SOARING WITH FLEXIBILITY
I am sure you are aware that on Wednesday, May 6th, the BC Government announced the roll out of Phase 2 to slowly reopen the province. I want to share a section from the BC Restart Plan that is connected to schools. The full BC Restart Plan can be found
here
.
“Our schools and educators rose to the challenge with online instruction and resources to keep our kids learning, but this placed a heavy burden on parents to support their kids as they learned at home. We know there is no substitute for in-class instruction — and an important step toward our recovery is getting kids back into the classroom, so parents can get back into the workplace. Initial health data indicates children are less affected than adults by the COVID-19 virus. Public health staff and officials will continue to review the health data. And the Ministry of Education and school divisions all around BC are reviewing options to allow for a safe return to school. An announcement on a phased approach to resuming in-class instruction will be made in the coming weeks. This will not be a return to normal. With weeks left in the school year, we anticipate many kids will not return to the classroom until September. But we are also exploring ways to safely get some kids back to school before the summer, to allow more parents to return to work. How these changes unfold are the focus of intensive discussion among Ministry of Education officials, school trustees, the BC Teachers’ Federation, CUPE, and other education sector partners.”
For more information on protective measures that will be required of schools please refer to:
We are busy planning for the next possible scenarios in this ever-changing pandemic but are currently awaiting more details from the Ministry of Education. As mentioned in previous newsletters, we plan to continue offering our off-site learning framework (i.e. choice boards with a focus on literacy and numeracy) whether students remain at home full-time or can return to school part-time. Please know that, throughout this process, we are continuing to be in prayer, discerning how to best support our families within the parameters set before us by the Ministry. We will do our very best to honour our families and to make our planning over the upcoming weeks be as transparent and clearly communicated as possible. Again, we thank you for your patience.
Mr. Jason Paul
EC Principal
