April 3, 2020

Good afternoon St. Agnes Junior High students, families, and community,

As many of you are aware, our province announced a Learning Continuity Plan on Tuesday March 31, 2020 to keep our students connected with school and our teachers and support staff as best as possible, along with providing learning opportunities during the period that schools are closed due to the present state of emergency resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

We recognize that there is much going on in our communities, city and province and do not want school to add additional stress into your homes. The intent of our Learning Continuity Plan is to provide stability, and for the continuity of the positive connections, and relationships our students have made with their classroom teachers and support staff.

The Provincial Learning Continuity Plan has two main paths points for students to engage in learning:

1. If you do not have technology at home…

Learning materials will begin to be delivered to all homes across the province beginning on Wednesday April 8th with activities, and projects that are grade and age level appropriate available to all students. These should arrive next week through the Saltwire network that delivers newspapers and flyers in our province. No additional steps need to occur to access these materials at this point. Students receiving these materials can connect with their teachers through telephone conversations, or if students have the ability pictures can be taken of work and shared with teachers to help with feedback.

2. If you do have technology and internet access at home…

Learning materials will be accessible via Google classrooms within the GNSPES platform (a Google suite of tools for education that all students in Nova Scotia have access to due by virtue of enrollment in a public school in our province) Collaborative teams have been established by our teachers to work collectively on four identified areas of emphasis for Grades 7-9:

• Mathematics
• Science
• Social Studies
• Language Arts / Literacy

Teachers outside of these subject areas such as Physical Education, Technology Education, Core French, English as an Additional Language will have continued outreach and learning opportunities embedded through this interdisciplinary approach that will blend multiple curricular areas together.

Next steps for students:

• If you have technology, (internet and device/computer) please check that your username and password enables you to access to GNSPES (Google Apps for Education). Check your school e-mail for correspondence from teachers.
• If you do not have access you will also be able to access your teacher through more traditional methods such as a phone conversation to discuss about what you have been working on though the learning materials distributed through the Saltwire network. 
• Times for teacher availability for questions and interactions will be posted over the next few days on our website under the “What’s New” section of our school website (bottom left) at sgn.hrce.ca
• Support teachers such as Resource, Learning Centre and Guidance will be available for support to students as well and will often reach out by phone.
• If you do have access to technology at home and need to access your GNSPES username you can e-mail : Kelsey.Johnston@hrce.ca  or kelsey.johnston@gnspes.ca 
• Thank you for your on-going patience. We hope your families stay safe and well.

More information is available at:

https://curriculum.novascotia.ca/parentfamily-information (Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Child Development)

https://www.hrce.ca/learning-at-home (Halifax Regional Centre for Education - Learning at Home)

Sincerely,

Barrett

Barrett Khan
Principal
St. Agnes Junior High School