Parents and Guardians,
As previously stated, when we released the return to school plan, we continue to review and update our school re-opening models in partnership and with guidance, from the Ministry of Education and local and provincial health authorities from the lens of enhancing the safety of our students, staff, and school communities.
Change to In School Learning
Keeping student and staff safety in mind, the ministry has suggested further reduction of in contacts at school. As a result, we have revised the model to the recommended Octomester Model for secondary schools.
The Octomester Model is most significantly characterized by the fact that students will take one course at a time for approximately 20 days of full-day instruction. For example, the first octomester would run from September 9th – October 9th for a total of 24 days.
There are many positives for our students with this model, including and most prominently, the increased safety for our students as they remain with one cohort of students each day, for the duration of the course. This change has been made to allow us to support our students, in NNDSB secondary schools, in adhering to the directive of a maximum of 100 student daily contacts. For questions related to this, or any other questions regarding the start of the school year, please contact your school principal.
At-Home Learning
If you have already registered your child(ren) for At-Home Learning, additional information will be shared with you in the coming days. At this time, a waitlist has been created for additional registrations for At-Home Learning and placement will depend on staffing and programming considerations.
The safety of staff and students is of the utmost importance. We remain vigilant in planning with this in mind.
