Dear Families,
Thank you for your patience and flexibility as we work through the various adjustments that are needed to make c’usqunela as safe as possible for the children. We are looking forward to seeing the kids at school again!
We are meeting as a staff again today to finalize the details of our return to school planning and I will begin to share this information with families beginning tomorrow. After working through this process, I am confident that our school community has enough collective wisdom and skill to navigate this return to school together very successfully. There are just a few additional organizational details below to help families plan this week.
- Just a reminder to all families that you do not need to purchase school supplies for your children this year. The students’ bulk school supplies order has arrived at the school and is being organized by teaching staff this week. When the children are settled onto their new classrooms we will request families send in payment for these school supplies. Later this month, families will have the option of paying a one time fee of $55 or two payments (September -$30/ February $25). We will send out additional information once children are settled into their classrooms. Teaching staff will be organizing these student supplies in a manner that ensures children are not sharing them.
- For families with children entering kindergarten…. Our gradual entry kindergarten plan remains the same as it was in June. The new altered week one start for children in grades 1-7 does not impact our kindergarten gradual entry plan. We will send out a confirmation email to all kindergarten families by tomorrow restating that our June planning remains the same.
- While Provincial Health Officer guidelines state that learning groups in elementary schools can be up to a total of 60 students/staff, SD42 elementary schools will begin the school year with learning cohorts organized as single class/division groups of students with their classroom teacher and, where appropriate, other support staff to a maximum of 30 people.
- Schedule for the week of September 8-11:
- Sept. 8 and 9: students will not attend school on these days as staff complete health and safety training and prepare for the return of students
- Sept. 9: each family will be advised of each child’s class/division placement and will be advised of the line-up area for each class/division group. This notice will also include the September 10 and 11 attendance schedule.
- Sept. 10 and 11:
- These days will be dedicated to orienting students to their class group and Stage 2 health and safety procedures
- To best ensure a positive return and orientation to procedures, half of the classes/divisions will attend in the morning on these two days, and the other half will attend in the afternoon; class/division groupings will be identified as Group A and Group B. Families will be informed via the Parent Portal on Wednesday September 9th regarding whether students are attending school in the morning or afternoon on the Thursday and Friday. We ask that families please plan for either possibility and we apologize for the late notice. Unfortunately, there is no quicker way to review, confirm, and finalize class groupings to provide this information.
- Group A classes/divisions will attend Thursday and Friday from 8:30 to 10:30 am
- Group B classes/divisions will attend Thursday and Friday from 12:20 to 2:20 pm
- We will send out additional details about week one in the coming days to help families plan.
Sincerely,
Mr. Wheatley