Dear Parent/Guardians,
We hope you are all healthy and safe. Without question, this has been a very different Spring Break for all our students and staff. We hope you and your family found time over the past couple weeks to rest, relax, and connect. Like you, Stelly’s teachers and administration have children currently attending Saanich schools and we understand the worry, angst, and perhaps even excitement you all may be feeling as we begin this journey together.
Articulating everything we want to say in this message and answering the many questions that are out there is impossible. We will do our best to give you an outline of what the next two weeks will look like for our Stelly’s community, knowing that the current climate seems to be shifting daily. Please be assured, the safety and wellbeing of Stelly’s students and staff are our highest priorities as we all navigate a “new way” of learning and working together.
This upcoming week, March 30 - April 3, students and staff will not physically be at Stelly’s as in person classes have been suspended in B.C. During this week, our focus will be on supporting our staff as they navigate a new way of connecting with and teaching your children. No formal teaching or assigning of work will happen this week. You can, however, expect teachers to reach out to students and families via the mode of communication already established. This could be in the form of email, Google Classroom, or even phone calls. We encourage students to reach out and connect with one another during this week and explore the many video conferencing applications. Later in the week, we will share a plan so students can enter the building, in a safe and controlled manner, to retrieve belongings and those materials necessary for at home learning. I would be greatly appreciated if everyone could limit communications to give staff the week to get oriented to this new environment.
By the second week, April 6 - April 9, our hope is that teachers are able to provide a general learning overview that supports the continuity of learning for our students. We understand that teaching and learning will look different than it has in the past. Our intent is not to replicate previous classroom instruction, but rather to provide opportunities for learning at home during this challenging time. More information about individual teacher plans will be provided by this second week.
Please make sure you bookmark our Saanich District Website (www.sd63.bc.ca) through which our Superintendent, Dave Eberwein, will provide current updates from our District and the Ministry of Education, as well as any new Provincial Health orders that impact student safety. We will primarily communicate to our families through our Stelly’s website. Under the “Parents” banner, subscribing to school news feeds will be important to stay current with information from the Administration. It will also be important to check with your child that they have been monitoring and responding to communication from their teachers.
We are blessed with an amazing staff at Stelly’s who are looking forward to reconnecting with their classroom communities. We are asking for everyone’s patience as we work through these extraordinary times and seek to find answers collectively to questions that have never been asked of us at Stelly’s. Moving forward with learning opportunities for your children is a priority and will be successful when we all support one another.
Stay Golden and Maroon!
Sincerely,
Sally Hansen shansen@saanichschools.ca
Wendy Laws wlaws@saanichschools.ca
Gord Redlin gredlin@saanichschools.ca