Covid 19 coronavirus: masks become part of the uniform at the University of South Auckland

A university-branded mask has become part of the school uniform on a voluntary basis for students at De La Salle College in South Auckland.

Around 60 per cent of the students at Māngere’s first Pacific decile Catholic boys’ school now wear university masks or their own, as the wearing of masks is widespread in many schools in South Auckland.

The Education Ministry sent another bulletin to schools on Tuesday saying face covering is not required in schools “because the risk of infection within the school environment is low.”

But several schools in South Auckland, where the latest Covid-19 “Auckland cluster” started, are now asking students to use them.

Diana Patience, principal of Ormiston Senior College, said that all staff and “nearly 100 percent of students” now wear masks at her school.

“We have asked them to wear masks, and the acceptance has been wonderful,” he said.

Patience made “a strong plea” to all her families last week to prepare the masks for back to school after the World Health Organization declared that all people over 12 must wear masks “when they cannot. guarantee a distance of at least 1 meter from others and there is widespread transmission in the area. “

“We take this seriously. We want to keep them safe,” Patience said.

Kia Aroha College principal Haley Milne said “the vast majority” of her students wear masks, “in class more than out.”

“We have provided cloth ones so that each child has their own zip-lock bag,” he said. “We wash them regularly at school.”

But he said the masks were still optional. Sutton Park School, a primarily Pacific elementary school in Māngere, remains the only known school that has made the wearing of masks “non-negotiable”.

De La Salle director Myles Hogarty said he ordered the university brand masks from the university’s uniform supplier, NZ Uniforms.

“Initially we only got a sample set of about 100 for staff,” he said.

“Once the students saw that the staff were wearing them, the demand was huge and they started to come out like hot cakes. We have probably distributed about 200.

“We have distributed other [without college branding] manufactured by the local parish as well. He’s just trying to flood the whole school with them so the kids are safe to use them.

“The acceptance and acceptance by young people of wearing the college brand on a face mask has been enormous. It has become another addition to the college uniform.”

You are now ordering enough to supply all 1000 students. Students are asked to make a small donation for themselves, which will be given to the university’s St Vincent de Paul club to provide food packages for the homeless.

De La Salle’s sister school for girls, McAuley High School, has also distributed masks made by the local Catholic parish and reports that 80 percent of its students wear them.

Other South Auckland schools reported a variety of proportions of students wearing masks: 10% at Howick College, 20% at Māngere College, and a third of students at Manurewa High School, Rowandale School, and Ōtāhuhu Primary School.

The head of Māngere Central School, Jacqualene Maindonald, said that the use of the mask was optional, but “we intend to normalize it as soon as possible.”

“Today, two of our junior classes had the opportunity to make the masks that they designed earlier in the week to wear to school. They are also learning how to wash and care for them,” he said.

Papatoetoe High School principal Vaughan Couillault said fewer than 20 percent of his students wore masks on Monday and that had “significantly decreased” by Wednesday.

But Macleans College principal Steve Hargreaves said the number of students wearing masks has grown from 10 percent on Monday to 30 percent on Wednesday as the use of masks normalizes.

“More of them are more confident to enter school with a mask now,” he said.

At Mt Roskill Grammar, near a church related to several Covid cases, Principal Greg Watson said that about 40 percent of students and a higher percentage of staff wear masks.

Masks are still rare in the rest of Auckland: 10% at Rangitoto College, 12% at Tāmaki College, and 15-20% at Northcote College.

Waitākere Area Principals Association President Donal McLean said: “A lot of children and parents are wearing masks at school, and we are encouraging that. On the playground, probably a handful try to keep them on. I don’t know. it discourages and makes children and families feel safer and we are happy to support the use of masks on the playground. “