Woodland Public School

Dear Families of Woodland P.S.,

One of our key daily messages at Woodland P.S. is, “We can do hard things…together!”  Once again, you’ve risen to this challenge! What an amazing example of flexibility and adaptability you’ve set for your family! Please accept our heartfelt thanks for your continued perseverance and partnership as many of our families navigate this period of remote learning.

Many of our families are navigating a shift to remote learning and on behalf of our Woodland P.S. team, please accept our most sincere thanks for your optimism and patience.  We acknowledge and appreciate the added workload this places on many of our Woodland families and it is our hope that the level of service and support we offer you and your child(ren) can lighten that load.

Please know that your child’s teacher is well-equipped to support you.  Your child’s teacher remains your first point of contact.  You can reach out via email. This is the email format for NNDSB staff firstname.lastname@nearnorthschools.ca or you can call the office and ask one of our school secretaries for your child’s teacher’s name/email address.  During the period of online learning, your child’s teacher is busy providing live/online instruction for synchronous learners between 8:25 a.m. – 2:45 p.m. There are periods during the day when they may be able to reach out to assist you, but the bulk of their support will come at the end of the school day or before the school day begins.  We thank you for your patience as you wait for their response. Lesson planning and approaches to technology use is individual to each teacher and as a result, we’d ask you to reach your child’s teacher directly for assistance.

Below, we’ve identified a few frequently accessed resources that may be of assistance to you.

What does a parent need to do if they don’t want their child to be a part of live learning instruction with the teacher/class (referred to as synchronous learning)?

There is no mechanism for a parent/guardian to exempt their child from learning entirely. The exemption applies only to the minimum requirements of synchronous (live, interactive) learning. Students are still required to complete and submit learning tasks and will continue to receive feedback from educators.

Here is the link to the Exemption Form that is required if a parent declares that their child will not be attending to 225 min of synchronous learning (or 180 for Kindergarten):  Exemption Form

*Please note, students who have completed a synchronous learning exemption form will be provided with technology-enabled ‘asynchronous’ learning opportunities in accordance with the 300-minute instructional day. Furthermore, daily attendance is still required.

 What if my child(ren) needs access to a borrowed device and/or internet?

As you would have read in several messages to date, the Technology Request Survey is the only recognized approach to requesting a device.  Please ensure this form is completed for each child in your home who needs a device.  We will call you when a device has been prepared for your child.  At times, a delay due to availability will occur between the date of your request and when a device becomes available.

If my child has an Individual Education Plan (IEP), are they permitted to attend in-person learning?

Students attending in person learning are members of one of three Special Education System classes at Woodland P.S. Students in these three specialized programs are engaged in alternative learning and have been placed in one of these classrooms via the Identification Placement Review Committee (IPRC) process. If your child is eligible for in-person learning, one of our staff would have been in touch last week.

How is attendance taken during the period of remote learning?

Attendance Expectations for Synchronous (live/online) Students*:

• Daily Schedule: Students must follow the daily schedule provided in accordance with the 300-minute instructional day, attending live/online meetings with their teacher.
• Daily Attendance: Student attendance will be taken daily during the MS Teams meetings.
• Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting will occur through direct observation by the teacher during live meetings and via submission of assignments required for successful completion of the program of study.

Attendance Expectations for Asynchronous Students (those who’ve completed the Exemption Form noted above)*: 

• Daily Schedule: Exempted students must follow the daily schedule or timetable provided in accordance with the 300-minute instructional day.
• Daily Attendance: Student attendance will be taken daily.
• Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting will continue to apply to all students who have been approved for an exemption from the minimum requirements of synchronous (live, interactive) learning.  Students will complete and submit the assignments and assessments required for successful completion of the program of study.

*According to the Ministry of Education’s Policy Program Memorandum 164  

Truly, we understand that these requirements can feel complex and/or overwhelming.  Our staff is eager to support you and your child. Please reach out to your child(ren)’s teacher(s) for assistance when you need it. 

Like you, we hope that we’re all together again soon.  In the meantime, please prioritize your child’s well-being (part of which is supported by engagement in healthy routines including school) and your family’s health.  We’ve got this…together!

Sincerely,

Woodland Public School

 

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Important Reminders for Families – January 12th 2022

Good day,

Here are a few friendly reminders for families that may be helpful.

Inclement Weather and School Transportation

With developing weather in the forecast, it seems the ideal time to send along a few reminders about inclement weather processes.

• Our School Remains Open-
  • Please be reminded that if buses are cancelled, Woodland P.S. remains open for those who can travel safely.
• ​​​​​​​All School Purpose Transportation is Included in Cancellations-
  • Remember that when transportation is cancelled for a whole corridor (i.e., North Bay), it includes all school transportation vehicles including school buses, vans and cabs.
• Pick Up at 2:45 p.m.-
  • When transportation is cancelled in the morning, it remains cancelled for the whole school day. Therefore, students dropped off in the morning need to be picked up by 2:45 p.m.
• Please Follow the NPSSTS for Bussing Delays and Cancellations- 
  • Route and corridor cancellations are posted by our partners at Nipissing Parry Sound Student Transportation Services (NPSSTS). Follow updates here:

https://www.npssts.ca/npssts/delays

 

Self Screening for Students

We wish to thank you for your diligence in performing the daily, required school screening with your child(ren).

As a reminder, any individual entering the school, as a student, staff, service-provider or otherwise, must complete and pass the daily self-screen. Please find the link below.

https://covid-19.ontario.ca/school-screening/

New Automated Safe Arrivals Approach – Effective Thursday, October 28, 2021

The safety of our students is our top priority!

A responsibility of each school is to ensure that all students arrive safely every morning. This legislation, called Safe Arrivals, was created by the Ministry of Education in 1999 to support schools in determining whether parents were aware of a child’s absence from school.

In the 20 years since that legislation began, we recognize that education has changed. School student populations, for example, are larger and the task of calling parents to perform these Safe Arrival checks is taking increased time. To develop an efficient process that determines student absenteeism quickly to ensure student safety, we will be implementing an automated call-out system.

It is always advantageous to call the school prior to your child’s absence.  This way, we can appropriately update your child’s attendance records, including parent approved absences that do not require an automated call out.

Commencing Thursday, October 28, 2021, the school will begin using the School Messenger platform to call parents for confirmation of a child’s absence. If your child is marked absent, you will receive a call with a message that states:

This is a message from Near North District School Board. A student in your household named ______ in Grade ______, was absent for morning attendance taking. Submitting a reason for this student will prevent this system from calling you again.

• If you are aware of this absence, press 1.
• If you are not aware of this absence, press 2.

(If press 1)

• Select the type of absence
• Full Day, press 1
• Late, press 2

(If press 1)

• Please select an absence reason from the following list:
• Absent due to failed Covid Screening Tool, press 1
• Absent parent approved, press 2
• Unaware of absence, press 3

(After selection made)

• You have entered this absence for (Firstname) (type of absence – e.g. ‘full day’) on (date) for the following reason:
• (Absence reason selected)
• To submit this absence to the school, press 1.
• To start over again, press 2.

The automated system will call up to 4 times should it not be available to reach you the first time. The information obtained from these call-outs is received by the school secretary so, should your child be absent without your knowledge, immediate action will be taken to locate them. If you know in advance that your child will be absent on a specific day, please continue to notify the school secretary via phone or email to prevent automated calls from coming to your phone.

With all new technology comes some bumps and we wanted to thank you in advance for your patience as we work to implement this new system. As always, please reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

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A YEAR FULL OF PROMISE AND POTENTIAL

Dear Families of Woodland Public School,

At Woodland P.S., we are so energized to set our sights upon a new school year. It is our most sincere hope that this message finds your family safe, happy and healthy and feeling just as optimistic as we are about the promise of the year ahead.

We are excited for your child’s return to in-person learning at our school.  We are confident that our students will find a meaningful and supportive environment waiting for them.  Staff have invested countless hours in planning and preparing for a healthy and joyful school start-up.  Every minute of these preparations has been worth it, so that we can be certain that our new and returning Woodland family members are set for a year of growth and happiness!

Stay in the Know

Please like and follow the @WoodlandNNDSB Facebook page for more information. This page will become very active in the coming days and as such, these posts will allow you and your family to find daily/weekly updates on the happenings at Woodland Public School!

Connecting with Parents/Guardians

As you can appreciate, there have been a myriad of updated requirements in anticipation of the re-opening of school.  We are so grateful for your patience and support as we work diligently to address your questions and plan for your child’s arrival.  The volume of calls and email messages is very high at this time but we can assure you that connecting with you is important to us and we’re working hard to be as responsive as possible.

Our office administration team includes:

Laurie Mantha, Secretary

Sheila Rondeau, Secretary

Ramona Lynn, Vice Principal

Amanda Meighan, Principal

First Day of School

Most of our students will begin on Tuesday, September 7^th.  Some students will experience a gradual transition to school. If this is the case, your child’s teacher or a member of our office administrative team will have been in touch last week.

Daily Self-Screening Required

Any individual entering the school, as a student, staff, guest, service-provider or otherwise, must complete the daily self-screen. Please find the link below. Our staff are required, for the first two weeks of school, to confirm your child’s completion of the self-screening during morning routines.  As such, your child will be asked if they performed the self-screen. If they respond that the self-screen was not conducted, we will ask the student to verbally complete the self-assessment at school. If the child needs the support of an educator to conduct the self-assessment, they will receive this support at school.

https://covid-19.ontario.ca/school-screening/

Please Prepare a Plan for Pick Up

While we hope that your child is at school every single day, feeling happy and healthy, there are requirements for isolation if your child demonstrates specific symptoms (i.e., fever/chills, cough/barking cough, nausea/vomiting/diarrhea, etc.). Our guidelines for children continue to evolve and we follow the Ministry of Health requirements in our work.  If the school calls to explain that pick up of your child is required, please ensure you’ve planned for their prompt pick up and let the office know if the individual retrieving your child differs from those on your child’s school records.  Having a plan for each school day will be a critical part of our shared responsibility to keeping the school healthy.

Health and Safety

Given the return of students to school amid the on-going Covid-19 pandemic, student health and safety remains the highest priority to the staff of Woodland.  You can feel confident that the staff have been participating in required training and will be taking all available and necessary precautions to mitigate risk. Once again, staff have been issued Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that will assist in keeping them safe and keeping their students safe.  Masks will be worn by staff, when a staff member cannot maintain two metres of physical distance indoors and outdoors.  Directional arrows and other signage will assist students and staff in maintaining physical distancing when moving through the hallways, using the restrooms and visiting the office.  Staff will spend much time supporting student learning related to the updated health and safety requirements while finding a balance between this necessary training and creating a welcoming and nurturing environment.

Please review the information provided by the Board, Public Health and the Ministry of Education related to our requirements for safety by following this link:

https://www.nearnorthschools.ca/blog/updates/23245/

 

Student Mask Use

All students starting with JK – 12 are required to wear masks when attending school.  Masks need to have ear loops and cover the nose and chin, securely fit.  Students are directed to wear masks on the bus (or any school-purpose vehicle).

Please note that students are not required to wear a mask outdoors and during nutrition breaks.

For information regarding mask exemptions, please https://www.nearnorthschools.ca/blog/updates/23245/

Essential Visitors Permitted

We wish to remind all families of our commitment to partner with you to make this year as positive and productive as possible for your child.  At this time, we are required to restrict school visitors to those who are essential only (i.e., those providing direct support to students such as speech therapy or other specialized services). Parents will be invited to make an appointment if they wish to meet with a member of our staff and a virtual/phone meeting will be arranged.  We are unable to accommodate parent requests to visit that are unplanned, unless they are in response to an urgent matter.  Your child will be well supervised and supported while attending school.  If it is deemed essential for a parent to enter the school (i.e., to attend to an ill child), changing into a school-provided medical mask will be required prior to entry.

Personal Items from Home

All students will need the following items (PLEASE LABEL WITH FIRST AND LAST NAME):

• A personal mask (for all students who travel on the bus and all students in grade 1 and up who will be attending class and/or travelling on the bus). Sending more than one mask is advisable – changing wet masks is encouraged.
• An individual water bottle (bubblers or the sipping portion of the fountain will not be used but water bottle filling stations are available)
• A hearty and healthy lunch (lunch drop offs and/or food deliveries cannot be accommodated, and pizza/sub orders will not be available at this time)
• Indoor (non-marking sole) running shoes
• Weather specific outerwear (enhanced use of outdoor spaces for learning and play means that appropriate coats, boots and other outerwear will be critical part of full participation in school, every day)
• Extra change of clothes (accidents happen with spills, playground play and/or other mishaps so to avoid an interruption to your day or your child’s day, please provide a labelled change of clothes)

 

Transportation to School

 

Parents with transportation inquiries are asked to direct their attention to the information provided on the Nipissing Parry Sound Student Transportation Services website, found at npssts.ca.  Beyond this, parents will want to create a parent account (by following the instructions found on the website) to learn about their child-specific transportation services.  Our partners at the Nipping Parry Sound Student Transportation Services tell us that transportation arrangements made within the week may take up to three weeks to process by their staff, especially where changes to route-planning, seating plans and bus-loads may be involved.

Parents choosing to drive their child to school are welcome to drive up to the school and drop off, avoiding the bus loop entry and the side parking lot.  The KISS/DROP lane in front of the school is the only safe and allowable option for pick up and drop off.  Our school is well positioned for a brief drop off in front of the school.  With that said, any support you can offer to reduce volume in front of the school is appreciated.  Please note that you child cannot be supervised by school staff until 8:10 a.m. (upon their arrive on the playground or in the school).  The City of North Bay manages crossing guard allocation and supervision.  Students who are dropped off away from the school or walk to the school are the responsibility of the parent until 8:10 a.m. when they are on the playground and under the supervision of Woodland staff.   School begins at 8:25 a.m. and ends at 2:45 p.m.  Students being picked up each day will require prompt pick up after the dismissal bell. Changes to these plans (i.e., pick up instead of bus travel) must be communicated to the child’s teacher and office by 2 p.m. Information received later than 2 p.m. can be a challenge to implement based on the dismissal routine and at times, we may not be able to accommodate your request.

School Schedule

 

8:10 a.m. – 8:25 p.m.	School Supervision Begins
8:25 a.m.	Entry Bell
8:25 a.m. – 10:25 a.m.	First Instructional Block
10:25 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.	First Nutrition Break (ELK – 3)	First Recess (Gr. 4 – Gr. 6)
10:45 a.m. – 11:05 a.m.	First Recess Break (ELK – 3)	First Nutrition Break (Gr. 4 – Gr. 6)
11:05 a.m. – 1:05 p.m.	Second Instructional Block
1:05 p.m. – 1:25 p.m.	First Nutrition Break (ELK – 3)	First Recess (Gr. 4 – Gr. 6)
1:25 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.	First Recess Break (ELK – 3)	First Nutrition Break (Gr. 4 – Gr. 6)
1:45 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.	Third Instructional Block
2:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.	Dismissal	Bus, Walkers, Pick-Up, Childcare
3:00 p.m.	School Supervision Ends

 

Switching Between Virtual and In-Person Learning

 We understand that parents and students may wish to switch between in-person learning and remote learning.  Please be reminded that parents were requested to make a full-year decision during the last registration period.  While the Board and its virtual school are committed to considering all requests, there is a defined process to follow should a change be required.  It’s important for us to share that these changes will take time, if available at all.  Health and safety requirements mean that physical distancing, space allocation, cohort planning, scheduling and other school plans will need revising regularly and these requirements may create a delay in accommodating requests to switch learning models.  If you did not indicate on the Board survey, distributed in early June, that you wish to register for remote learning, we’ve planned to warmly welcome your child at school for in-person learning.

 

While uncertainties remain in the world around us, you can be certain of our care for our students, their families and our broader community.  Please know that we view it as a privilege to play such an important role in the care of your child(ren), alongside your family.  While we’ve all experienced this pandemic differently, when it comes to school, we’re in this together! We relish the opportunity to partner with you throughout the year ahead!

Sincerely,

Amanda Meighan

Principal

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