Dear Parents,
My hope is that this email finds you all healthy and safe. Amidst the current COVID 19 crisis, my hope is that this time of isolation and social distancing is providing you with the opportunity to spend much-needed family time together. It is a great time to pray together and play together, while remaining positive and hopeful. I am sure many of you have questions about what education will look like after the end of Spring Break. Please know that I am working very hard with other administrators, C.I.S.V.A., F.I.S.A. and the Ministry to come up with a meaningful alternative delivery of education. My goal is to try and maintain as much of a sense of community as possible over the next few weeks or months, as we are all social beings who thirst for community. No doubt your children are feeling a sense of loss during this time of isolation, and I hope to provide them with the opportunity to stay connected with myself and our staff, as well as with each other. I am thinking about possible options for keeping us virtually connected as well as trying to keep a scheduled school day, so please stay tuned! You are likely feeling anxious about how your children will continue to learn while schools remain closed. Please be assured that we are doing our best to provide your children with the best instruction and education possible, given the resources we have. I am attaching a great resource that was shared by Ms. Hargrave. Please take the time to read it, as it has lots of great information on how to move forward with your children during these times of remote education (https://www.catholicicing.com/homeschool-tips-for-non-homeschoolers/). It is very important to try and maintain a sense of normalcy for your children over the next few weeks. Your child(ren)’s teacher(s) will be reaching out to all of you in the next week to let you know what they will be doing to continue to provide a meaningful education, albeit remotely. Please be patient and understanding over the next two weeks as we all try and learn the best way to keep connected with you. This is new to all of us, and will require some time for learning new technologies and online teaching methods. We are expecting to receive further guidance in the next week from C.I.S.V.A.’s Educational Leadership Team and will share information as it comes out. There will also be an F.A.Q. document released tomorrow that will answer many questions you may have. I plan to share that tomorrow once it has been shared with school administrators.
Several of you have reached out to me to ask how to get your child(ren)’s school supplies. I plan to come into the school next week and will go around and bag materials from those students who were absent on Friday and didn’t bring them home. I am asking you to please email me at [email protected] to let me know if you want me to bag your child(ren)’s materials (please email me no later than Monday, March 23rd evening). The plan is to have all the bags labelled and put out onto the blacktop for pick up on a specified day (to be determined).
My thoughts and prayers go out to all of you during this challenging time, especially those of you whose livelihoods have been impacted by COVID 19, as well as to all of you who work in essential services and on the front lines to help people affected. May God keep you safe and healthy!
Yours in Christ,Clive Heah|
Principal
St. Patrick’s School, Maple Ridge
www.stpatsschool.org
604-467-1571 (t)