News from Vanier - Week of April 6-9

Dear Vanier students and families:
 
In the Catholic tradition, this week is called Holy Week as we mark the somber events leading to Christ’s crucifixion and death and celebrate the joy of his resurrection on Easter Sunday.  It is a week that elicits a wide range of emotions.  In a similar way, we are all experiencing a wide range of emotions as we deal with the worldwide response to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the uncertainly, at the school level, of what comes next for us all.
 
Ms. Ouellette and Ms. Brogdon have started an information website with resources for students and parents/guardians: https://vaniercatholicsecondarycounselling.weebly.com/  Please feel free to reach out to them if you or your child requires any additional supports during these difficult times.
 
Next week, on April 15, our teachers will commence a program to facilitate our students learning the remaining essential parts of each course from home.  Here are the requirements that the Department of Education have shared with us:

• Grades 8 & 9 – The provision of opportunities and resources for students to engage in language arts, literacy, mathematics, numeracy learning standards, and the personal and social core competencies of the curriculum. Teachers will assign about ten hours of work to be done by each student per week and will work with their students and families/guardians on the delivery of these materials.  [For Vanier, the ten hours will be divided as follows: 3 hours per week for each of Humanities and Scimatics and 1 hour per week for each of French, Religion, Physical Education, and the options class]
• Grades 10-12 – For learners in their graduation years, this will include providing the activities, resources and supports for students to develop the competencies and understandings outlined in learning standards that are prioritized so that they can be successful in as many of their current courses as possible. Teachers will assign about three hours of work per course to be done by each student per week and will work with students and families/guardians on the delivery of these materials.

Starting tomorrow, teachers will begin contact students by email to check in and collecting any specific concerns about their classes.  They are still planning their instructional approaches and will share those details with students on Wednesday, April 15. 
 
We have heard some concerns about technology as we have been reaching out to families:

• Zoom – there have been many news reports about the security and misuse of Zoom.  We are confident that Zoom is a secure platform as long as the meeting settings are configured correctly.  The misuse that has been reported is when meeting login details are shared publicly and not password protected.  We will message students individually with the login details and passwords to ensure meetings are kept secure.
• Access to technology – we have heard that some families will require additional technology and we hope to be in a position to loan out our limited numbers of iPads and laptops to those families who need them.  More details on how to make a request will be sent out on Wednesday morning.
• Portal Logins – we have heard inquiries about the login to the student portal.  Starting Wednesday afternoon at 1 pm, we will have telephone-based technical support in place to assist families with resetting passwords and troubleshooting accessing the student portal.  More information will come in an email on Wednesday morning.

 
Starting Wednesday afternoon at 1 pm, we will begin distributing the contents of student lockers through curbside pickup or through delivery to homes.  We will share the specific instructions on how to obtain the locker contents at the school or request delivery by email on Wednesday morning.
 
To be honest, I had hoped to send out more specific information and instructions about various things in this email.  However, we simply don’t have all the information that we need, as a school, yet to move forward.  Hopefully by Wednesday morning, we will be in a better position to do so.  Thank you for your continued patience.
 
We hope that all our students will use this week to continue reading, trying new things, keeping physically active, and reviewing previous topics.  Our Instagram page and school website have lots of other suggestions to keep busy, too!
 
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have questions or concerns.
 
Sincerely,
Ryan Sikkes, principal and Jeanette Gallant, vice-principal