Please enjoy our September 2020 newsletter.

Please enjoy our October 2020 Newsletter

Please find attached an introduction of our new School Council Chair Simon Farquhar. A list of future meeting dates and instructions on how to join us are also included

In response to COVID-19, processes have changed to provide the suggested and mandatory school-based vaccines to Grade 7 and 8 students. The vaccines will no longer be administered in the schools. Instead, students will access clinics in the community. All schools, including virtual classrooms, will access community locations, by appointment only.

Immunization clinic dates and community locations for 2020/21 are posted on the Durham Region Health Department website: www.durham.ca/immunizationclinics.

The site will guide families to book an appointment at one of the community clinic locations, starting in October and running until December. Included in this email, is communication to forward to parents on how/when to book an appointment for their child through our scheduling platform. The vaccines offered this upcoming school year will remain the same (Hepatitis B, HPV and Meningococcal).

Please note the following changes this year:

• There will be no classroom visits by immunization program public health nurses.
• Consent forms for grade 7 and 8 students will be onsite at community locations for families to complete with a nurse.

We would ask that the intermediate teachers disseminate the information to their students and families. Attached is a Fact sheet for immunization information and a message to send to parents on how to access immunization community clinics. Please forward these two attachments to all grade 7 and 8 teachers to send out to the parents of the students in an email or via your chosen communication platform. 

Hello VMPS Family,

Exciting news, we are going to be having our school's Public Health Nurse join our School Council Meeting on Nov. 2 at 5:30 p.m. to answer Q&As. 

Please complete the following survey if you have any specific questions you'd like to ask and we will provide them to Joanne and she will provide answers to the trending questions that she sees.

Online survey: https://forms.gle/TpW41JsiEhE9NmX28

Kind Regards,

Mr Shea
Principal
VMPS

DRHD Hallwe'en...during COVID-19

School Yard Spook Instructions

School Yard Spook Poster

School Council Message

Please enjoy our November Newsletter

Note: Friday November 27 is a P.A. Day - no school for students

VMPS Remembrance Day Ceremony 2020

VMPS is learning about Reconciliation and embedding Indigenous Education into our daily lives. We are recognizing Indigenous Awareness month by flying our new Canadian Indigenous Flag.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

Inclement Weather School Closures

The KPR Board has made an important change to how we handle inclement weather days (snow days) this winter. We wish to let all families know that schools will be closed on inclement weather days this year, to protect student health.

We know school closures are an inconvenience and hardship for parents and families. Ultimately, however, we must ensure student well-being at all times. To meet public health requirements and maintain student health, we are not able to combine groups or “cohorts” of students who attend school when buses are cancelled. We also cannot ensure that our schools would have enough staff on-site during snow days to safely supervise the much smaller groups of students in their existing cohorts. 

Therefore, if all buses are cancelled to a school, a region of schools or all schools board-wide, those schools will be closed for the day.

More specifically:

• when ALL buses are cancelled across the entire board, ALL schools will be closed for the day
• when ALL buses are cancelled within a specific geographic region of the board, such as the Municipality of Clarington, Northumberland County or Peterborough County, schools in that region only will be closed for the day
• and, finally, if ALL buses are cancelled for a specific school or group of schools, only that school or group of schools will be closed for the day.

When only a few buses are cancelled, or buses are delayed, schools will remain open.

Schools will provide learning for students to work at home on these days in a variety of ways, either through previously assigned or new work through the classroom teachers’ regular communication platforms, based on the age and grade of the students. Virtual elementary and secondary school programming on snow days will continue as normal.

We will inform families of school closures on snow days in several ways, including local news media, on www.kprschools.ca, through our social media channels (@kprschools on Twitter and Facebook), and by email or text from SchoolMessenger.

Please ensure that your school has up-to-date contact information for you, so that we can text or email you directly about what is happening at your child’s or teen’s school. You can sign up for our direct text service by sending a text message to 978338 with the message of “Y” or “Yes”.

For further information, please see the letter emailed to all families November 25 from Director of Education Jennifer Leclerc, or visit www.kprschools.ca

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

Inclement Weather School Closures

The KPR Board has made an important change to how we handle inclement weather days (snow days) this winter. We wish to let all families know that schools will be closed on inclement weather days this year, to protect student health.

We know school closures are an inconvenience and hardship for parents and families. Ultimately, however, we must ensure student well-being at all times. To meet public health requirements and maintain student health, we are not able to combine groups or “cohorts” of students who attend school when buses are cancelled. We also cannot ensure that our schools would have enough staff on-site during snow days to safely supervise the much smaller groups of students in their existing cohorts. 

Therefore, if all buses are cancelled to a school, a region of schools or all schools board-wide, those schools will be closed for the day.

More specifically:

• when ALL buses are cancelled across the entire board, ALL schools will be closed for the day
• when ALL buses are cancelled within a specific geographic region of the board, such as the Municipality of Clarington, Northumberland County or Peterborough County, schools in that region only will be closed for the day
• and, finally, if ALL buses are cancelled for a specific school or group of schools, only that school or group of schools will be closed for the day.

When only a few buses are cancelled, or buses are delayed, schools will remain open.

Schools will provide learning for students to work at home on these days in a variety of ways, either through previously assigned or new work through the classroom teachers’ regular communication platforms, based on the age and grade of the students. Virtual elementary and secondary school programming on snow days will continue as normal.

We will inform families of school closures on snow days in several ways, including local news media, on www.kprschools.ca, through our social media channels (@kprschools on Twitter and Facebook), and by email or text from SchoolMessenger.

Please ensure that your school has up-to-date contact information for you, so that we can text or email you directly about what is happening at your child’s or teen’s school. You can sign up for our direct text service by sending a text message to 978338 with the message of “Y” or “Yes”.

For further information, please see the letter emailed to all families November 25 from Director of Education Jennifer Leclerc, or visit www.kprschools.ca

Break out your "Jingle Bells" and "Holiday Spirit".  Vincent Massey is hosting some fantastic spirit Days from Monday December 14th to Friday December 18th.

Please enjoy the council minutes from December

Please find attached information regarding the French Immersion Program.  Current JK students will be eligible to start in September of 2021.

I will also be posting the registration form. Completed registration forms for existing KPR JK students, can be e-mailed directly to dukeofcambridgeps@kprdsb.ca  

Attached you will find the student registration form for French Immersion September 2021.

Completed registration forms for existing KPR JK students, can be e-mailed directly to dukeofcambridgeps@kprdsb.ca  

Please find attached a link to explore some U Tube videos created by Duke of Cambridge.

Please find attached a message from our School Council Chair and information regarding the next meeting in April

Dear Parents and Care-givers,

As we end the first week of students’ return to virtual learning, we all are eager to know when elementary and secondary schools will be open again to in-person learning. Unfortunately, we do not have the answer to that as yet from the provincial government. We will share that information with you once we have it. 

In the meantime, KPR has another important date to share with you. If you wish your child or teen to learn online full-time next year, please visit the online opt-in portal at https://optin.kprdsb.ca by Friday, April 30.

Opt-in Portal Closes April 30

The online portal for families to opt-in to full-time virtual learning for 2021-22 will close at midnight on Friday, April 30. The portal is at https://optin.kprdsb.ca

We continue to believe that in-person learning is best for students, but we also know some families have indicated they wish to continue virtual learning next year, given the pandemic. To help the school board ensure resources and staff are in place for September for both modes of learning, students and families interested in virtual learning are asked to indicate their initial commitment now.

You will be able to review your decision and confirm your commitment to online learning again in late August/early September, before school begins.

While final details are still being confirmed, we expect online learning will follow the same basic structure as this year, including both synchronous (live, online connection with the teacher) and asynchronous learning.

The following points may also help you in considering your choice:

• Elementary students will be able to enter or exit full-time virtual learning at the following designated times in the school year: beginning of September, Fall Progress Report (around mid-November), Term 1 Final Report (around early February), and spring 2022.
• Secondary students will be able to enter or exit full-time virtual learning at the start of each semester (September 2021 and February 2022). The virtual learning opt-in portal includes a list of anticipated online courses. Courses that have an in-person component cannot be offered virtually.

Both elementary and secondary families wishing to opt-in to virtual learning for 2021-22 should visit https://optin.kprdsb.ca before midnight on Friday, April 30.

Mr. Shea
Principal