Posted: January 9, 2022
Information
Safety Measures – COVID-19
- Health Checks – This one is first, as it is the most important. All students and staff must complete the daily health check every day. If your child has symptoms, do not come to school. While missing a day (or five) might be inconvenient, it’s not as inconvenient as finding out on short notice that we’re moving to remote learning due to high rates of transmission or inadequate staff available because everyone got sick. Hint: if a child needs Tylenol to get here in the morning, they’re too sick for school. We will be calling parents to pick up kids who develop symptoms at school. Also, please remember that if your child is waiting on COVID test results, the Fraser Health requirement is that they are self-isolating.
- Masks – We will continue to require mask wearing inside for students and adults alike, with no changes from previous practice. Please send your child with a mask or three in their backpack. While we do have emergency masks to provide, we go through them awfully fast, as kids drop or forget their masks regularly. While masks are not required outside at playtime, many students and staff choose to wear them there as well.
- Hands – As before, wash before school, wash at school (so many times), wash after school! I know that I’ve caught myself drifting back to old, pre-COVID habits of washing in way less than 20 seconds, and so we’re re-emphasizing our hand-washing routines at school, and are tightening up our personal habits as well.
- Space – We will be moving back more firmly to some our spacing measures for the foreseeable future. Students will travel one-way paths to and from library, music and PE, and numbers in washrooms will be limited. In classes, we have rearranged furniture and seating wherever possible to reduce face-to-face seating and to increase the spaces between students. We will also continue with split recess and lunch playtimes so that crowding is reduced in play areas.
- Visitors – Visitors inside the school will be limited for the next while. We will be unfortunately unable to do Noisy Reading, Hot Lunch, or other activities that have multiple visitors and aren’t in direct support of curriculum will be stopping for now. This also means that parents will not be invited into the school past the front counter until further notice. Please stop there and wait for assistance. It’s not that we don’t like you, remember.
- Attendance Monitoring – We will be reporting unusual attendance patterns to Fraser Health going forward. This makes it critical that we know if your child is away ill, or for another reason. Please make sure to log your child’s absences.
- What can parents do? We would ask that, whenever possible, parents drop students at the curb and let them line up without accompanying them to the lineup. If you must go to the lineup, stay well back from the school doors, and do your best to stay spread out from each other. Same goes at pickup time. We understand that the youngest ones need to be met, but older kids could be going to a pre-determined meeting spot to find a parent waiting there. Just advise your child’s teacher if you’ll be changing from an earlier plan.
- Work together! – Remember we’re helping ourselves by helping each other.
Continuity of Learning Plan
In case you missed it, click here to see the District’s Continuity of Learning Plan. It provides some details on what could happen. It’s much more reliable than reading Twitter and Facebook speculation posts.
Kindergarten Registration
It’s that time of year again! Kindergarten registration opens on January 17. At present, all registrations will be completed online. As long as you register before March 31, there is no real advantage to being first, so no panic, please. Click here for full information.
My Tween and Me
Parenting pre-teens is like no other part of the parenting experience. My Tween and Me is a program for parent and child. Every parent I know who has done the program has reported it is fantastic. Click on the picture below to go to the registration link. And click here to go to online registration for Safer Space, a 1-session learning opportunity about keeping kids safe online. It hits significant (and a bit scary) topics for parents.
BCCDC Vaccination for Children Aged 5-11
The COVID-19 vaccination is now authorized by Health Canada for children five and older. Getting young people vaccinated helps protect them and the people around them. The Langley Schools District is supporting the efforts of public health and is sharing this resource from the BC Centre for Disease Control COVID-19 Vaccination for children 5-11 years old here. You can also review an Immunize BC FAQ resource here.
Parents can register their child in the Get Vaccinated System to be notified of when their child can get vaccinated. The vaccines are free and children do not need BC Care Cards to receive them. If you have any questions about your child’s health, please contact public health or your medical provider.
PAC News
Our PAC Meeting for January is Monday, January 10, via Zoom.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4426190634
Meeting ID: 442 619 0634
Quote(s) of the week
Something to read (or watch)
The whole of this new poem from Shane Koyczan may not be everybody’s thing, but it has so many important truths in it. Parents, if you want to watch with your kids, please preview first (*language warning at ~7:00).
“…trust that people are best when we are aimed at a common goal…” Shane Koyczan
Things to remember from the calendar
January 10, 2022
- First Day of School in 2022
- PAC Meeting (online – link will be shared tomorrow.
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