COVID-19 Update: 23 March 2020

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A Letter from Our Owners, Noel and Don

Hello and tena koutou katoa to our students, graduates, team, clients, supporters and the wider community.

We are Noel Turner and Don Kendall, co-founders and co-owners of The National School Aesthetics in Christchurch, New Zealand.

We founded the National School of Aesthetics in 1985. On 3 July 2020, NaSA will turn 35 years old. We are, and will continue our to be, the oldest beauty therapy and nail technology school in New Zealand.

2020 has challenged humanity. We are now facing a pandemic like the planet has not seen in our lifetimes. Our country is holding the COVID-19 virus at bay, but we all need to do our part to combat the spread of the virus in our community. We must remain calm, but we must also take strong measures in order to respond to this virus. That is why, as of Monday, 23 March 2020, the National School of Aesthetics has decided to take the following steps to help combat the COVID-19 outbreak.

I want to emphasise that there are 4 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Canterbury as of 1:30 PM on Monday, 23 March 2020, and there are no known cases or links to COVID-19 in the NaSA community at this time. The population of the wider Christchurch community stands at over 350,000 people. Yet we have seen how aggressive this virus has been in other parts of the world where drastic measures have not been taken.

As of Monday, all appointments will be cancelled, including client day appointments, tours, application drop-offs, and interviews.

We will continue to accept applications and enquiries by email. We can conduct interviews by video conferencing, and we will continue to enrol students for July remotely. If we work together as a community and continue to suppress transmission within the country, things may return to some semblance of normal before the July intake starts.

For our existing students, we are moving to a distance and then online learning environment. By the end of today, all students will be completing their learning remotely for the rest of the first term, scheduled to end on Thursday, 9 April 2020. The April school holidays will remain the same. These school holidays are 18 days long, so give over 2 weeks of non-contact as-is.

Please check your email in the near future for further instructions about accessing the online environment during the rest of the term. We will continue to add lessons just in case we need to continue teaching this way after the April school holidays end.

All students will be assigned a specific tutor by class to be your liaison during this time. Please use email as your primary contact during this time.

This new process gives us over a month of self-isolation to help so our bit to combat COVID-19 in New Zealand.

This afternoon, the Government has ordered us to self-isolate during this time. It is not a time to go out and socialize or hang out with friends. All of us need to stay isolated at home unless making vital visits to the supermarket, doctor, or pharmacy. All students and team members are encouraged to get a flu shot as soon as they are available too, to reduce their risk of further complications.

We will issue further advice as it becomes available, and we thank you for working with us at this time.

Overall, we need to work together to control, and ultimately defeat, COVID-19 in New Zealand while ensuring the continuation of learning and education in our community.

We understand this is a difficult time for us all, but by working together, we can make it through this pandemic.

As always, if you have any questions, please visit us on nasa.co.nz or email us on info@nasa.co.nz for more information.

Stay safe and kia kaha.

Yours Sincerely,

Noel Turner, PhD
Chief Executive Officer and
Co-Owner

Don Kendall
Director of Education and
Co-Owner

Aesthetics House Limited trading as The National School of Aesthetics