Dear St. Giles Families,
Tomorrow is our kickoff to Lion’s Leap and we are excited to return to our Lions running around the block and middle school obstacle course. Be sure to watch for regular updates from Kelly Richard about Lion’s Leap and how you can help your Lions meet the daily challenges. Tomorrow we will share highlights from the pep kickoff in a special eNews.
This week we have our first staff development day on Friday, September 24th. People often wonder, what do teachers do on those days when the kids are off? The short answer is a lot of collaboration and learning that we can’t quite accomplish on a Wednesday early dismissal day.
This Friday is our first Archdiocesan-wide staff development day, where all teachers will continue to work on the Archdiocesan-developed priority standards in ELA and Math, as well as additional workshops on iReady, classroom management and Catechist preparation, to name a few. We differentiate our professional development for our staff just as we differentiate our lessons for our students. These are action-packed days for all of our teachers who bring their new knowledge back to St. Giles and into their classrooms.
In addition, all faculty members received a copy of the book The Growth Mindset Coach: A Teacher’s Month-by-Month Handbook for Empowering Students to Achieve. At St. Giles, we believe in a growth mindset for our students and are utilizing the themes in this book to continue a school-wide focus on how students can view challenges and setbacks with a positive outlook and embrace opportunities for change.
We have additional system-wide staff development days in November and February. We also use our Wednesday early dismissal days for local professional learning and teacher collaboration, as well as our “book club” discussions around growth mindset.
Have a wonderful week and enjoy your upcoming long weekend!
Stay safe and well,
Meg
Updates
Parent/Teacher Conferences
This year we will offer hybrid Parent/Teacher conferences with both in-person and virtual options. Thursday, October 21st will be an early dismissal at 11:45 am; Kids Klub will not be available. There will be no school on Friday, October 22nd. Additional details, including a link to register for conferences, will be shared the week of October 4th.
St. Giles Band Update (Grades 4-8)
Over the years, St. Giles has offered individual instrument and group band lessons, via independent contractors, during the school day. Due to COVID, those in-person lessons ended but many resumed via Zoom. Given the difficulty of in-person lessons with continued COVID protocols and our concerns regarding interruption of instructional time for individual lessons, instrument and band lessons will move to either before school, 7:30 am - 8:00 am or after school.
We are currently working with our previous band instructors to formulate their schedule and to resume offering lessons and a band program. As soon as those details are finalized, we will share registration information with families. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to bring back our extracurriculars as quickly, but safely, as possible.
Volunteer Vaccination Requirement
We are incredibly grateful for the time and talent our volunteers provide and we look forward to having you back in the building and classrooms this year. We couldn’t do it without you!
The Archdiocese is requiring that all volunteers who are in the building regularly or working directly with students provide proof of vaccination or negative COVID test within 72 hours of their volunteer time. This would apply to those who are in classrooms participating in reading days, room parents participating in classroom parties, parents distributing Fun Lunch, etc. This does not apply to the occasional dropping off of lunches or picking up homework.
The deadline to submit your vaccination information for the 2021-2022 school year is October 31st. However, if you are volunteering prior to that date, you must submit your proof of vaccination or negative test results prior to your volunteer work. Those who choose to submit a negative test prior to volunteering must use a third party testing service; at-home test results will not be accepted.
In order to collect vaccine data, we have designed the form below for you to simply upload your card for our files. These will remain confidential.
If you have any questions or difficulty with the form, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.
Reminders
Spirit Wear Day Monday
Tomorrow will be a Spirit Wear Day celebrating our Lion's Leap Kickoff! Spirit wear shirts may be worn on Monday with uniform pants or skirts. Acceptable shorts are either PE shorts or uniform bermuda shorts.
Volunteer Compliance
We value our volunteers and look forward to having you join us in person this year. Please review the volunteer requirement checklist and visit our Parent Portal for more information. Please contact Michele Bibbey prior to volunteering to confirm compliance. Volunteers need to be compliant prior to assisting in classrooms, with Lion’s Leap, etc. We know it takes time and appreciate all you do for us!
Student Illness and Siblings
If a student is ill with possible COVID symptoms, all unvaccinated siblings need to remain home until either symptoms subside within 24 hours OR the sick child receives an alternate diagnosis. These are the same parameters used during the 2020-21 school year and can be found here and here.
