21 September 2020
Dear Families,
Welcome back to school! Now that we have completed our first full week, I want to reassure everyone that we have in place all the necessary precautions and safety protocols to welcome students back in a safe manner. Staff have been preparing the building with appropriate signage, hallway traffic flow indicators, and the building is clean and ready to go for staff and students. I am sure as parents, we are happy to have your children here for full days as it is a return to somewhat ‘normal’ school times, at least schedule-wise, almost.
I recognize that there are many questions about what the return to school this year looks like. I will attempt to explain as much as I can here for you in order to answer your questions and alleviate anxiety without overwhelming you. It’s important to understand that school will look different this year as we incorporate health and safety protocols. I want to thank those of you who joined us for our Phase 2 welcome back to School Presentation a couple weeks ago. If you missed it, we have posted the presentation and a FAQ document on the school website that you may wish to take a look at.
The health and safety of students and staff remains our number one priority, and measures will be in place to meet the requirements of provincial health and safety guidelines for schools. To accommodate these health and safety measures, we will be continuing with our staggered start and end times as well as recess and lunch times as we did in June. Additional health and safety cleaning protocols have been put in place for all staff and students.
The schedule reflects a typical school day structure, with students being assigned to a class. Here at Stoney Creek a Learning Group is basically a child’s class. Some teachers may decide to join with another class to form a learning group as the year progresses. If that happens, the limits of 60 will be respected and you as parents will be informed and the activities that are taking place within this newly informed Learning Group will be detailed for you.
By now you should have received the following information; it is also posted on our website:
- A daily schedule regarding start/end times as well as recess and lunch times by division has been circulated
- A school playground map showing where divisions line up for entry/dismissal
- Lunch and snacks will be eaten at desks; food cannot be shared. All leftover food, wrappers/garbage, and containers will travel home with students at the end of the day as per new Health and Safety Guidelines. Students should bring food and containers that they can manage independently.
- Playgrounds, the gym, the library, and other common spaces are being used but some of the indoor common spaces may have limited usage.
- At this present time, parents need to remain with their child(ren) at drop off while staff perform wellness checks on each child and children who are ill will not be admitted into the school (as referenced in supporting documents – Daily Health Checks).
- It is important to ensure you are sending your child with appropriate clothing for changing weather conditions as children will be going outside for recess and lunch regardless of the weather. This allows us to clean classrooms at these break times.
- The playground has been divided into two zones to allow students to space apart as much as possible at play times and still keep groups in each space smaller – there is a primary and an intermediate zone and teachers have explained these to students. The play areas rotate throughout the week so students can play in all areas.
- The building remains closed to the public
I realize this is a lot of information to process, but I feel it is important that families know what to expect so that you can prepare your child(ren). Please have a conversation with them about what school will look like. We are wanting things to look as normal as possible but everyone needs to be aware that there are lots of extra precautions in place – extra handwashing and cleaning, masks, maintaining extra space whenever possible, signage, traffic flow patterns, etc.
We are continually updating our website with current information so please remember to check this resource regularly as well as your inbox for information sent by email. We understand that there have been some email issues related to the volume of messages being sent through MyEd and therefore we will be posting everything to the website as well.
We are grateful for your partnership and patience and are so happy to to be welcoming students back into the school.
Sincerely,
Mr. W Hiltz
Principal
