Good afternoon MHES parents and guardians!
We are in the final stretch in solidifying what the beginning of the school year will look like. Thank you for your patience as we navigate new information coming from the Ministry over the last few weeks and allowing our board to establish common policies and protocols as well as collaborating with Ottawa Public Health. This is extremely important work as we strive towards the safest school opening for all students.
There continues to be a number of unanswered questions and we are working through them. We want to reassure you that safety is our #1 priority. More information will be coming your way next week Friday (Sept.11) in the form of a wonderful video entitled, First Day of School for MHES Students, starring a number of our wonderful educators and admin staff. We hope that it will be a valuable tool for parents and please know that it will be student-friendly so that you can share it with your children. We know that this has been a stressful and anxiety-producing time and we hope that the video will alleviate some of this for your family. On Monday Sept.14th, all families will receive an email informing them of their child's class and teacher(s). Due to a massive re-organization that was completed this week, we have had to re-do our class lists as some homerooms were eliminated. We've tried our best to honour parent requests that were sent last school year and this year. However, due to homeroom eliminations, bus and EDP cohort considerations and Special Education needs, we cannot make further changes or accept additional requests.
At this time, we would like to share some important dates with families related to when your child will be coming for their first day of school that pertains directly to students of Mary Honeywell:
Start Dates for all classes:
- Day 1 - September 16th - All students in Grades 1 and 2 start; all students enrolled in the Autism Program start
- Day 2 - September 17th - All students from Day 1 attend; all students in Grades 3 and 4 start; All students in year 1 Kindergarten (JK) start, and students in year 2 Kindergarten (SK) that are enrolled in the Extended Day Program (EDP) start.
- Day 3 - September 18th - All students from Day 1 and 2 attend; all students from Grades 5 and 6 start; all remaining year 2 Kindergarten students (i.e., those not enrolled in EDP) start.
Please note that Kindergarten Intake dates are Sept. 10 and 11. These intakes will be done virtually and kindergarten teachers will be in touch with those families early next week.
Enjoy the last long weekend of the summer! We look forward to welcoming everyone back soon.
Pete and Denise