Dear Newton’s Grove Community,

I hope you and your family are keeping well and finding safe activities to enjoy during these unprecedented times. I am very pleased to be joining the Newton’s Grove Community, and I look forward to meeting you and welcoming you back to school in September.

Striving for a Full-Return to In School Learning.

As you no doubt know, there continues to be considerable uncertainty in Ontario regarding what the start of the 2020-2021 school year will look like. We continue to make the health and safety of our students and our community our priority. With this in mind, we are committed to achieving a return to full in-school learning for every student in September. In the event that a student is not able to attend school in person in September or if families choose to have students learn from home, we are planning to stream our classes in real time so that students can continue their learning remotely. Students will be able to log in using Edsby and attend classes via Zoom.

Our plans for this are well underway and aided by our current experience offering Summer Day Camp.  Currently, we are measuring rooms and looking at creative uses of dividers and alternate spaces to support safe, excellent learning. The team’s planning will be exhaustive. While we will update you more completely at a later date, some of the areas in which we are working include:

• Ensuring students, faculty and staff will actively engage in regular, effective handwashing, and proper cough and sneeze etiquette. 
• Using a combination of barriers, physical distancing and cohorting to keep students safe.
• Assisting all members of the school community to actively monitor their health and stay home whenever they are not well. 
• Ensuring touch points are cleaned regularly and an appropriate standard of cleaning occurs each night. 
• Modifying programs and activities in an innovative manner to deliver as full an experience as possible in class and extracurricular activities.
• Modifying entrances, exits and traffic flow in the halls to ensure physical distancing.
• Having parents and visitors remain outside the school maximizing safety for all.

It is noteworthy that our plan to keep everyone safe will be aided by our building’s state-of-the-art ventilation and filtration system. We will also use our many wonderful open spaces creatively to help physically distance students. Finally, our plan will include considerable staff training and ongoing monitoring of all safety protocols. 

Piloting Bring Your Own Device to Enhance Learning

In preparation for our return to in-school learning this fall, teachers are actively creating, planning and sharing ideas to allow them to construct innovative and effective lessons. Recent experience has shown us that technology highly aids great teaching and learning. Knowing that students thrive on structure and predictability, we plan to leverage technology to provide consistency and the effective delivery of our program, no matter what challenges we face this year. As a result, we will be piloting a “bring your own device” program for every student from Grade 3 to Grade 12 beginning September 2020. Students from JK to Grade 2 will not require a personal device at school. For students in these grades, teachers know that continuing to provide inspiring and engaging hands-on learning experiences are critical. We will continue to incorporate Smart Boards and iPads in ways that support great student learning.

Remaining Flexible in a Time of Uncertainty

We recognize that the level of Corona Virus infection in the local population is likely to fluctuate. We will continue to pay close attention to Provincial leaders, public health officials and international authorities to understand how this may impact our programing. Our goal is to offer a full program of in school learning. If conditions demand, we are prepared to react quickly and deliver a hybrid program that combines alternating in-school instruction and at home instruction. If the community and school should face another mandated shutdown, we will be fully prepared to execute a temporary learn from home program to ensure our students continue to learn and interact daily with their teachers and peers.

Every member of the Newton’s Grove team looks forward to working together with you in a strong and effective home-school partnership to enable your child to be safe and realize their potential. I look forward to getting to know your children and you well as we work to enable all members of the school community to do their best to be safe, create inspired and effective learning in all areas, and maintain a caring community. I am optimistic that we will all do our best to ensure a safe, productive and joyful year for all.

Sincerely,

Dr. Glenn Zederayko, Head of School

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