| Dear Parent/Guardians, It has been a challenging week for our school community as we have navigated a number of COVID cases over the past seven days. I am certainly thankful for the ways in which students, teachers and families show their support. This week has also been one of encouragment. On Monday, we had nine substitute teachers in our building, and many of them spoke of the way in which our students and staff welcomed them into the community. During the day on Friday, a number of teachers shared encouraging stories of how students are engaging in their learning and seeing success - for this I am thankful, as we navigate the complexities of our world. Please continue to take good care of each other. The letter below is the formal notification of a case. As you may be aware, this notification goes out to families once those directly impacted have recieved notification. A number of families have had difficulty opening the letter when it is sent as an attachement. I am hoping including the letter in the body of the text is helpful - though long. Sincerely, Mandy We have been notified by Alberta Health Services (AHS) that a case of COVID-19 has been diagnosed in an individual from Dr. Gladys McKelvie Ebgert School. Our school remains open to in-person learning for all students, and we are working closely with AHS to ensure necessary measures continue to be in place to protect all staff and students. This includes the cleaning and disinfecting of all items touched by the individual, and the removal and storage of all items that cannot be cleaned and disinfected (paper, books, etc.) in a sealed container for a minimum of 72 hours. The school has already contacted each family or staff member affected by the positive case, and AHS will be following up only with those individuals. If you were not contacted, your child (ren) are not affected by the positive case. All students directed to quarantine by AHS will be supported in maintaining course work during the designated period through D2L and/or Google Classroom. They will not join Hub online learning. We remind parents/guardians of students, as well as any staff/visitors/volunteers to monitor for any signs or symptoms of COVID-19.The Alberta Health daily checklist can be found here. Please remember to complete the checklist each day prior to attending school. If you/your child has any of the symptoms of illness listed on the Alberta Health daily checklist, please fill out the online Alberta Health Services COVID-19 self-assessment or call Health Link at 811 and stay home/keep your child at home. We will continue to provide additional information to parents / guardians as it is available.
Sincerely, Mandy
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| Good evening, I hope you have had a lovely weekend so far. Please see below some updates for the coming week. As well, as I was about to send this email, I was also notified by AHS of an aditional positive case in an individual at our school. Please see the COVID-19 page of this website. Over the last few weeks we have been noticing the toll of isolation on student well-being and ability to focus on learning – understandable. Isolation is tough for adults too. Of course, students are drawn to socialise with peers – normal at any time, but sneaking out of class is becoming a concern. We are certainly working together as a community to support students engaging in learning in the class and hoping for some settling. Usually, after extended breaks, as we had last weekend, it is often difficult for students to settle. We appreciate the ways in which you are working with us. As we continue to engage in activities and conversations that support the community in treating each other well, we are noticing a difference in some areas. We have another opportunity to support these conversations this coming week as Wednesday February 24 is Pink Shirt Day. Please encourage your children to wear pink. Ms. White and her leadership students have planned some events for this day, as well, our School Resource Officer, Constable Pierce will be spending time in all of our Grade 7 and 8 homeroom classes. We will be arranging similar opportunities for our Grade 6 and 9 classes in the coming weeks. We appreciate all of the ways in which Constable Pierce supports our school. I am sure that the warmer weather will help us all. I had mentioned in my last weekly message that the Parent Council had organised a Telus Wise virtual conversation for parents. The link was sent out also. While it was unfortunate that no additional parents were able to attend, we look forward to continuing to offer virtual opportunities on a regular basis. Constable Pierce will be supporting our April meeting. A link for this meeting will be available closer to the date. Student groups have been supporting the community in celebrating Black History Month. While teachers consistently engage students in conversations related to celebrating and respecting diversity, students have displayed posters around the school with quotes from a number of civil rights activists. Twice a week, during regular notice times, particular students have been sharing over the intercom ways in which leaders have impacted them, for example, Malcolm X, Angela Davis and Black Panther Party. We continue to think of ways in which we can celebrate our diversity. Take good care - stay safe, Sincerely, Mandy
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| Good evening, I hope you are all having a beautiful longer weekend (for children anyway), and enjoying the sunshine at least for a moment. This past Friday we were able to take time as a staff to prepare for second semester. These moments are always appreciated in the midst of the usual busyness. We hope students had time to be refreshed and prepare for the second half of the year. It is certainly hard to believe we are in February (shortly)! Please see below a few reminders as we head into a new week.
Monday Feb 1st We have done some minor classroom adjustments to best support learning for all students, and as we welcome some of our Hub students back to face to face learning, so we will begin the day similar to the way in which we started the year. Students will meet their teachers at their grade level entrance and will be called in by class. Please ensure children arrive on time to avoid disruptions. Thursday Feb 4th To avoid system complexities due to the high volume of students within the CBE, report card availability will be based on alphabetical range. Dr. Egbert report cards will be available online as of Thursday. An additional email will support clarification of the process. Wednesday Feb 10th Telus Wise: Full school virtual conversations around wise use of social media. We notice as a school, that while some students are certainly wise, many others struggle with appropriate use of technology. Sadly, messages and images are regularly unkind, distract students from learning and rarely support student well-being. While we engage in ongoing conversations with students around what it sounds like and looks like to treat each other well, we hope this presentation will provide another entry point into supporting students in being wise and caring in their interactions both online and face to face. It is certainly a complex world young people are growing up in.
6:00 PM Thursday Feb 11th – Telus Wise Parent Workshop As parents, most of us did not grow up with cell phones, or access to the internet and social media platforms. This can sometimes make it difficult to understand not only the advantages of these technological advances, but also the pitfalls and dangers. I encourage you, on behalf of School Council, to join us for this evening. A link will be sent out prior to the event. Thank you to our council secretary for organizing this opportunity for us.
School Council will follow after the workshop – this is a great opportunity to find out what is going on in our school community. It would be wonderful to have more parents join our conversation.
2020-2021 School Yearbook This school year has certainly been like no other. Ms. Ramsay, with the support of a few students, has been hard at work trying to capture special moments and special faces (your children) of this school year. Our school yearbook will certainly hold memories that will be talked about for years to come. We look forward to sharing a yearbook promotional video with students very shortly. Thank you to Ms. Ramsay for leading this extra curricular work.
Thank you so much for your ongoing support.
Sincerely,
Mandy
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| Dear Egbert Families,
I hope you all had a wonderful break, and the last two weeks were all you and your family hoped for amidst navigating current restrictions. I have certainly appreciated the gorgeous weather and many opportunities to walk our local river pathways.
As you are aware, all students in our community classes (Grades 6 - 9) will be entering into online learning for the week of January 4th - January 8th. I believe we are stepping into online learning at this time having learned from past experiences. Based on learning that took place prior to the break, I am hopeful that students will respond well and be diligent in following through on the committments to virtual classroom time and engagement with assigned tasks. This is certainly important as we endeavour to support our students in staying on track with learning. Our Grade 7-9 students had settled into a pattern of learning prior to the break - they will continue with this same schedule of support. Please reach out to your child's teacher if you have any questions. Tomorrow may be a difficult transition for our Grade 6 students. Teachers took time in December to ensure students understood how learning would unfold this week, so I am hopeful everything will go smoothly. Again, if you have concerns, please reach out to your child's teacher, directly with me, or our Assistant Principal, Michael Cutler. Your ongoing support is very much appreciated - you are certainly your child's most significant encourager. The last couple of weeks may have been a difficult time for some of our young folks, and we do have staff in the building who are able to support in different ways. Please reach out if you have any concerns. As we step into a new year, I am excited to be part of the Egbert community as we continue to learn together and support your children in their learning. I hope that 2021 will be a year in which you and those you care about will experience peace and hope. Sincerely, Mandy
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| Good evening,
I hope you have enjoyed a restful weekend. It is certainly a complex time, and I am aware that our current situation is more difficult for some families than others. Most of us have been affected in some way by the virus. Please reach out if you think there is something we can support you with as a school. While I suspect this may be the last email before the break, if I receive further information this week, I will be sure to forward on to you. I apologize for the length of this message, but there are a few items to touch base on. In-class learning continues this week for our Grade 6 students. We will be supporting a Middle School Spirit Week. This is for all students online and face to face. Monday, we start the week off with - Wear a hat day. Thursday, December the 17th is the last day of learning for all students before the break. Friday, December 18th is a non-instructional day. As you are aware, all students transition to online learning for the week of January 4th – January 8th. Students enrolled in specialized settings will continue to receive support face to face. At this point, we look forward to students returning to face-to-face learning on January 11th. We have been working hard these past couple of weeks to ensure that students have the technology available to support learning. Teachers have also been diligent in supporting students in being familiar with the online learning environment. Our Grade 7-9 students have impressed us with their online attendance and engagement, and so we are hopeful this will continue the first week of January, although we recognize it may be a difficult transition for students. We appreciate your support.
Lunch time protocols While we know it is difficult for our Grade 6 students to remain on campus during lunchtime when their older peers are permitted to leave the grounds, in an effort to support safety, we ask that families write us a note granting permission for their Grade 6 child to leave the school grounds. As you know, students are not supervised when they leave the school property. Also, we have been reminding all students about the importance of being a role model in the community. We have had a number of concerns raised by surrounding businesses. They hope to continue to support our students in accessing their facilities during lunchtime. It has been wonderful to see some of the ways in which our Physical Education teachers have supported online learning. Please see below an important update: Update on Physical Education curriculum expectations The physical education curriculum requires students to acquire skills through a range of developmentally appropriate movement activities within a variety of different environments. Physical Education teachers have planned tasks to best support physical activity within online learning environments. These activities may involve students participating in both indoor or outdoor environments. The physical activities will not require additional equipment and will allow for flexibility in how and when students will engage in different tasks presented. The expectations of activities will be communicated to the student and parent/guardian and will be posted in the electronic platform used between the student and teacher. This will help ensure that students and their parent/guardian will have an opportunity to review the activity and share any concerns. Please note that these activities will not be supervised by a CBE teacher. It is a parent's decision as to whether the student can do such activities on their own or if they need to be supervised. There will be flexibility in regards to the expectations of the activity to allow for families to make decisions around the logistics of their completion. We want to inform you about some potential hazards involved with any activity which takes place outside of the home. Please note this list may not include all of the hazards for a given activity: - Risks inherent to the activity;
- Slips, trips, and falls;
- Street crossings;
- Pre-existing medical conditions and/or allergies;
- Exposure to infectious diseases (eg. COVID-19 virus, influenza).
If you have any questions regarding any activity, please contact me or your child's teacher. Thank you for your patience and ongoing support. I hope you have a wonderful, and peaceful break. Sincerely, Mandy
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| | | Good evening, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and had an opportunity to enjoy the lovely weather. I expect that there might be some anxiousness as we head into this coming week – online learning for our Grade 7-9 students, and continued face to face learning for our Grade 6 students. Last week, teachers took time to prepare students as well as possible for the transition to online learning, particularly given that teaching and learning will look quite different from our experience in the spring. Grade 7-9 students will follow their regular schedule. While each day will look differently (some days full class instruction, and other days one on one or small group check-ins, depending on how confident students are in their knowledge and understanding of the assigned tasks), it is important that students check in with teachers daily to ensure they understand the work, and are marked present for each class. Check-in possibilities can be personalized, but it is important that students stay connected to ensure success. We are in the process of supporting families who do not have computer access, and we will reach out tomorrow as we navigate sharing resources. On Friday, we gave all students contact cards that identified people they could reach out to if they were struggling with wellness, that being said, please reach out if you or your children have any questions – we are here to help. While Hub families have received information with regards to conferences, this is simply a gentle reminder to book conversations with your child's teachers. Hub family conferences are this coming Thursday, December 3 (1:00 – 4:30PM and 5:30 – 7:30PM) and Friday, Dec 4 (9:00AM – 3:00PM). Again, please reach out if you have questions. We continue to be here to support you in whatever way possible, in the meantime, take good care. Sincerely, Mandy |
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| Dear Dr. Egbert Families, I am thinking about you all as you navigate with your children the upcoming changes to learning, and while I recognize that all families received an update from our CBE central office and our senior leadership team yesterday, I wanted to reach out personally. I am hoping that you will not feel inundated with emails.
I recognize that the announcement yesterday would have brought mixed emotions for families. We saw mixed emotions in our students today, including, some young people struggling with the decision and wanting to be at school, others stressed about their learning, some students looking forward to a sleep in, and other young folks struggling, but not able to articulate why. We are committed to supporting our Grade 7-9 students in this transition to online learning in a thoughtful way. Our work today, and for the following two days is to support students in being prepared well to engage in online learning with us. Further information will follow around scheduling specifics for Grade 7-9 students, but we are working towards keeping their schedule online as close to their usual face to face schedule as possible. This will support consistency, and hopefully a smoother transition between online and face to face. Thank you for your support in encouraging your children to engage in learning - this may not be an easy task, but certainly important work in helping our young people achieve success.
For our Grade 6 students, there is also mixed emotions, although a few students acknowledged they were happy to have the school to themselves! We are looking forward to some more flexibility around learning given the space available.
As we seek to navigate these changes with care, I will provide further updates as they become available. In the meantime, please reach out if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Mandy
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| Good afternoon, I hope your children are enjoying a day away – likely a sleep in! Thank you for connecting with teachers over the last couple of days. It appears that virtual meetings have supported more flexibility in meeting, as we have had more parent conversations this year than usual. Thank you – I know that the timing is sometimes difficult for parents and guardians. Some families did have some glitches with technology, so please reach out if you were not able to connect as you had hoped. As we head into the weekend, I wanted to share a few updates for the upcoming week. School Development Plan - Reading comprehension Teachers have been engaging in reading assessments with students over the past month. These assessments provide us with the information needed to guide our teaching practice as we seek to improve student’s reading and comprehension across all disciplines. While we implement strategies at school that support success in reading, we are also encouraging students to continue to read with family members on a regular basis. School Development Plan – Supporting students in demonstrating empathy and kindness Your children may have shared with you some acts of kindness that we have been engaging in as a full school this past week. Thank you to our teachers who took the time to write cards to all of their Homeroom students, and to students who wrote cards to their peers acknowledging the things they appreciate about each other. We will continue to support learning in this area through small and larger conversations throughout the school year. As I mentioned last week, Akeem Haynes (alumni and Olympian) will be joining us next Friday (November 27th) for a virtual conversation with all students. Akeem joined our staff connect time just prior to conferences this morning, and I am sure the students will really appreciate him. Your ongoing support is always appreciated. Sincerely, Mandy
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| Good afternoon, I hope you are all enjoying a lovely weekend and staying safe and well. You will notice below that many of these updates are repeated from last weeks email, rather than being onerous, hopefully this is helpful in supporting families knowing what is going on in our learning community. That being said, I did want to take a moment to acknowledge my email at the end of last week related to our first COVID-19 case at Dr. Egbert. Thank you all for your generosity in this regard. As you are aware, it can be a stressful time for staff, students and their families. Our COVID deep cleaning team was in the building late and did a wonderful job to support cleaning protocols. As CBE adjusts their policies in light of the stress on AHS to care for the number of cases in the province, our communication will be more timely. Please continue to join with us in reminding young folks of the importance of wearing their masks and sanitizing their hands regularly. Grade 6 Vaccinations – Tuesday, November 17th Please see the link provided by our school nurse. This document will be helpful in answering any questions you may have. https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/assets/info/ppih/if-ppih-covid-19-sch-school-imm-during-covid.pdf Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences – Thursday November 19th (2:00PM – 8:00PM) This is a shortened day for students and we will follow our Friday schedule. Conferences can be booked through your MyCBE PowerSchool account and can take the form of a virtual conversation, or a phone call. If you have any questions, please contact our Main Office for support. Conferences continue – Friday November 20th (9:00 – 12:00PM) No school for students – please see above details for conferences. Akeem Haynes (Egbert alumni and Olympian) – Friday November 27th As well as being an Olympian, Akeem is a sought after inspirational speaker. He is very much looking forward to the opportunity to share his story with our students. This will be a school community event. Each Homeroom will connect virtually. Akeem's story and conversation will further support our students in learning to care for each other and believe in what could be possible for their lives. As always, thank you for your support. Take good care, Sincerely, Mandy
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| Dear Egbert Families, On this blustery Saturday afternoon, I wanted to take a moment to reach out and remind you all of some important upcoming days. Remembrance Activities Given that November the 11th is a recognized holiday, our school will be engaging in some 'remembering' activities during this upcoming week. Thank you to Ms. White and the Leadership Class, Ms. Monast, and Ms. Marshall for their work and support. Remembrance Day – Wednesday, November 11th No school Parent Council – Thursday, November 12th Please join us for our upcoming virtual school council meeting. We will begin promptly at 6:00 PM. Please let me know if you require the link for this meeting. Grade 6 Vaccinations – Tuesday, November 17th Please see the link below provided by our school nurse. This document will be helpful in answering any questions you may have. https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/assets/info/ppih/if-ppih-covid-19-sch-school-imm-during-covid.pdf Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences – Thursday, November 19th (2:00 PM – 8:00 PM) This is a shortened day for students and we will follow our Friday schedule. Further details will be forthcoming around booking virtual, or phone call conferences. Conferences continue – Friday, November 20th (9:00 – 12:00 PM) No school for students Thank you for trusting us to care for your children and support them in their learning. We continue to work with young people in following COVID guidelines to ensure we stay safe at school and can continue our focus on learning. Thank you for your participation with us. Take good care, Sincerely, Mandy
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