Thank you to all members of our school community for your cooperation and adherence to the guidelines outlined
by AHS during the retrieval of personal items. For those members who still have personal belongings within the
school, rest assured that they will be safe and available upon our eventual return to school.
March break is to continue as planned for the week of March 23-27, 2020. I ask all SVS School community
members, including our staff, to recognize this is a “break” and is meant to be a time to enjoy family and to stay
safe. During March Break, I anticipate communication will be less frequent, I still encourage you to check your email
for system messages, and I will re-connect with our community after the March break.
We continue to better understand the unusual and challenging events of classroom cancellation. We don’t want to
overwhelm students and families with programming expectations or offerings while we settle into day 5 of this new
reality. In addition, it is important that consistent messaging and resources are offered to students across the CBE
and Alberta. The resources found on the CBE “Learning At Home” webpage have been reviewed by CBE staff and
offer wonderful learning opportunities for students to engage in. Again, I encourage everyone to become involved in
things that interest them and provide some physical and mental rigor. Maintaining a balanced and consistent
routine for children; including regular sleeping and eating times, breaks for activity and outdoor time, and healthy
boundaries on screen time are very important to bringing normalcy to our days.
These past week has been met with a lot of mixed emotions. Hallways and classrooms are quiet and simply make
up the structure of a building. The children, whose laughter and energy is greatly missed, is clearly what make SVS
a strong and vibrant community school. As we learn new words and protocols such as social distancing and self-
isolation, we are challenged to contemplate things that matter most and we are faced with uncertainty. Uncertainty
is heavy! However, this notion of a “new normal” offers up the opportunity to re-align and take note of what is most
important, what is truly valued and connect with loved ones.
I would never have thought that I would be quoting the Chief Medical Officer of Health in Alberta, Dr. Hinshaw, but
her advice is now more important than ever. Dr. Hinshaw tweeted “The days and months ahead will be difficult for
all of us. We need to face this pandemic together and respond to this extraordinary crisis with extraordinary
kindness. I want to remind Albertans: it is together that we will overcome.”
Take a deep breath, be kind to one another and take care of yourself, family and friends.
Sincerely,
Chris Snow / Gina Davidoff
Administrative Team, Simons Valley School
