MESSAGE FROM OUR DEAN: 2020 INTENSIVES

​Kia ora, 
 
We really appreciate each of you and value all the feedback we’ve received from you this week. Thank you for having the confidence to let us know how you’re feeling. We’ve heard a wide range of views from those who want to come back onsite as soon as possible to others who are grateful they don’t have to.
 
We seek to weigh up the needs of all the student body: those keen to come back quickly alongside those who are vulnerable.
 
Your experiences and opinions do help inform our decision-making, and have always done. We are listening to you. You are being heard.
 
Under Levels 3 and 4, we at BTI, like all of you, operated under crisis mode. BTI had obligations to government and to the various professional agencies and regulatory bodies we work with as well as to the health and safety of all who are in BTI’s community. This vicious Covid-19 disease has laid waste to populations all around the world and none of us want to see that here in New Zealand. Thankfully, this country went hard and went early into lockdown and there are relatively low rates of infection and fatality. But we are not out of the woods yet. Today we moved as a country to Level 2 and yet we need to remain cautious. We know that other countries have loosened their lockdown restrictions and then seen infection rates rise. We hope that doesn’t happen here.
 
It is our intention, if at all possible, to have onsite teaching in semester 2. If the progress of Covid-19 progresses positively, then that will happen. But if infection rates climb again, then it won’t. For that reason, we will be making a decision on May 26th about what we’ll do. By then, we hope to have a clearer picture and it also coincides with the government’s own reassessment of alert level 2 on May 25th. We will let you know then so you and our educators have enough time to plan in response to whichever decision we make.
 
The year 2 and 3 primary and ECE intensives in June will be offered online and our educators in those programmes are preparing for that now.
 
While we hope that intensives for Year 1 primary and ECE, for secondary, and for the School of Social Practice, all scheduled for later in the year, will happen onsite we are very aware that as with our move to teaching onsite for semester 2, this will be entirely contingent on the direction of Covid-19 infections and corresponding government requirements for the tertiary sector. Again, we will make a call on this on May 26th.
 
BTI has a long and successful history in delivering education online, well ahead of most other tertiary providers. We are confident that the content and the experience of learning online at BTI has been well developed and creates a robust learning experience. We have recently run two online intensives and are quickly learning how to adapt so the experience for you is engaging and interactive, with a variety of teaching methods used.  I am deeply impressed with the hard work my colleagues have put into bringing high quality teaching and learning to these online intensives.
 
Thank you once again for getting in touch with us, for letting us know how you’re feeling, for sharing your views. We will be in touch again on May 26th.
 
You remain in our prayers and we are grateful for each of you.
 
Shalom,
Andrew