March 12, 2020
Dear Greene Street Friends Community,
Coronavirus, COVID-19, is in Philadelphia. With many more cases today, we believe that we are on the verge of a community-spread and we must take action. With an abundance of caution, Greene Street Friends School will no longer host classes or events on our campus after this evening. Beginning on Monday, March 16, "Virtual GSFS" will open. See the 2nd part of this message for more information about online learning.
Tomorrow, Friday, March 13, school will be closed. There will not be ASP.
Teachers and staff will report to campus and finish their preparations for the Virtual GSFS program that will operate for all of next week.
The Administrative Team of the school will meet over Spring Break and assess the impact of Covid-19 on our City and on our school community. Depending on these critical factors, we will decide if School should re-open at the end of break, or if we will continue with Virtual GSFS. You will be informed via email and text message with updates.
This is a difficult time for our country, community, and school. While we would not wish for this emergency, I am incredibly proud of our faculty and staff for responding so quickly. We are hopeful that this new remote learning program is the strongest (and temporary) path forward. We also recognize that we have never done this school-wide -- there are bound to be snags. We do aim to resume in-person classes as soon as possible.
With thanks for your support and understanding,
Dr. Edward W. Marshall
Head of School
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Dear Families,
In the next day, you will receive detailed instructions from your child's homeroom teachers about the various ways in which Virtual GSFS will operate at your child's, or children's, grade level. In the Lower School, teachers will use Seesaw to communicate activities, provide resources, and invite participation. In the Middle School, students will find lessons and assignments posted on Blackbaud.
For all grade levels there will be a "live" teaching component using the Zoom software platform. In our younger grades, this may look like a morning meeting or a chance to touch base and share. Though it is not the same as being together in-person, we hope to maintain some element of the social connection of a school day. In the older grades, Zoom will be used to hold specific classes.
This combination of synchronous and asynchronous lessons and activities, we hope, will provide a meaningful educational experience for all our students. Our hope and expectation is that all students throughout the school (with obvious caregiver support in the younger grades) will participate in all of the assigned activities. In Middle School, there will still be graded work and in Lower School assessment will continue as well. If your child is not able to complete these activities for any reason, please reach out to your homeroom teacher.
The schedule for live zoom lessons is here:
Pre K: 8:30 - 9:15
Kindergarten: 9:15 - 10:00
1st Grade: 10:00 - 10:45
2nd Grade: 10:45 - 11:30
3rd Grade: 11:30 - 12:15
4th Grade: 12:15 - 1:00
5th Grade: 9:00 - 9:45
6th Grade: 9:00 - 9:45
7th Grade: 9:30 - 11:00
8th Grade: 9:30 - 11:00
We encourage you to run the Zoom Test
https://zoom.us/test
on the device(s) that your child plans to use for Virtual GSFS.
This is an unprecedented time in our world, and we appreciate your partnership. Please email me, Ed, or your homeroom teacher with any questions.
Sincerely,
Ryan
Additional helpful links:
