March 24 Update from Mr. Borkowski
Parents and Friends of CCS,
The Ministry of Education and the CISVA have provided some guidance as to what the expectations are regarding the re-opening of schools. I will present these guidelines, as well as some of our school’s own local decisions, in a Q & A format below. There will be many more questions as we go through this process together.
If you have questions, please email me directly at jborkowski@cisva.bc.ca
Sincerely,
Mr. Jason Borkowski
Principal
Q & A for Parents Regarding Online Learning for the Remainder of the Year
Will schools re-open on March 30th?
Schools will reopen on March 30th for staff only. The Ministry of Education and CISVA have stated that parents should expect online learning to commence within a couple of weeks of that date. In consultation with teachers, the decision has been made that CCS will begin online instruction on Monday, April 6th. That is one full week earlier than required by the authorities.
The Ministry of Education is not releasing the planning framework for teachers until Friday, March 27th. This leaves teachers a little in the dark, but the CCS staff is eagerly planning and doing their best in spite of a lack of guidance.
How will online learning work?
Online learning will be delivered mainly through the two online platforms we use; Class Dojo for students in Primary and Google Classroom for students in Intermediate. Live communication will take place for students using Zoom Online Conferencing. Email will also be available to parents and older students.
Students may be asked to join together online for things like online meetings, prayer, lessons, and assignments. They will largely do their assignments independently or under the guidance of parents. Assignments will then be submitted for assessment through one of our online platforms.
You can expect live online communication from the teacher each day, but expect a variation from class to class depending on the individual teacher’s preferences and class needs. Students in Primary can expect up to 2 hours per day of actual school work. Students in intermediate should expect a little more.
You can also expect, especially at first, a focus on the fundamentals of Christian Education, Math, and Language Arts.
It may take time to work this out. Patience will be required by all parties. The goal is not to replace the classroom, but to provide the best possible learning opportunities given the circumstances. We do not want learning to become a source of stress and conflict in the home. Ultimately, it will be up to parents to determine when and how much work needs to be done each day.
What materials will students use?
We are working on a plan to have staff create a bag of each student’s materials. That bag will include all the student’s belongings, as well as photocopied packages, workbooks and textbooks that will be necessary to work from home. The pickup will take place on Thursday, April 2nd and Friday, April 3rd. Details on that pickup are to follow in the coming days.
What are the technological requirements?
All students will require a device with which to participate in online activities. Ipads, laptops, or Chromebooks will all be enough. There may be times when online meetings are happening simultaneously for different grades, therefore it would be best to have one device available for each child. The school owns about 150 Chromebooks that could be loaned out to families as needed for the duration of this health crisis. We will be arranging these loans in conjunction with the pickup of student materials.
Your regular internet connection should suffice.
Will students who receive extra learning support at school be receiving extra support at home?
Yes, students who have an EA at school or who work one-on-one with our Learning Support teachers will continue to receive support. What that looks like is still being figured out. We would also like to continue offering our usual Speech-Language and Counselling support.
When can I expect to hear from my child’s classroom teacher?
Classroom teachers will reach out to parents with specific instructions sometime in the middle to end of next week.
Will tuition be waived?
No. Our goal is to continue offering a quality educational experience complete with full-time staff. We will continue to receive the government grant and will need to continue to charge tuition to make ends meet. It is understood that many people have lost income at this time. We do not want anyone to withdraw over a missed month of tuition.
If you have lost income as a result of the health crisis and cannot afford tuition, please write to Mr. Borkowski and the PEC and ask for your April tuition payment to be deferred temporarily. This has always been the practice when necessary for individual families. We will take this issue one month at a time for now, as we do not know what the future holds.
If you need to make such a request, please email before Friday, March 27th, as tuition payment is sorted that day. Email jborkowski@cisva.bc.ca and pec@cloverdalecatholicschool.ca
Will this impact First Communion and Confirmation dates?
Students in Grades Two and Seven will continue preparation for receiving the Sacraments. There will likely be a postponement of the formal celebrations.