September Reopening Information

Parents/Custodians of existing international students will be asked to complete the Reopening Registration Form to indicate your intention for each of your children to attend school in person or through online remote learning. Please complete this form for each child by August 14, 2020 by 5:00 p.m.

Parents/Custodians of new international students will be asked to complete a similar form to indicate your intention for each of your children to attend school in person or through online remote learning.

Families with more than one child will receive more than one invitation to this form.  Please complete a separate form for each child attending our schools.

The Ministry of Education has indicated that elementary students in Kindergarten to Grade 8 will attend school five days per week. School schedules, including start and end times, will remain the same. Regular class sizes will be maintained. Students will remain in their classes as one cohort (or group). Specialized teachers (e.g., French, The Arts) will still be joining classrooms to provide the full breadth of programming for students.  Recess and lunch will be staggered to adhere to cohort guidelines.

Elementary Online Learning

Families can make the decision to send their child to school or engage in remote online learning. Online learning will be available for students who do not return to school physically. Students will be able to engage in online learning, including real-time live sessions directed by a teacher in a scheduled manner similar to day school. Specific remote learning classes will be created and taught by teachers available to the system. This means that your child may be taught online by teachers who are not connected to your child’s school.

Please note that, in order to maintain safety and appropriate cohorts, children whose families opt for online learning in September may be required to wait for a specific entry point (e.g., end of a reporting period) to return to in-person learning at school. We will also support transitions between face-to-face and online learning when possible as space allows.

Secondary School Model (Grade 9 to 12)

As directed by the Ministry of Education, secondary schools in York Region will open using an Adaptive Model to support student learning.  In this adapted model, students will continue with their scheduled classes through a modified school schedule that includes both synchronous (real time) and asynchronous learning during the school day.

In the morning, attending cohorts will be in schools for in-person face-to-face learning with their teachers. Students will leave the school and later engage in live online learning for their afternoon classes with the entire class. On non-attending days, students will engage in asynchronous and/or synchronous learning in the morning and then engage in their afternoon classes through live online learning with the entire class. School specific information on school times will be available to families in the near future as details are finalized.

This model minimizes contact between cohorts of students as they will be attending class with only one cohort each day during a rotation. Schools can use their existing timetables to build student timetables in this model. Over the full semester, this model provides additional learning time, including in-class learning, as compared to other adaptive models that were reviewed.

You can find sample timetables for four-course and five-course schools posted today on our Board website. This information will be shared this week with families.

In addition, families can also make the decision to send their child to school or engage in remote online learning. Online learning will be available for students who do not return to school physically. Specific remote learning classes will be created and taught by teachers who are available to the system and who may not be normally connected to the school.  Students will be able to engage in live online learning with teachers available to the system scheduled in a manner similar to day schools.

Please note that, in order to maintain safety and appropriate cohorts, children whose families opt for online learning in September will be required to wait to specific reporting cycles (e.g., beginning of Semester 2) to return to in-person learning at school.  Note, not all courses may be available online.

All international students returning from overseas must review the Pre-departure, Travel & Arrival Protocol document, complete and return the Self-Isolation Plan to ies.support@yrdsb.ca prior to departure.

Updates

We will continue to share information with you regularly, and update our Board website with information about: health and safety measures, program and curriculum information, special education supports, transportation and more. You can also access a letter from the Ministry of  Education. We will also soon be posting a digital publication on our website that outlines our Return to School Plan.

Thank you for taking the time to complete the important Reopening Registration Form. The information will help inform our planning and be used to support the creation of remote classes for students.

We thank families for their patience and understanding as we work to finalize learning models that will best support student learning, achievement and well-being, while meeting Ministry of Education and public health guidelines and adhering to health and safety measures. While the school year may look different, we have truly missed our students over the past few months, and are looking forward to welcoming them back to school in September.

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