Clarion Newsletter, January 7, 2022

Good afternoon Clarion parents and friends!

Welcome back for the rest of the 2021-2022 school year. We slid quite easily into the new 4.5 day week, but had the challenge of dealing with new COVID precaution protocols (for example, no PE until further notice came out this week).

We welcomed 18 new students to school this week, and signed up several more for next week- much of this is due to YOU as parents continuing to spread the word about Clarion School.

I would like to publicly congratulate our Clarion team of faculty and staff for not just keeping school open, but keeping each day absolutely academic and lessons and classes relevant to learning. We have kept school open with professional teachers and assistants in all rooms delivering proper lessons. I am proud of how the staff have never complained about covering up for each other- so professional, so caring!

Not a single person on staff questioned our requirement to get a valid updated PCR on the 1st of January to reopen on the 3rd.

Clarion chose to go the extra step to ensure safety for your children with PCRs mandated for all staff to come to work this week and I am glad we did..

A few notes:

Below in the newsletter you will find attached the revised Monday-Friday School Calendar for 2022.

COVID protocol reminders for parents:

1. At pick up and drop off, please don’t linger at school and keep social distancing.
2. Of course we will all continue to ‘mask up’ and we appreciate your continued vigilance with this requirement!
3. Only parents/drivers/family members who are either fully vaccinated OR show a vaild (within 48 hours) PCR can come inside gates 2 or 3 and into school
4. If you do not fit the above, then you can :
   • Use the “Kiss-n-Drop” drive through for drop off
   • For Drop off you can bring your child to gate 3 and we will escort them to class
   • For pick up we can have your child wait for you at Gate 3 also

4. If your child shows any signs of COVID- and yes we know that the flu and strep throat have some similar symptoms- please keep them home to monitor them for a day or 2 and then check with your family doctor. This is what you all did so very well last year all year and we thank you in advance for continuing to do so!

Distance Learning and Bubbles who are out of school:

If you receive an email from us about going on DL for your children’s class section, please understand that the homeroom teacher will fill you in through SeeSaw (and email if needed) about the process for the next school day. At times this notice may come late at night- we had this happen only yesterday when were informed of a COVID case in one upper primary class, and had to contact parents about their children staying home today.

As of this moment we have 4 bubbles out- Grades 4, 5 and 6, and 3A. Grades 4, 5, 6 will return to school on Wednesday the 12th. Grade 3A will return on the 13th.

We also have several staff out with COVID or as Close Contacts. They are all providing us with required documents to return to school, and will be back to school as next week proceeds.

MAP TESTING:

This is postponed for a week or two until later in January.

ECA’s for 2022:

ECA’s will begin when we have confirmation on the start date from KHDA and they have listed the newly imposed restrictions for the first half of January. We will share information for CCI's (Teacher led ECA’s) and CCE's (External paid ECA's) with you next week in the newsletter.

Final thoughts to the week:

Here was my post on LinkedIn yesterday about how learning continued this week at Clarion School:

On a walkabout in school today as blue skies slowly fought through and the breeze sent a little chill over the skin I had the pleasure of coming across students and teachers doing so many great things...One Gr 2 class doing a lesson on "writing dialogue" in language arts; A Gr 1 group playing math games and counting by 10s using varying media; Another Gr 2 group (seen in the photo) sketching architectural detail of the mosque next door in art class; Another Gr 1 lunch time class doing free play free agency choice with Lego challenges and wood block building design and a slightly rowdy but ever so fun bottle flipping contest;Various Gr 2 students roaming school working on data collection and others in class working to design charts and graphical representation of their data...I could go on but you get the idea. Did I hear someone say covid is disrupting school? Yeah we work out a cover chart each day this week to ensure that children have professionals in their rooms; and yeah my head hurts as does my SLT as we are doing this every day differently depending on who is out. But at the end of the day happy children get picked up by proud and trusting parents.The Clarion Way. Works for us!

I think that says it all.

Have an AMAZING 2.5 day long weekend!!!!!

Sincerely,

Jim #4.5FeltLike45… Pastore