Mary Hopkins News – September 2

School Re-opening Revisions

As indicated in the parent notice sent out by HWDSB last week, our school start-up scheduled was revised.  Please review the revised staggered start process using the link below.

https://www.hwdsb.on.ca/about/covid19/return-to-school-models/

You will notice that a JK orientation has been added to September 10 & 11. On Thursday, September 10, our Kinder team will invite you to a virtual orientation meeting to assist with your child’s transition.  On Friday, September 11th, short tours (5-10 min) will be scheduled for one parent/caregiver to attend alongside their child.  You will be contacted by your child’s teacher by the end of this week.

One of the questions parents have asked is what will school look like when my child returns.  There will be many routines that will be the same (i.e. structure of school day, recess, lunch) and many things that will be different (i.e. classroom arrangement, hand washing, cohorting).   We are pleased to share our school-based plan with families. This plan will be revised and updated and we further refine our protocols.  Elementary Site Specific Plan

In preparation for school, you may also want to remind your child that they will see school staff wearing medical masks and visors when they arrive.  Over the past months, our kids have gained comfort seeing adults and children in the community wearing masks. As school is a new context for your child, this discussion will help them understand what to expect in our building.

Thank you to all who persisted with the parent portal.  This will be an important tool for communication moving forward.  If you have not had success getting logging in, technical support is available through the Parent Portal Issue Reporting Form.

As many of our students will be learning remotely or in an alternate setting, we will need to re-organize our school and classrooms.  Final class placements will be communicated to parents early next week.  As we need to factor daycare and transportation cohorting, there will limited flexibility for parent requests.