A Message From the Head of the Junior School: Friday, October 8, 2021

On By havergaljuniorschool

Dear Junior School Parents,

Yesterday’s Harvest Festival was a wonderful way to lead into the Thanksgiving Long Weekend. This service is a long-standing tradition in the Junior School, which people  look forward to year after year. It provides us with the opportunity to come together as a community and celebrate all that we have to be grateful for before we head into the Thanksgiving weekend. Equally as important, it gives us a chance to pause, and to reflect. A huge thank you to our Grade 6 leaders for once again organizing this year’s food drive.  Our Junior School community’s collective generosity has provided an historic degree of support to the North York Harvest Food Bank this year by donating approximately 2720lbs of food – this is more than double our average annual contribution. Thank you to all of you who set aside time and resources to make this happen.

As part of our service, we talked about how while it certainly feels good to give, it is really important that we also understand what happens to the donations once they leave Havergal. We were so pleased to welcome Mr. Harry Chiu, the Director of the North York Harvest Food Bank, to our service. He shared with us about work that they do, the people that they support, the impact of the pandemic on  and why these donations matter. 

To learn more about the North York Harvest Food Bank please visit their website.

This week’s blog contains information on the following:

Sincerely,

Kate

UPDATES

Terry Fox Run

  • We would like to extend a big “congratulations” to our community for putting forth a terrific effort, align with flexibility, to make the Terry Fox Run a success this week
  • As of this point, Havergal’s Junior School has raised $3500 for the Terry Fox Foundation – see the results here
    • Fun Fact: 
      • In order to prepare for the Terry Fox run, the Phys-Ed Department set up a kilometre challenge. 
      • Every grade in the junior school ran for 10 – 20 minutes and they collected popsicle sticks along the way. 
      • Each student represented their house and their results can be found on this website. Congratulations to all of the students for participating!. 

Rapid Antigen Testing Program

  • Thank you to everyone for your patience with the Rapid Antigen Testing Program roll-out. Most parents have now successfully registered for the Thrive Health app and many have begun to log results for their child. If you have not yet received an invite to set up your account please send an email to covid@havergal.on.ca. You must set up your Thrive Health account from the email invite, using the email address that the invite was sent to. 
  • For further assistance with account creation see the Thrive Account Setup Instructions. If you require any changes to your account or have difficulty setting up your account please contact support@thrive.health for further assistance. Please commence testing next week, logging your results on Mondays and Thursdays. Please isolate your child, arrange for PCR testing and notify covid@havergal.on.ca if there is ever a positive Rapid Antigen Screening result. 
  • See our Rapid Antigen Screening Guidance document here for any further questions.  

Diwali Prayers – Call for Submissions

  • The Junior School will be celebrating Diwali on Monday, November 1 during Prayers. If your family celebrates Diwali, we would love to have some photos to include of your family to include for our walk-in video. Please submit these to Stephanie Iannarella (siannarella@havergal.on.ca) by Monday, October 25, so that they can be included.

Finding Special Schedules

  • As of Tuesday, October 12, all swimming lessons and before/after school co-curricular schedules will be reflected on “My Calendar” on your Veracross portal.

REMINDERS

Wellness Checks on SchoolPass

  • Parents are asked to ensure they complete the wellness check for their children for each school day. This needs to be done even if a child is not able to attend school on a particular date.

Reminder About Travel Outside of Canada

  • With the November Mid-Term break coming up, we would like to remind families about the requirements around returning to school if you are travelling outside the country. If you and your unvaccinated child are travelling internationally, it is important to underscore that your child is unable to attend school for 14 days after their arrival back in Canada. Please note, there is no access to synchronous remote  learning; however, students have the option to follow along with instructions and class notes on Seesaw or Google Classroom if they are not at school. If you have any specific requests, please contact the Head of the Junior School.
  • For additional guidance, please review our Student Return to School after Illness, Exposure or Travel procedure, which is included in the Family Handbook’s Return to Campus COVID-19 Protocols section. You may also reference the federal government travel advice for those travelling with unvaccinated children.

Junior School Parent-Teacher Conferences 

When do they take place?

  • Thursday October 21 from 10:00 am – 7:00 pm 
  • Friday October 22 from 8:00 am – 3:00 pm 

Registration

  • Opens: Wednesday, Oct. 13th at 6 pm. 
  • Closes: Tuesday, Oct. 19th at 8pm.  

Will Parent-Teacher Conference be held at school, or on Zoom?

How to sign up:

  • In order to sign-up, please go to Pick-A-Time 
    • Please note that this link will only allow you to register when registration opens on Wednesday, Oct. 13th at 6pm..) 
    • A ‘Forgot Password’ link is available on the Pick-a-time website if needed.

Assistance:

  • For assistance with Pick-a-time, contact our Service Desk at 416-483-3843 ext.6663 between the hours of 7:30am -5:00pm, Monday to Friday.

DATES ON THE HORIZON

Monday, October 11

  • Thanksgiving Monday – No classes

Thursday, October 22 & Friday, October 22

  • No classes due to PT Conferences

Friday, October 29

  • Virtual Hallowe’en Assembly 
    • Costumes, face paint welcome
    • COVID masks only, no costume masks, please
    • No toy weapons

Thursday, November 11 – Monday, November 15

  • Midterm break: no classes

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