Looking Ahead to the Future
Dear SJK Community,
Thank you for everything you have done to support your children and their teachers over the past eight weeks of remote learning. Your continuous support and feedback during this challenging time has been extremely valuable. We are grateful for your insights and perspectives which, alongside those of our faculty and students, have helped to inform our decisions as the situation progressed.
You will have heard the Minister of Education and the Premier announce this week that schools will not resume this year. While this is a disappointment to us all, we are grateful to have clarity for the near future. We will continue with our remote learning program until June 11 and we will hold our Closing Ceremonies for our Lower and Upper Schools on June 12. We are postponing our Commencement Ceremony for our Grade 12 students at their request. We will recognize them in our Upper School Closing Ceremonies, but will still have a full graduation when we are permitted to do so. In addition, we will be recognizing our students’ completion of the PYP and MYP in virtual grade-specific celebrations. Information regarding these end-of-year events will be shared with you next week. We understand how important these milestones are to our students.
While we have some clarity about the next few weeks, we are still waiting on guidelines from the province with regards to reopening school in September. While SJK is an independent school, you may be surprised to learn that we are bound by the provincial and local guidelines. We are also looking forward to receiving the guidelines for operating summer day camps, which are expected to be available soon. We will be unable to offer an in-person summer camp experience in June. If possible, we may be able to offer a program in late July or August on a limited basis. We will let you know when we have clarity about our ability to offer a program.
Although we are waiting for news, we are definitely planning for our return to campus. As an agile and nimble organization, we are exploring how we can further adapt to meet the challenges and opportunities of this situation. We are looking carefully at our campus and enhancing our environment to ensure our facilities support the ongoing health and safety of our students and staff. We are also determining how to take what we have learned about remote learning and create an even more robust and dynamic academic program next year. We are thinking deeply about opportunities for our community to connect. This has been one of the most challenging aspects of the pandemic and we want to make sure our students have opportunities to re-engage with their friends and teachers.
I was speaking to a former parent this afternoon who reminded me how important it is to be positive and look ahead to the future. I am very proud of the way our school has responded to this crisis. I look forward to working with my team to plan for our return to campus and to creating an even better, stronger school.
Thank you for everything you have done to support your children and their teachers over the past eight weeks of remote learning. Your continuous support and feedback during this challenging time has been extremely valuable. We are grateful for your insights and perspectives which, alongside those of our faculty and students, have helped to inform our decisions as the situation progressed.
You will have heard the Minister of Education and the Premier announce this week that schools will not resume this year. While this is a disappointment to us all, we are grateful to have clarity for the near future. We will continue with our remote learning program until June 11 and we will hold our Closing Ceremonies for our Lower and Upper Schools on June 12. We are postponing our Commencement Ceremony for our Grade 12 students at their request. We will recognize them in our Upper School Closing Ceremonies, but will still have a full graduation when we are permitted to do so. In addition, we will be recognizing our students’ completion of the PYP and MYP in virtual grade-specific celebrations. Information regarding these end-of-year events will be shared with you next week. We understand how important these milestones are to our students.
While we have some clarity about the next few weeks, we are still waiting on guidelines from the province with regards to reopening school in September. While SJK is an independent school, you may be surprised to learn that we are bound by the provincial and local guidelines. We are also looking forward to receiving the guidelines for operating summer day camps, which are expected to be available soon. We will be unable to offer an in-person summer camp experience in June. If possible, we may be able to offer a program in late July or August on a limited basis. We will let you know when we have clarity about our ability to offer a program.
Although we are waiting for news, we are definitely planning for our return to campus. As an agile and nimble organization, we are exploring how we can further adapt to meet the challenges and opportunities of this situation. We are looking carefully at our campus and enhancing our environment to ensure our facilities support the ongoing health and safety of our students and staff. We are also determining how to take what we have learned about remote learning and create an even more robust and dynamic academic program next year. We are thinking deeply about opportunities for our community to connect. This has been one of the most challenging aspects of the pandemic and we want to make sure our students have opportunities to re-engage with their friends and teachers.
I was speaking to a former parent this afternoon who reminded me how important it is to be positive and look ahead to the future. I am very proud of the way our school has responded to this crisis. I look forward to working with my team to plan for our return to campus and to creating an even better, stronger school.
Ms. Cheryl Boughton
Head of School
St. John's Kilmarnock School
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