Important Reminders
FOR STUDENTS
FOR PARENTS
Please refer to the following
Parent Communication
(click link) to assist you in communicating your questions or concerns.
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OFF-SITE LEARNING
Observations from the Biblical Perspectives Department
For our off-site learning plan, the Secondary Biblical Perspectives department transitioned to an all-school Spiritual Care plan that has each student, every week, completing a personal bible study on a chapter in Mark, completing an inward practice to help them better love God (through prayer, worship, journaling, etc.) and an outward practice to help them better love others. After three weeks of implementation of this Spiritual Care plan, we have noticed:
- Students are digging deep into Scripture on their own time and uncovering meaningful and powerful insights and life connections, and learning to put into practice and obey that which they read
- Students are spending time seeking God in unprecedented numbers and are reporting greater connection with God, greater peace and calm, and some are even beginning to recognize God's guidance and comfort as they move into regular rhythms of prayer, worship, study and journaling.
- Students are corporately reaching out to serve and love their community and practice the command to love others by practicing kindness at home, blessing others with baking, gifts, phone calls, letters, prayers and even grocery shopping for those unable, and not only bringing joy but are finding joy in doing so
- In reflections, many students report that they are once again returning to family dinner tables and spending greater quality time with their parents and siblings, for which they are grateful
This year, we have been praying all year that the students would 'encounter' God in meaningful ways so that they would no longer rely on
our
reports about Jesus, but would believe because they have encountered Him personally. As a result of this global pandemic, students are finding the time and space to encounter God through this Off-site spiritual care plan, in ways they could not during regular school hours. God works in mysterious ways!
Mrs. Jamie Osborne
Biblical Perspectives Department Head
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AP Exams
Students who are apart of AP classes and wish to take the exam with the desire to receive college credit for these courses will be taking their exam at home on the following days. These students should have already registered for the test with Mrs. Lewis and can contact her or their teachers if they have questions. Information on the exams can be found
here
.
The AP exam schedule for RCS students is:
- Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC – Tuesday May 12 @ 11:00am
- Physics 2 – Wednesday May 13 @ 8:00am
- English Literature & Composition – Wednesday May 13 @ 11:00am
- Physics 1 – Thursday May 14 @ 1:00pm
- Psychology – Tuesday May 19 @ 11:00am
AP students who are taking an AP exam will be excused from an RCS class that conflicts with an AP exam time. It is expected that these students will communicate with their teachers this week for any arrangements they will need to allow them to balance AP exams and class learning.
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OFFSITE LEARNING
Observations from our Parent Survey Check-in
We have read through the Parent Surveys and appreciate your feedback. These surveys show that the majority of our families are able to access the offsite learning platforms that have been set up and are comfortable with the amount of time students are using technology for learning, the structure and challenge students are receiving in classes as well as support for faith formation and spiritual growth. For the breakdown of these results please see
these charts
. We are also encouraged that while learning new learning platforms was a bit step initially, families have found challenges are decreasing time.
As a staff we have taken to heart the areas of growth that have been highlighted by parents and wanted to share some points of clarification and adjustments we are and will be making to classes.
- While teacher’s office hours are on Thursdays and Fridays, students are encouraged to reach out to their teachers when they are experiencing challenges. Staff are responding to students Monday – Friday; however, they have more time to offer 1:1 support on Thursdays and Fridays
- Teachers who have not been having live classes, will be having more live classes, rather than just posting videos of work to allow for more student-teacher connection
- Teachers are cognizant of the importance of feedback on student learning, this comes in many forms from emails, to comments on assignments or msm, to comments in class
- Teachers are allowing students to complete assignments offline and ‘take pictures’ of work to allow for breaks from screen time
- As a staff we are praying over the requests that you have sent in
- Students with trouble organizing homework are encouraged to use the homework sheet shared in last week’s newsletter
- The Secondary Campus Offsite Learning Page is a helpful tool to learn about the off-site learning. Please check-it out if you have not done so already.
We received many questions with regard to the amount of learning. We have families that are concerned that students will be ‘behind’ next year due to scaled back learning and other families that feel that RCS has more expectations that other schools and hoped for less expectations for students learning. Prior to teachers completing their welcome letters and highlighting the Big Ideas and Curricular Competencies/Content that they would be covering in this off-site learning time, they met in departments. The purpose of this was to ensure that in this ‘scaled back’ learning that students would still be able to be successful in courses the following years based on the learning this year. The Administration is meeting weekly with SCSBC and other member schools to ensure the we are aware of changing schooling and education expectations/standards including those required for acceptance to universities in BC to guarantee that RCS students will continue receiving a ‘Quality Christ Centered Education’ that will prepare them to serve as caring citizens in God's kingdom.
Additionally, we have received questions about what assessment will look like for off-site schooling. We hope that the Quarter 3 reports were helpful for students and parents to understand their current progress in courses. We will be sharing more about assessment and off-site learning in the coming weeks in the Newsletter.
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Family Faith Formation
A professional development goal for all staff this year has been to look at what it means to teach from a Christian Perspective. We have been participating in a course entitled
Christ in the Classroom
through SCSBC. The secondary campus staff participated in intensive teaching and learning days in August and October and has been meeting on Friday afternoons to continue growing in our understanding of this. As a part of this course, all staff have looked at the following five Biblical teaching practices:
- Fostering Genuine Relationships,
- Cultivating Spiritual Disciplines,
- Creating Leadership Capacity,
- Developing a Heart for Others,
- Engaging in the Journey of Faith.
Each staff member has chosen one Biblical Teaching practice to look for ways to grow in this area and live out this practice with their students this year. SCSBC recognizes that at this time, families may be looking for resources for Family Faith Formation. If this is you, you are encouraged to take a look at
this document
, which gives a snapshot of what these Biblical Teaching practices as well as some ideas of how families may cultivate these Biblical Teaching Practices and grow in their faith together. If you have read through the
Secondary Campus Spiritual Care plan
, you will notice consistent themes in these practices. If you have any questions on this please feel free to reach out to
Miss Michelle Contant.
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What do staff do during Professional Development?
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One of our regular practices: prayer. In this photo, Brian Kinniston leads 44 secondary staff in prayer, some of whom are pictured here. Staff earnestly pray for parents, students, administration, and concerns of our community. (All of our staff are local, despite their playful backgrounds depicting vacation scenery).
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Here we see our Art 9 students, who were given a design challenge to create a hat that reflected their personality. The class voted on the tallest, best constructed and most creative designs.
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Missing Maker Mondays? Looking for a creative outlet that doesn’t involve screen time? Check out the
Library Virtual Maker Mondays Blog
. This week has some ideas for Mothers Day!
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