January 7, 2022
Return to School – January 10th
Dear Queen Elizabeth School Community,
We welcome all students back to in person instruction on Monday, January 10th. We appreciate your patience and understanding as schools prepared this week and we look forward to seeing our full community again. You have received Superintendent Karim Hachlaf’s Winter Return Letter (linked here again for your reference) which articulates our return to school plans: most importantly our updated Health and Safety protocols and how we intend to manage the potential for higher than normal staff and student absences.
At Queen Elizabeth we changed our protocols very little from the end of last year with respect to managing student transitions, working groups and unstructured break times. We maintained our staggered arrival lines and split recess and lunch breaks. We emphasized hand washing throughout the day, restricted visitors, and managed classroom configurations and transitions to maximize space as much as possible. Upon our return on January 10th we will pause Grade 4 lunch monitors, Choir and any indoor group activities or events involving more than one class or outside visitors. While we welcomed the return of some of these important activities, like the Young Entrepreneur Shows and our Choir performances, we feel it is best to take a step back with renewed diligence and maintain our classroom groupings as we did in the past.
We have so appreciated the support of our community throughout these difficult times, and we call on you once again to do your part to keep our community safe.
Please ensure you:
- understand the Federal Travel Restrictions in place for International Travel – specifically that any student who is not fully vaccinated, even those who are under 12 years of age and travelling with fully vaccinated adults, may not attend school (or camps or day care) within 14 days upon their return to Canada. Further information can be found here:Federal International Travel Restrictions We ask families to communicate any travel plans and return dates with us in advance of your trip
- complete a Daily Health Check every day before you arrive at school
- wear a mask at drop off and pick up times and distance yourself from classroom lineups and other families
- understand that visitors will not be able to access the school buildings freely and we appreciate you communicating with staff through email to set up meeting times or have discussions and preparing your child each day to avoid the need to drop off forgotten items during instructional time
- send your child with masks each day. We recommend sending them with a supply in a ziploc bag they can keep in their desks or back packs as well, if you are choosing to use disposable masks or an extra cloth mask in the event they misplace or drop theirs
- report child absences to the school daily (or a defined range of days if known) and please do so before 9 AM to avoid the office staff needing to call about unreported absences. Calling daily for unreported absences is a daily task, very time consuming and completely avoidable with your help. We also ask that you state the reason for the absence so we can support you where needed
- please do your best to prepare students daily and for specific weather conditions. Lunches, water bottles, boots, umbrellas, winter coats or rain coats, library books. We understand items are forgotten at times but we encourage you to make this a learning opportunity for your child. Create a checklist that you can post at or near your exit door and go through it with them before you leave. Visitors to the school will be restricted and this will help reduce unnecessary trips to the school to drop off forgotten items
As always please contact me directly at pmanville@sd40.bc.ca should you have further questions or concerns.
Thank you,
P. Manville
Principal