Good Afternoon ÉMMSOTA Families.

It has been a few days since I last reached out to all of you in an email. I trust you are all staying safe and healthy and finding ways to be active and keep positive in these very trying times. I wouldn't recommend a puppy for everyone, but it has provided some distraction for my family…and he is pretty cute.

The past two days have been even more confusing as a few of us are here at work after our March Break with no students or staff to bring that energy back into the building. We are truly sorry we cannot engage directly with your children at this time and we all appreciate it is the right thing to do to ensure the health and safety of our local and global communities. We miss them and hope to get to a place where we can begin interacting with them again on a different level;  virtually and from home for now.  

I want to remind all families of the guiding principals the Ministry of Education laid out in their Integrated Planning Framework released last week:

1. Ensure a healthy and safe environment for all students, families and employees.

2. Provide the services needed to support children of our essential workers.

3. Support vulnerable students who may need special assistance.

4. Provide continuity of educational opportunities for all students.

With these guiding principals in mind our district staff, administrators and most recently teachers are coming together to create a plan for some continuity of learning that will not require students to be on site at schools, in classrooms, putting all of us at further risk. Our staff has met twice online using the Microsoft Office Teams meeting platform and we are working out next steps to ensure we will be able to provide meaningful learning opportunities for your children going forward. You can all expect to hear from your child's teacher(s) later this week as they will be reaching out to you with emails and most likely try to make individual contact by phone. We really would like to get all of our students back on board and re-establish those personal connections with teachers and staff at school even if it is from a distance.

Here are a  few bullet points to consider as teachers get up and running with plans to continue learning.

1. Moving an entire school system to on-line or distance learning takes time. We are moving slowly and thoughtfully so as not to overwhelm students and families and to ensure we have safe and reliable resources from which to deliver some form of education.

2. Learning will look different and will be introduced slowly over the next couple of weeks. Do not expect any formal learning assignments or activities until early next week. Teachers will be reaching out to families and establishing some of the learning platforms they will be using this week. Our school community is all familiar with Office 365 and that will be the most obvious and frequently used tool to begin with. Students will need to know and use their school district email and login information. Teachers will be in touch to follow up on that as well.

3. Begin to re-establish some routines around the house if you have not done so already. Adjusting sleep and activity patterns can be difficult at best of times so start now by getting up earlier and limiting random screen time. Start back on some routines that might involve some reading or writing, chores around the house, games that involve math and strategy (Cribbage, Crazy 8s, Uno, Rummy, Chess) and of course daily physical activity, even if it is a 30 minute walk out in the fresh air… rain or shine.

4. We have not yet determined how we will allow some staggered access for students to retrieve items they need to continue their learning from home. This will most likely happen sometime early next week and we will be reaching out to you as a community to determine the actual needs. As always if there is an emergency need please contact Principal, Mark Clay directly so we can discuss. We are not suggesting at this time that all students will need to come into the school to retrieve supplies for learning. When we do coordinate how this will happen it will be important for students and parents to be mindful of all the social distancing protocols and understand there will likely be a brief designated time for your child to come in and retrieve their required belongings only. It will not be a time for socializing with friends or catching up.

5. Please reach out to us if you have emerging needs where we can be of some assistance. Everywhere we turn people are telling us to isolate and stay home. Yes, this is the right thing to do but it does not mean you are alone! There are so many caring individuals out there wanting to help, even if it is just a phone call to check in. We as a school community are here for you all. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to make this time a little easier for you and your family. We recognize it is not easy for anyone right now as we continue to live in uncertainty around the COVID-19 Pandemic. It is sometimes these crises that pull a community closer together. Do not feel you have to do it alone!

I would like to acknowledge all of our emergency response and support workers who are living with this pandemic in their faces on a daily basis. We appreciate the work you are doing to keep us all healthy.

I am mindful that my appreciation to you all for sharing your children with us every day will be taking on a new look in the coming weeks.  I want to express my gratitude for your patience and perseverance during these times and thank you for supporting your children in their learning from home.

Cheers for now.   

​Mark Clay
Principal
École Moody Middle School of the Arts
604 461 7384
604 999 5405