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A message to our Sidney School Community--March 29th

 
Picture of Sara Postlethwaite
A message to our Sidney School Community--March 29th
by Sara Postlethwaite - Sunday, 29 March 2020, 8:52 PM
 

Dear Parents/Guardians,


So much has changed since we left on our Spring Break.  We certainly hope that all of our families are well, and that you had the chance to connect with your children during this most difficult time.   As we move into this new way of learning for our Sidney Elementary Community, we are working with our staff and our District Leadership team to ensure continuity of learning to our students based on direction from the Ministry of Education.  Although we are not returning to school physically, we hope that the return to school “virtually” will provide you with a welcome opportunity to connect with school staff and the Sidney community and provide your children with a sense of routine and the return of a larger community into your lives.


For our school staff, this coming week will be spent planning and collaborating on how to best support the use of online resources to deliver literacy and numeracy assignments to our students at home.  The Ministry of Education has asked that this be up and running by mid-April.


Your child’s classroom teacher will be reaching out to you this week. They will check in with students and families electronically via email, and possibly directly with students through Google Classroom if they have been using this tool previously.   It is important that your child has access to a device that they can use for their school work. If you do not have something they can use for about an hour per day please let your child’s teacher know so that we can discuss solutions that might be offered.


 If you need access to the school building to retrieve some of your child’s personal items, this will be a possibility beginning the week of April 6th, but by signup only.  More information about how to sign up will be coming as we will have to adhere to safety procedures based on Dr. Henry’s direction around the number of people able to be in a venue at one time, physical distancing, and for cleaning purposes.  Thank you for your understanding on this as we endeavour to keep community members and staff healthy.


It is certain that there will be questions over the coming weeks and months.  Please be sure to communicate with your child’s teacher as the need arises and we will do our best to answer questions and respond to needs.

We will be providing updates on our school website, please be sure to sign up for our Bee Bulletins if you have not yet done so. If you go to the Sidney website and look at the left side you will see “forum subscriptions”. Click on “send me forum posts by email” and follow the prompts.  This will ensure that you receive all communications from the school in a timely way.



We look forward to getting back to work together, and reconnecting with our amazing learning community.


Sincerely,


Jennifer Batallas and Sara Postlethwaite