Dear Parents and Students,

We have recently had all staff members and school employees vaccinated against COVID-19  and will be opening on September 12^th as stated in our previous email.

Orientation Schedule

All orientations will be at school in person this year. All orientations on September 5^th should be attended by both parents and students. All Grade 7 students and parents should attend the transition meeting on September 6^th.

Sunday, September 5th – JKA/JKB Orientation 10:00 am – RM108 – Meet the Teacher and Engage/MS Teams Orientation at school in person (Parents and Students to Attend)

Sunday, September 5th – New Student MS Teams and Engage Orientation at the school in person 1pm – Computer Lab 4^th Floor (Parents and Students to Attend)

Please note that Parents and Students new to the school, who do not attend the orientation sessions, will need to contact Ms. Ina the school’s Marketing Manager to setup their Engage accounts.

Monday, September 6th

10:00 AM – Introduction to Whole school

10:30 AM – Elementary Classroom Orientation Session 1

10:30 AM – Secondary Orientation

11:30 AM – Elementary Classroom Orientation Session 2

11:30 AM – Grade 7 Transition Meeting

– All parents and students should attend this meeting to learn the differences and potential difficulties that occur during this transition year

Tuesday, September 7th – Grade 12 University Meeting at 10am – All parents and students should attend this meeting to learn about the steps and procedures related to applying for university.

Important Information for the Year

We will begin this school year 100% at school with all students. The students will be expected to arrive by 8:15 am and the bus students will be dismissed at 3pm and the car students will be dismissed at 3:10pm. Grade Groups will continue to have separate lunches and breaks. All members of the school will be required to wear masks while in the school and hallways. Social distancing will still be enforced, and no sharing of lunches or birthday parties will occur at the school.

Reporting Illness

We once again require that students remain at home if any member of the immediately family tests positive for Covid-19 or if the student displays any symptoms of illness. If any of these conditions exist, you are to contact the School’s doctor and inform her. Please note that on two different occasions last year people came to school after being in close contact with a Covid-19 positive case and this put the entire school at jeopardy. It is important to be socially conscientious and look out for the safety of others. Covid-19 has not gone away. We are attempting to live with it and stay safe and the only way to do that is to follow the set guidelines.

Contacting the School when Absent

Parents are reminded that they need to be informing the school and teachers if their son or daughter is not coming to school. Students in the secondary should also contact their teachers and inform them of their absence and ask for any missing classwork. It is not sufficient for the student to just message the teacher, the parent must call and confirm with the secretaries the absence of the student as well.

Online Platform

We will continue to use Engage and MS Teams to support learning but there will be no lessons taught online while students are expected to be at school. Students in the secondary should bring their devices to school each day as many teachers will post the classwork in MS Teams and be working towards reducing the use of paper in the school environment.

Contacting the School

Parents are reminded to use Engage messaging to contact teachers if they have any questions about their child. The first contact regarding academics should always be with the students’s teacher and not school administration. The teachers are happy to meet and answer any questions you may have so please contact them without delay if there are any concerns.

English

Manitoba Education is currently revamping their English testing and language acquisition. It follows along the same lines as what we started to introduce at Heritage International School during the last Academic Year. With this in mind please be aware that all Grade 1 – 12 students will be completing process writing assessments twice during the school year. In addition, students in Grade 7 – 12 must ensure they are not plagiarizing assignments or being academically dishonest which includes but is not limited to: submitting work copied from the internet or that is not in the students writing voice. Please note that in Grades 7 – 12 for students to be successful they must engage in higher level thinking at an independent level. That means explaining, comparing, justifying, contrasting and giving opinions with references and examples. To be successful in this type of thinking and writing, reading and comprehension is essential. Please see the “Balanced Literacy” tab on the school’s webpage for additional information.

Elementary Reading Program

Elementary students who are in need of reading assistance will be pulled from classes on a regular basis to receive additional reading practice. For the students that actively participated in this last year many gains were seen. We at Heritage want to continue with this this year. Parents are reminded that for success and improvement to occur attendance and being present is needed. With the disruption to learning over the last year and half and many students not attending online lessons it is extremely important that care is taken for all students to come to school and participate fully to allow us the opportunity to assist the students in achieving all the learning goals needed this year. In addition, parents of the elementary students are expected to assist the school in ensuring that their child reads daily on Raz Kids Plus and that they review basic numeracy skills of counting, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Some skills should be memorized and the only way for that to occur is repetition.

Mathematics

This academic year Elementary students will engage in a comprehensive mathematical assessment at the start of the school year. This will help us identify and then work on areas that need strengthening and improvement due to the difficulties in learning over the last year and a half.

Let us work together to ensure a full and productive year at the school.

Reminders – Install Heritage Post Application:

Kindly make sure to install Heritage Post App to stay updated with Heritage news and announcements. It is one of the important means of communication between school and parents/students. The application is available for free on the App Store and Play Store.

Best Regards,

Heritage International School

www.heritageinternationalschool.com

Tel: (02) 3 8253688/9 – 3 8253692/3/6/7

Mob: 01068583873

Manitoba, Canada

Education Excellence