever, it’s important to remember the uniqueness of the Holocaust, and to understand the mentality that led to it,” Professor Moon says.

Professor Moon also received the Teaching Innovation award. His innovative approach to increasing student engagement has resulted in a number of fully online papers focusing on New Zealand history.

These four papers have formed the basis of AUT’s minor in history.

In his 24 years at AUT, Professor Moon has built an international reputation in the field of New Zealand history.

His innovative approach to learning has led to the development of online history papers and delivery of history based treaty seminars, resulting in a new undergraduate history minor at AUT in 2016.

Professor Moon has published 26 books, including Encounters: The Creation of New Zealand, which was shortlisted for the international Ernest Scott Prize in History.

Biographies, Treaty claims
Other titles include This Horrid Practice: The Myth and Reality of Traditional Maori Cannibalism, A History of New Zealand in the Twentieth Century, a trilogy of volumes on the Tūhoe tohunga (expert) Hohepa Kereopa, as well as biographies of Governors Hobson, FitzRoy, and the Ngapuhi chief Hone Heke,

His works have been published by some of the biggest international publishers including Penguin, Random House and HarperCollins.

He has worked on several Treaty of Waitangi claims and with numerous government agencies on Treaty-related issues. He is one of only a few historians whose work has been cited favourably in Parliament by MPs.

“The award is recognition of the growing role of history as a discipline at AUT, and of the contribution of all the people involved in teaching the subject,” Professor Moon says.

• Professor Paul Moon’s page