Bowmanville High School

Time 2020-09-11 06:02:51

Web Name: Bowmanville High School

WebSite: http://bowmanvillehigh.kprdsb.ca

ID:42871

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August 14 Back-to-School Update: New Details To All KPR Families, As you may be aware, since we sent out our back-to-school update for families yesterday, the Ministry of Education... ...Read More 0To All KPR Families,As you may be aware, since we sent out our back-to-school update for families yesterday, the Ministry of Education announced new information. In particular, we received new details regarding the Ministry s planning for online, at-home learning.We recognize that families would like as much information as possible regarding our learn-at-home plans before they enroll their children by the August 19 date we communicated yesterday. To help you in making that decision, we are pleased to forward the provincial information to you as quickly as possible.For the 300 minutes per day that must be spent on online instruction, the province has outlined how much time must be devoted to synchronous learning. Synchronous learning refers to live, real-time teaching when students in the class are connected by computer directly with the teacher and can interact with the teacher. The requirements are as follows:The table below outlines the minimum amount of time per day that students, depending on their grade level, must be provided with synchronous learning as part of their scheduled or timetabled learning.The higher of 60 minutes for each 75-minute class period or 225 minutes per day for a full course scheduleSecondary students at KPR will follow a full course schedule over the year with four quadmesters, each quadmester including two, 150-minute classes per day.We are now planning how these Ministry requirements will be put in place in each grade. We will provide more information to parents as soon as we are able. Planning for school in these unprecedented times continues to be very fluid and changeable, and we are responding as quickly as we can.We have also added information to our Frequently Asked Questions, which you can access byclicking here.This includes further details on:Use of Alternate Learning SpacesLearn At Home program for French Immersion StudentsTransferring from In-person to Learn At Home programSchool Ventilation.We encourage parents to check our website often athttp://kprschools.ca/en/COVID-19.htmlfor any further news.Please see the link below for a copy of all emails that have been sent to parents over the last few days providing updates on the start of the school year next week. If you are a parent or guardian at BHS and are not receiving these updates via email, please contact the main office so that we can get you set up in our system. We look forward to welcoming students back to BHS next week!School Messenger Updates - Parents / GuardiansAt this time, we are asking parents to make decisions about school attendance in September, so we can ensure proper staffing for both our school classrooms and the Learn At Home program.On July 29, the provincial government announced that elementary students in KPR will attend school five days per week, with enhanced health and safety requirements. Secondary students in our school board will also attend school full-time, with timetable adjustments that reduce the number of classes each day, and limit student and staff contacts.Earlier this week, we shared our Return to School Plan with families and staff. Our plan supports one central principle: safeguarding the health and welfare of students, staff and the community in a manner that reflects the Board s core values. Our planning is based on advice, guidance and directives of provincial and local public health officials and includes important information and protocols for students, staff and families.The full document is available on our website, at: www.kprschools.ca/en/COVID-19.html along with an extensive list of Frequently Asked Questions. Please click here to access the Frequently Asked Questions.Registration Online Learn At Home ProgramFamilies with elementary and secondary students may choose not to attend in-person school at this time (both elementary and secondary). Students who opt-out of in-class learning will continue to receive instruction through our established distance learning models, with an emphasis on real-time learning.Students participating in online distance education will sign-in daily, participate in both real-time and independent study, follow the same curriculum as their peers attending school in person and be able to contact their teachers for help and to have questions answered.If families change their decision regarding whether they want their children to attend in personafter the start of school, their requests for a change will be addressed as soon as possible.We will ask that families be patient as some time will be required to develop transition plans from one form of learning to another as we will need to adhere to Ministry of Education and Public Health guidelines that support student and staff health, safety and well-being. Secondary students returning to in-person learning may be limited to the new term or new semester based on course availability, enrolment, and time missed in the course.Families who wish to enroll their children in the online Learn At Home program are asked to do so by Wednesday, August 19, 2020 by clicking here.Year 1 Kindergarten students who wish to participate in the Learn At Home program will need to send a message to kpr_info@kprdsb.ca to register since these students do not yet have an OEN. Please include your student's name and the school name in your message.Only students participating in the Learn At Home Program need to register. All other students will be assumed to be participating in the full-time in-school model. To All KPR Families,As you may be aware, since we sent out our back-to-school update for families yesterday, the Ministry of Education announced new information. In particular, we received new details regarding the Ministry s planning for online, at-home learning.We recognize that families would like as much information as possible regarding our learn-at-home plans before they enroll their children by the August 19 date we communicated yesterday. To help you in making that decision, we are pleased to forward the provincial information to you as quickly as possible.For the 300 minutes per day that must be spent on online instruction, the province has outlined how much time must be devoted to synchronous learning. Synchronous learning refers to live, real-time teaching when students in the class are connected by computer directly with the teacher and can interact with the teacher. The requirements are as follows:The table below outlines the minimum amount of time per day that students, depending on their grade level, must be provided with synchronous learning as part of their scheduled or timetabled learning.The higher of 60 minutes for each 75-minute class period or 225 minutes per day for a full course scheduleSecondary students at KPR will follow a full course schedule over the year with four quadmesters, each quadmester including two, 150-minute classes per day.We are now planning how these Ministry requirements will be put in place in each grade. We will provide more information to parents as soon as we are able. Planning for school in these unprecedented times continues to be very fluid and changeable, and we are responding as quickly as we can.We have also added information to our Frequently Asked Questions, which you can access by clicking here. This includes further details on:Use of Alternate Learning SpacesLearn At Home program for French Immersion StudentsTransferring from In-person to Learn At Home programSchool Ventilation.We encourage parents to check our website often at http://kprschools.ca/en/COVID-19.html for any further news. Staggered start to school year August 19 Update Staggered Start to In-school Learning The board will be putting in place a staggered start to the first week of the school... ...Read More 2Staggered Start to In-school LearningThe board will be putting in place a staggered start to the first week of the school year. This will allow different grades or students to return to school on different days so students and staff can become more comfortable with new routines and health and safety practices. More information will be shared home to parents through schools as these schedules are finalized.At last night s Board meeting, school board Trustees also approved the use of an additional $5.5 million from reserves to support back-to-school planning efforts to support the:hiring of additional custodial staff,hiring of additional teachers to lower some class sizes,potential lease of space for classes should there be no space in specific schools, andhiring of staff to develop and offer the virtual, online Learn at Home program.More information about these areas can be found in our Frequently Asked Questions, available here:Frequently Asked Questions.Please note that the deadline for families wishing to enroll their children in the online Learn at Home program has now passed. Parents may contact us atkpr_info@kprdsb.caif they have questions around future participation in the program. August 24 Update: Staggered entry, secondary day Dear KPR Parents and Guardians: We want to provide everyone with another update on our continued planning for the upcoming school year. We... ...Read More 3Dear KPR Parents and Guardians:We want to provide everyone with another update on our continued planning for the upcoming school year. We appreciate your patience as we work through these many interrelated issues. As you can appreciate, these are complex matters that take reflection and consideration to resolve.Throughout all, we want to emphasize that our planning supports one central priority, which is safeguarding the health and welfare of students, staff and the community.To that end, we are sharing today that we have made an adjustment to our secondary school planning model. The details are outlined below for families with secondary students.We know that everyone is anxious to learn more about our plans for the staggered start to the school year. Once again, our emphasis has been on making our school environments as safe as possible for our students and staff.For our in-person school operations, this means giving our principals and school staff enough time to:realign elementary classroom sizes and staff assignments based on changes resulting from students choosing to stay home for the online school option; parents should be aware that this could potentially mean your child s assigned teacher may changeconfirm and adjust secondary student timetables, especially for our Learn At Home studentsproperlyset up and become familiar with our new pandemic-related school practicesorganize classrooms in safe layouts, which includes the moving and storage of a considerable amount of furnishings, desks and other equipment throughout the school.At the same time, we are also organizing our Learn At Home online school for over 5,300 students. This is a challenging undertaking that requires a significant amount of planning and development with our teaching and administrative staff.For all of these reasons, we are sharing today that our staggered start will now take place over a two-week period.This two week period will be as follows:September 8 September 11 Schools remain closed to students. Staff continue preparing school for the new year.September 14 September 18 Student and class groups will attend school on different days to become familiar with classroom and school processes. All students will be in attendance full-time on Friday, September 18.This two-week period will provide all our staff and students the additional time we believe will be crucial for everyone to prepare learning spaces, and to finalize, understand and be comfortable with, the many new routines that will be a part of the normal school day.Finalized schedules will be shared with parents through their local school as soon as possible.We know this will be disappointing to our families and students who are eager to get back to school with all their friends, but we need to take the time to get this right from the start.Changes to school day structure for In-Person Learning Secondary students Our back-to-school planning continues to change and evolve over time in support of student and staff safety.As we worked through the implementation of our plan and timetabling for secondary students, we realized that our initial structure for the day could be changed and improved to make it better and safer.The key part of this change is that while students will still be in school all-day, every day, they will now alternate their two subjects every week, instead of every day.This means that students will take their Period 1 class every day for Week 1. Students will then take their Period 2 class every day the following week. This will continue alternating for the first quadmester.The following example may be helpful:Week 1 - Students will take their Period 1 subject all day.Week 2 Students will take their Period 2 subject all day.Week 1 - Students will take their Period 3 subject all day.Week 2 Students will take their Period 4 subject all day.We realize this is an extended amount of time for students on each subject. The safety improvements of this model, however, are significant:students can remain in a defined classroom for the entire week without traveling to another classroom, similar to our elementary modelthis further limits the number of contacts and touch points for students and staff throughout the day, so that we will no longer have students using two different desks during the same daythe possibility of schools implementing staggered breaks and lunches for students during the day, so that they can have a break from their classroom; our previous plan was based on students remaining in their Period One classrooms to have lunch.While our intent with the original school plan was to structure the school day safely for everyone through organized timetabling and limited movement, we feel this plan is a safer and better alternative. Any parents or students who feel that this change may affect their interest in participating in our online Learn At Home program should contact us at kpr_info@kprdsb.caIn closing, we appreciate your continued patience as we work through these uncommon days in preparation for the new year.We wish you health and wellness.Jennifer LeclercDirector of Education Opting out of busing? Is your child eligible for transportation and attending a KPR school in person in September, but won’t be using the bus? If so, please... ...Read More 4Is your child eligible for transportation and attending a KPR school in person in September, but won t be using the bus? If so, please visit https://www.stsco.ca/NotUsingBus.asp as soon as possible to let us know you re opting out from using the school bus. August 27 Update You may have seen media reports yesterday regarding the provincial announcement of updated directives for local health units and school... ...Read More 5You may have seen media reports yesterday regarding the provincial announcement of updated directives for local health units and school boards in ensuring schools remain safe for students and staff.We are currently reviewing those documents, in collaboration with our local health units, and will be updating our health and safety procedures for all schools to reflect this guidance.A letter from the Minister of Education outlining these directives is attached here for your information, the highlights of which include:- Updates to illness protocols to deal with students who become ill while they are at school, including how they will be cared for by staff and provided with personal protective equipment- The critical importance of parents screening their children every day before school, and keeping them at home if they are ill- The ways school communities will be updated if a student or staff member tests positive for COVID- 19, and the immediate contact tracing that will begin by local health authorities- Situations where required classes or cohorts of students will be recommended for testing or sent home, or where the school will be closed until public health officials determine it is safe for students and staff to return.We know that the health and safety of your children, our students, is your greatest priority. Along with the health and wellness of our staff, we want to assure you that we share that priority.As mentioned above, we are presently working together with our health units on this newly released guidance document, and will update parents and guardians on our enhanced measures as they are finalized.Learn At Home ProgramWe continue to work on establishing our online, virtual school for over 5,300 students who have chosen this education program. As parents can appreciate, this is a challenging undertaking that requires a significant amount of planning and development with our teaching and administrative staff.Principals and vice-principals have been assigned to oversee and manage both the virtual elementary and virtual secondary Learn at Home programs. They will be reaching out to families next week with more information about school start-up.Helping your child become comfortable with mask wearingOne important part of back-to-school routines involves helping students become more comfortable wearing masks. KPR has compiled some tips and videos to help children become more comfortable with putting on and wearing masks. Students in Grades 4 and up are required to wear non-medical face masks when indoors at school, while students in Kindergarten to Grade 3 are encouraged to wear masks in indoor spaces. Please see the attached poster, to support this important part of our back-to-school preparations. September 3 Back-to-school update Dear KPR Parents and Guardians: As the Labour Day long weekend draws closer, we want to take a moment to share with you our excitement in... ...Read More 6Dear KPR Parents and Guardians:As the Labour Day long weekend draws closer, we want to take a moment to share with you our excitement in returning to what is our passion, and what we love to do the most educating your children.We say this fully understanding that many parents and students are concerned and anxious about what the future will bring. We appreciate those feelings no one remains unaffected by the events of the last few months and, in the days ahead, we will do all that we can to support our students in their transition back to school.We also believe strongly that bringing students together, in person and virtually, is a critical necessity for their overall health and wellness.The closures of our schools last spring was a necessary step that we supported, for the health of our communities. The impact of these closures on our students and staff, however, was significant.From September until March, our students and staff were learning and growing together, in common spaces. Regrettably, from that point in time, life in our communities and schools changed in fundamental ways for us all.We look forward to taking another step towards our new normal by reuniting students with their peers, and students with our staff, who have missed them.As I have mentioned, we know that these are uneasy times for families, and that you have understandable concerns for your children s health.We have worked with focus and intention to consider all parts of the school day, to make attending school safer for students. As recommended by health authorities, we are making many adjustments to the school day. These include: The way our students enter our buildings and walk through hallways and classrooms each daySet-up of desks and classrooms so that students are as far apart as possibleKeeping classes together in one group with one teacher, as much as possibleStaggered lunches and breaks for different classesMandatory masks for staff and students in Grades 4 and up, and strong encouragement of masks for Kindergarten to Grade 3 studentsSupplies of hand sanitizer in classrooms and hallways, as well as frequent reminders to wash hands often with soap and waterA strict health protocol for students or staff who become illIncreased cleaning and sanitization of all high touch surfaces, such as handles, door knobs, and faucets, three times a dayThorough evening cleaning, including the use of electrostatic sprayers that disinfect all items in large areas, andFollowing all federal and provincial requirements for school bus safety.Next week, as students begin to hear more from their schools and teachers, we will also shareBack to School Information packages with important reminders about the new protocols in place at schools, to keep everyone safe.Once again, I thank all of our families for your patience and understanding. There have been many changes to our educational programs this spring and summer as we continue to work through the many interrelated issues before us.I also can t promise that there won t be more changes in the days ahead as we adapt to evolving educational and health directives. I can, however, assure everyone that our staff members are an amazing group of committed and caring adults, who have come together in these unprecedented times, to work with purpose and intention to support our students.We know that no plan is perfect, but we will be tireless in improving and refining our actions and practices each day.We wish you a joyful start to the school year.Jennifer LeclercDirector of Education Bowmanville High School 49 Liberty Street North, Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 2L8 905-623-4416

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