Cobra Communicator #11 - November 12, 2021
Cobra Communicator #11
We are a village, growing together
November 12, 2021
Dear families,
Once again, a special thanks to all our families for their continued support to our students and staff. We appreciate how consistently families are following our screening protocol and are sharing that information on EDSBY. Although it saves a check in phone call from Ms. Morrow or Mr. Chin, more importantly it demonstrates a clear understanding of our updated health and safety procedures. Please be sure to keep screening each student and follow the direction of the tool daily. You may not need to complete a report back form, but this will direct you as to whether to send your child (and or their siblings) to school each day and if your child will need to complete a PCR-COVID test. Thanks again for all your flexibility and understanding in this matter. Although the greater community numbers are starting to creep up, this makes it even more important that we carefully monitor our health daily and follow our Public Health direction.
Last week we sent out a reminder to our online families regarding the return to school and many of our families have now made the switch back to face-to-face learning. It is fantastic to see smiling faces back at school. Please remember that if you want your child(ren) to return to the physical building, you just need to call our office or send an email to scott.chin@yrdsb.ca
With parent/ guardian -teacher interviews coming up. If there is anything you need our assistance with, please call us at the school. We are here to help!
Wishing all of our families a wonderful upcoming week.
Sincerely,
Scott Chin Leeann Morrow
Principal Vice Principal
scott.chin@yrdsb.ca leeann.morrow@yrdsb.ca
CVPS Blog
Please visit our blog for CVPS calendar, this weekly email, copies of the daily announcements, and other information at: http://cornellvillageps.blogspot.com/
Important Information See Below
School Photo Day - Thursday, November 25 - see attached flyer
Health and Safety Reminders
Parent/Guardian - Teacher Interviews - November 18 and November 19
Cohort Changes Started today
Progress Reports
Indoor Sports - Grade 7 and 8 volleyball, Vaccination Requirements
CVPS Food Drive
Hindu Heritage Month
Remembrance Day
Holiday Heroes -YRP- please see attached memo
1. Photo Day - November 25
As per York Region Public Health and YRDSB School Protocols - we have a newly scheduled Photo Day - Thursday November 25
• No group class photos are to be taken until further notice. Only individual student photos can be taken at this time.
• Photos will be taken in the gym
• Students may remove their mask at the moment the photo is taken and then put them back on.
• hand sanitizer to be provided for donning and doffing masks
• Grad Photos and Retakes are currently not scheduled (we will let you know once they are booked)
• *NEW: Remote Learners: if you would like your child’s picture taken at the school the only time available will be 9:00-9:30am on Thursday, November 25. Please email Mr. Chin directly to arrange a specific time for your child(ren)’s pictures to be taken.
2. Health and Safety:
York Region Public Health requires students and staff members to use the provincial COVID-19 school and child care screening tool EVERY DAY. Students, parents and guardians will still be able to access the link to the tool through the York Region Staying Safe at School webpage. You do not need to report anything back to the school, unless your child is ill and will not attend the school. Please follow the screening guidelines. These direct you on whether to stay home or to complete a COVID test
3. Parent/ Guardian Teacher Interviews:
Cornell Village Public School will once again be using an online process through Edsby to manage our Parent/Guardian-Teacher Interviews scheduling. Grade 1-8 Interviews will be 15 minutes in length Kindergarten will be 10 minutes in length. Progress reports will be coming home electronically beginning Monday, November 15th. As per our electronic process, it may take a couple of days for families to receive all their children’s reports. Parent/Guardian Interviews will be on Thursday, November 18th ~4:00-8:00pm and Friday, November 19th ~9am-12pm.
Families will need to create an Edsby account to access the online appointment scheduler for their child’s teachers for Student Led Conferences. Only families who create an Edsby account prior to the schedule being opened (Nov 8-Nov 15@4pm) will have access. For help signing up for Parent/Guardian-Teacher interviews, please visit http://bit.ly/ptifamily.
*IMPORTANT REVISED: You will have access to book Homeroom teachers only. Rotary teachers (Visual Arts, Music, Phys-Ed, and French) will contact families if they require a meeting. Please be aware that these teachers may teach between 6-15 or more classes with upwards of 30 students in each class. It will not be possible for them to meet with 300 families individually. If your child is experiencing difficulty in that subject area, you can also reach out to that teacher to arrange an interview. Please reach out by email to arrange a time and date to meet. NOTE: some teachers may be travelling home immediately after school on Thursday, therefore interview time availability may vary.
NEED A TRANSLATOR - please email Mr. Chin (scott.chin@yrdsb.ca) and let him know the following information: your child’s name, homeroom teacher, language of translation, best times for interviews (Thurs, Nov 18 evenings/ Fri, Nov 19 morning or Either)
If you have any questions about the Interview process or have difficulty booking the interviews once they are posted, please contact our main office.
After Monday, November 15 @4pm: if you somehow missed signing up for the parent/ guardian-teacher interview please contact the school directly to see what times are available.
Important Timelines
PRIOR to your interview, your child’s teacher should be reaching out with a Zoom link for your Virtual Meeting. We’ve selected this platform so you do not need to log in as your child. If you have not heard from your child’s teacher by this Thursday, November 18, please contact Mr. Chin via email. Please log in only during your child’s scheduled time in EDSBY. If you did not get an interview time arranged by 4pm Monday, please contact your child’s homeroom teacher directly.
Do you need to borrow a device for your interviews? Please contact your homeroom teacher directly to arrange for your child to bring home their device before Thursday.
4. Cohort Changes started today
As promised we have reviewed our outside yard cohorts and have adjusted them to include a greater number of classrooms. Please see the revised times and now zones/ colours. This began this past Friday. A reminder that this is outside only and students if playing games or they cannot maintain appropriate physical distance should continue to wear their masks.
ENTRY/ EXIT/ RECESS ROUTINES:
Morning Recess/Lunch Entry
Group 1 Exit Bell @ 10:40am/12:50pm
Group 1 Reentry 10:53am Morning Recess/1:18pm Lunch Recess
South West Door - Free Entry 201, 205 Line up: 114
North West Door - Grade 7: 203, 225
South East Door - Free Entry: 206 line up: 111, 112
Group 2 Exit Bell @ 10:57am/1:22pm
Group 2 Reentry 11:10am Morning Recess/1:48pm Lunch Recess
South West Door - Free Entry 208, 209 line up: 115, 118
North West Door - Grade 8: 200, 204
South East Door - line up: 107
Dismissal
South West Door - Free Exit 208, 209 line up end of day 114, 115, 118
North East / West - Grade 7 and 8 (200, 203, 204, 225)
South East Door - Free Exit 201, 205, 206 line up: 107, 111, 112
Students will remain in their “colour” boundary when playing outside for morning and lunch recess.
Zone 1 -Yellow: Sand pit, tarmac north of 6 pack and north field area, 4 square and blue multiball catcher
Zone 2 - Green: South Field, 2 four square, basketball nets
Zone 3 - Blue: Upper basketball nets, field and walking path.
5. Progress Reports
Progress reports are set to be sent home electronically beginning the week of November 15th. As per our last few report cards, this will be done via secure transfer. You will need your child’s student number and password to login and receive the electronic pdf version. A copy will be signed, printed and placed in your child’s OSR. Please be sure to download a copy within the 2 week timeframe or you will lose the ability to download it.
It takes additional steps for us to reprint separate report cards and resend them to you if you miss the download window for your child(ren).
Levels of Achievement - adjusted expectations:
This of course has been a unique return to school for the 2021-22 academic year. As we have returned from 18 months of online and face to face variations of learning, please note that our teachers will likely have taken that into account when reporting “progressing well or progressing with difficulty”. Students may be behind where they should be by this time of the school year (but teachers may have selected progressing well if they are showing some expected development).
Other notable changes:
In accordance with our Boards Mission and Values to ensure that all staff, students, families and community partners feel valued and have a sense of belonging and in alignment with the Directors annual plan to create a more equitable and inclusive school environment some staff at Cornell Village have moved away from identifying students using the pronouns of he/she in report cards.
These pronouns often assumes a person’s gender and leaves no room for other gender identities. Gender pronouns are words that people use to refer to others without using their names. Using a person’s correct pronouns fosters an inclusive environment and affirms a person’s gender identity. Some teachers have chosen to use more gender neutral pronouns such as, like they/them/their. The correct use of pronouns is a simple, yet important step towards eliminating systematic barriers while fostering a positive, affirming and inclusive environment based on gender expression and/or gender identity.
6. Indoor Sports – Intra-school (Extra-curricular) and Inter-school
Through extensive consultation with the York Region Public Health, indoor high contact sports (eg. volleyball, basketball, ice hockey) will be permitted at YRDSB. In order to ensure the safety of all student athletes and staff coaches, all student athletes must be fully vaccinated (double-vaccinated) to participate in intra-school (extra-curricular) and inter-school high-contact sports.
For any indoor high-contact sports that a school offers outside of instructional time, all participating students must provide proof of being fully vaccinated. Our board will notify schools and families about a centralized process by which participating students will be able to attest that they have been fully vaccinated.
Please note that safety protocols are also being developed to ensure consistency of understanding of expectations and requirements. While this is great news for our students, recognizing the tremendous interest our students have in being able to participate in intra-school (extra-curricular) and inter-school athletics, we also need to ensure that our students can compete in these sports in a safe manner.
*Upcoming we will be starting with a sign up for Grade 7 and 8 students for Intermediate Volleyball team tryouts and skills clinics. Students may not have had their second vaccination but will be able to participate in skills clinics leading up to our Volleyball season. A letter will go home if students are interested and permission will be required to participate in the skills clinics and tryouts. Ms. Baillie and Mr. Chin will be coaching the Intermediate Volleyball team(s) / club this year. Note: we do not have any guidelines for inter school play but will begin with Skills Development and Practice. Further information will be shared in the participation form.
7. CVPS Food Drive
Dear Cornell Families,
We are the students from Mrs. Giovannetti's Grade One Class! We have been doing many acts of kindness in our class! Together with Mrs. Worthington we learned that some people in our Markham Community do not have enough food. This made us feel sad. We want to help the community. Together we are going to have a Food Drive from November 22nd - December 3rd! Please send in what you can to help if you wish. The list of things that the Markham Food Bank needs the most are as follows directly from their website:
Most Needed Items
· Crackers
· Small and Large Bags of Rice
· Cake Mixes and Icing
· Hot Cereal / Instant Oatmeal
· Jam
· Canned Salmon, Tuna, and Sardines
· Canned Evaporated Milk
· Non-Dairy Milk
· Canned Vegetables (not corn)
· Vegetarian Soups
· Kraft Dinner
· Sidekick Pasta / Rice Pouches
· Dry Soup Mix (e.g. Ramen Noodles)
· Cooking Oil
· Baby Food (puree, formula, snacks & cereal)
· Diapers sizes 4, 5, & 6
· Baby Wipes
We have an influx of pasta at this time.
While we will accept donations of pasta,
Please consider donating a most needed item.
We really hope that you can help us reach our goal of 250 items! We can do it!
Thank You for your support,
Ms. Worthington along with
Mrs. Giovannetti's Kind Grade One Class
8. Hindu Heritage Month
On December 8, 2016, the province of Ontario designated November as Hindu Heritage Month as outlined in the Hindu Heritage Month Act. Hindus first arrived in Canada at the beginning of the 20th century. During various waves of immigration, Hindus from all parts of the world continued to make Canada their home from the 1960s to present day. There are many Hindus who have settled in the Greater Toronto Area, including York Region. “By proclaiming the month of November as Hindu Heritage Month, the Province of Ontario recognizes the important contributions that Hindu Canadians have made to Ontario's social, economic, political and cultural fabric. Hindu Heritage Month is an opportunity to remember, celebrate and educate future generations about Hindu Canadians and the important role
that they have played and continue to play in communities across Ontario.” Hinduism is considered by some as one of the world’s oldest religions, dating back over 10,000 years. With over 900 million followers worldwide, Hinduism is the third-largest religion. Hinduism is a henotheistic religion that worships one God without denying the existence of other gods. Some of these deities include Brahma, Shiva, Paarvathi, Lakshmi, Ganesha, Muruga, Kaali, and Vishnu, along with others. Hinduism consists of many traditions and festivities that are celebrated throughout the year. Diwali, Navaratri, and Ganesh Chaturthi are some main ones in which Hindus participate in Ontario, Canada, and around the world.
9. Remembrance Day Donations
A special thanks to Ms. Cockburn for organizing our Remembrance Day assemblies this year. The students participated in a virtual assembly for Remembrance Day this past Thursday. Students were all provided with a sticker poppy from the Canadian Legion. Some students have already donated, but if you would like to participate please bring any donations to your child’s homeroom teacher by Thursday, November 18th. After which we will be sending a donation on behalf of our school. You can also directly donate to the legion with the electronic link below.
The Royal Canadian Legion Poppy Fund is a charitable organization which supports veterans and the elderly. Donations assist with emergency needs for veterans and their dependents, medical equipment and research for local hospitals. The Legion also supports drop-in centers, meals on wheels and transportation services for veterans and the elderly. In addition, donations also go towards care facilities for veterans and allied veterans in destitute circumstances.
This year, as in previous years, our students will receive a poppy on Thursday November 11th, from the Royal Canadian Legion to commemorate Remembrance Day.
In the past, students were invited to make a small donation by bringing cash to school to support the Fund. If you and your family would like to make a donation click on Donate here
Thank you.
Comments
Post a Comment