Parent Peek at the Week
Week of October 12th, 2020
Important Dates
Monday, October 12th - Day 0
- Happy Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, October 13th - Day 5
- 10:20am: First Virtual School Wide Assembly launching our Cougar ROAR
- 10:40am - new yard areas begin - students will rotate the areas their class has been in
Wednesday, October 14th - Day 1
Thursday, October 15th - Day 2
Friday, October 16th - Day 3
Online COVID-19 Screening Tool
A reminder that we are kindly asking all students and staff to complete the online self-screening tool daily, before coming to school. We know it can be confusing when your child isn't feeling well - what should you do? By completing this simple online tool, you will be given easy to follow directions on next steps. Please keep this website handy:
https://covid-19.ontario.ca/school-screening/
If you prefer to print and keep the screening tool at home on paper, please see the tool listed below.
Moving to and from Online Learning
In particular, parents who would like to move their children from in-school to online learning need to start the process by speaking with the principal of their home school. Families will need to register by October 23 if they wish their children to make the change on the next available start date of Monday, November 2.
Similarly, families who wish their children to switch to online classes on Monday, November 30 will need to register between November 2-20. Please note that this process will not occur in December.
In other words - to start learning online, then families need to:
Register Between:
October 9-23 to start school online on Monday, November 2
Register Between:
November 2-20 to start school online on Monday, November 30
Please note: After registering for the VES (Virtual Elementary School) and while waiting for their online classes to start, students will be supported by their home school until they transition to the virtual school. They will have two choices during this waiting period: either attend class in person at their home school until the VES start date, or complete work assigned by their child’s teacher at home.
Indoor Shoes
In Grades 1 - 6, an area has been taped to the floor outside each classroom. Students will each be assigned one location for their shoes. They will be dismissed to put their shoes on from class in small groups, ensuring that students are socially distanced when changing shoes.
In Kindergarten, students will be using the back hook area, however, as with the older students, only a few students will change their shoes at a time, in order to socially distance.
At this time, we continue to ask for your cooperation in only sending outerwear (kept on the back of chairs at student seats), lunches and water bottles to school. We appreciate your support as we add in one new routine to learn - but we know our students are up to the challenge, while still maintaining a safe social distance.
School Council
Our new Council team for this year is: Sarah Amirault (chair), Rachel MacLean (secretary) and Karen Murduff (treasurer). Below please find the Council minutes and the Fundraising Plan for you to look at.
Our next meeting is Monday, November 2nd at 6:30pm. Please consider joining us! More details about how to log in will come closer to the date.
Flipgive
Kawartha Heights Families:
As with most things this year, fundraising for the school is going to look a little different. Due to Covid-19 safety protocols, we will not be able to run some of our popular fundraisers like Cupcake Day or holiday poinsettias. That being said, your School Council is happy to announce a fantastic fundraising program that we’ll be running throughout the school year!
FlipGive is a team funding app/website that gives the school cash back for the things you’re already buying, at no additional cost to you. You can earn money for the school when you purchase things like groceries, books, coffee, hotel stays, dining out, gas etc. FlipGive is absolutely free to use, and the school gets every penny that our team earns!
Very simply, you join our team on FlipGive and then start all your online shopping through our team page. With FlipGive, our school raises money every time you shop with hundreds of popular retailers like Amazon.ca, Uber Eats, Starbucks, Indigo, Sport Chek, Walmart and Esso.
Join our team now by using our school code 27R77Y on the FlipGive app or website www.flipgive.com (or search for Kawartha Heights at https://www.flipgive.com/teams).
Remember to use FlipGive before you shop online so the school will earn cash back. You can even double down on fundraising with some vendors by using FlipGive to purchase an electronic gift card, and then going through the app/website to make your online purchase and use your gift card as the payment method!
We’ve only listed a few vendors, but the earning opportunities are endless. Gifts for holidays and birthdays, gift cards, books, take-out food, car rentals, sporting goods - you name it. We’re very excited about this fundraising opportunity, and look forward to having you join our team!
Thank you,
KHPS School Council
Exciting changes coming to our school yard....
Main Yard:
Math Caterpillar
Exercise Circles - spaced out with globe logo in centre
Knight’s Castle Hopscotch
Kindergarten Yard:
Robot Hopscotch
Basketball Court:
Multi Mirror Me (SHAPES)
Beside the Shade Shelter Area:
Totem Pole Hopscotch
Main Yard Math Caterpillar
Main Yard Knight's Castle Hopscotch Race
Main Yard Exercise Circles (one example)
Basketball Court - Mirror Me
Totem Pole Hopscotch by the Shade Shelter
Robot Hopscotch on the Kindergarten Yard
Renewed Cougar ROAR
Last year we officially launched our COUGAR ROAR - the "rules" or expectations that we all follow at Kawartha Heights to show and manage our respect (R), our safety (O), our attitude (A) and our responsibility (R). We worked with students to co-create these expectations for the hallway and nutrition breaks, and this year we've added one for outside recess. Please see below for more details.
In order to support students in remembering these important rules, we will be launching an official Cougar Adoption Challenge! Each class will chose an area of Cougar ROAR to focus on, and will assess their progress daily towards the goal, by earning up to 5 points per class. Each week, we'll be tallying our school wide points. When we reach 1000, we'll be looking to adopt a cougar from the World Wildlife Federation in order to celebrate. This new school wide challenge will be launched at our first Virtual Assembly on Tuesday morning. We haven't tried a virtual assembly before - so we're hoping this goes well and we can have more in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to find out how we are coming along towards reaching our school goal!
Important Pieces of Information
1. Verifying Personal Information: Most years, we send home a "verification" form, asking you to check your personal information (such as contact numbers, etc.). This is very important as over the course of the previous year, much information does change. This past week, you will have received the following information from the Board Office:
To help protect KPRDSB staff and families during COVID-19, KPRDSB will be reducing the use of paper forms and introducing online/electronic forms. Completing these forms is critical to ensuring that schools have the most up-to-date parent/guardian contact information.
To access these online forms, the PIN (unique to each student) that was previously provided to you will be used to verify the identity of parents/guardians which will ensure the security of sensitive data.
You will need this PIN as well as your student’s OEN or Student Number and their birth date to complete this year’s Student Information Verification form, which is normally sent home in paper format, that can be found at https://verification.kprdsb.ca .
We kindly ask that you please take some time to ensure your personal information is as current as possible. Thank you!
2. Individual Education Plans: Some students in our school require an Individual Education Plan (IEP) in order to help them be successful in an academic or behavioural way. IEP's must be completed and filed in a student's OSR by Tuesday, October 20th (30 days after the first day of school). Most families will have been contacted already by classroom teachers to ask permission to share the IEP electronically, as well as ask for your preference for consultation. Please let us know how we can best support moving forward. We look forward to sharing our draft thinking with you this week.
Parents want to know!!!!
1.Will there be school photos this year?
Normally, we do class and individual photos each fall. This fall, we are not able to do class photos, and unfortunately we do not have a space available to consider doing individual pictures at this time. I have been in touch with Edge Imaging and we are looking at hopefully doing Spring pictures this year - of course this will depend on whether there continues to be any restrictions still in place in the Spring. Stay tuned!
2. What happens at school if my child says they aren't feeling well?
When a child indicates they are unwell at school, first we refer to the COVID symptom screening tool. In most cases, children are then brought to our isolation room, located inside the library. Once there, they are supervised by Mrs. Sampson or one of our support staff, who are outfitted in full Personal Protective Equipment. Symptoms are noted, tracked and monitored and temperatures are taken. At the same time, Mrs. E. will be contacting parents/guardians or emergency contacts to come pick up your child. When you arrive at school, you will let Mrs. E. know you are here and she will direct you to the exit "pick up" doors. When you pick up your child, you will be given further written information on the next steps that need to be followed, depending on the symptoms your child is presenting. Please know we do our best to watch for children who may not be truthful in their symptoms - however we are not medical doctors and we do err on the side of caution. As a parent, you are best aware of ongoing health issues and concerns and in your care can determine the next best step for your child, along with the information provided.
Information from the KPR Board Office
Please join us at KPR’s free Virtual Parent Conference, which will be held:
Saturday, October 179 a.m.-11 a.m.
Theme: Drop the Worry Ball
Featuring Dr. Alex Russell
Dr. Russell is a clinical psychologist, well known and engaging speaker, and co-author of the book Drop the Worry Ball: How to Parent in the Age of Entitlement.
To make joining the Virtual Parent Conference as easy as possible for everyone, separate registration will not be required. You will be able to “tune in” directly to the Parent Conference, the morning of the event on October 17, by simply clicking on a link that we will be sending out to all families and staff next week.
In addition, KPR will be recording Dr. Russell’s presentation and posting it on our website, the week after the Parent Conference, for those unable to participate in the live, real-time event. Our website also will include links to information and resources provided by agencies that serve families across KPR.
If you need assistance, have questions or if there are accommodations that would make the conference more accessible for you, please email kpr_info@kprdsb.ca or call 705-742-9773 or toll-free 1-877-741-4577, ext. 2018.