Welcome to our first Owen Online for the year. We will continue our Owen Online Bulletins in this format, which will also be posted and archived on our school website.
With the start similar to last year, we hope to make the transition to school a smooth one. Our focus is always health and safety of all students and staff.
As we navigate through our days, we continually assess and adapt our processes and procedures to improve our environment and support best practices.
Thank you for your support, questions and offers for help. Although we have many restrictions, we will have ways to have our parent community involved again. We will send a separate email to indicate the dates for our Virtual Parent Council meetings.
Please read the following below to help with the of the September start up information.
Welcome New Owen Staff!
Student Transportation News
- The health and safety protocols that will continue to be in place on school buses for the 2021-22 school year.
- Once
again, the TDSB’s Empty Seat
Policy (PR504) has been put on hold for the 2021-22 school year
to help promote physical distancing on school busses, as well as to help
the TSTG and bus operators effectively plan bus routes and seating
arrangements in line with the COVID-19 health and safety precautions.
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Start of the Year Online Permission Forms
The Start of Year Forms package will be made available to parents/guardians digitally again this year. The forms will be emailed to all parents/guardians this week directly from the board. The Start of Year Forms will be completed for all students (both in-person and virtual). These forms are associated with the student and therefore will move with the student, regardless of the learning model chosen.
The Start of Year Forms package does not replace the Student Verification form that will be sent this week which is used to verify student demographic and parent contact information.
The forms/procedures that will be provided in digital format are:
- PR088 - Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources
- PR511H - Walking Excursion - Immediate Community
- PR511E - Medical Information for Excursions
- PR511K - Physical Education Information and Intramural Information/Permission
- PR519A - Severe Weather Conditions: Permission to Leave School
- PR529B - Student Media Consent Release Form
- PR563 - Anaphylaxis
- PR571 - Code of On-line Conduct
- PR585 - Board Code of Conduct
- PR607 - Diabetes Management
- PR714 - Asthma Management
- TDSB Digital Learning Tool Consent Form (now mandatory for all grades)
An email will be automatically sent to the parent/guardian who is the primary or secondary contact (Priority 1 or 2). The email will include a link to complete these forms for each of your children. The sender will be “TDSB Online Form (noreply@tdsb.on.ca)” and the subject line will contain the School Name, Student Name, Date and name of the form (eg. TDSB School - John Doe - Sept 25: Start of Year Form 2021/2022).
Here is a tutorial for the Start of the Year forms that will help guide parents through this process.
Parent Contact Form
Daily Health Screening
Ensuring the health and safety of our students and staff is a priority and everyone plays a role. The most important thing families can do to help mitigate the transmission of COVID-19, is to screen their children daily for any COVID-19 symptoms and keep them home from school if they are sick or have had close contact with anyone diagnosed with COVID-19. Please note that visitors/adults will only be greeting staff outside their doors or the front door. Before coming to school or an administration building each day, all students and staff must conduct an active health screening self-assessment, considering the following questions:
- Fever
- Cough
- Difficulty breathing
- Loss of taste or smell
- Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
- Have you returned from travel outside Canada in the past 14 days?
- Have you been in close contact with someone who is sick or has confirmed COVID-19 in the past 14 days without wearing the appropriate PPE?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, please stay home; self-isolate right away; and call Telehealth or your health care provider to find out if you need to be tested. For more information about testing, please visit www.toronto.ca/home/covid-19/
If students are not cleared, then it means either:- the screening indicated a "yes" and the child could be ill- the daily health screening was not completed that morning before school.
Students in this case will be sent to the office and a phone call will be made home to ensure your child is healthy and can be in class.
QR Codes - We are able to generate the QR Codes this year so parents do not have to send their child's QR code to school.
Login Information - Only emails with the tdsb.on.ca credentials can be used to log into the Service Now app. Your child's userid is as follows:
UserID - firstname.lastname@student.tdsb.on.ca Password - Classroom teachers have either reset it or students can use the same login information they used for remote learning. Please ask your child's teacher for the password if it has been reset for the class.
Check out these guides and video to help you set up!
Before coming to school or an administration building each day, all students and staff must conduct an active health screening self-assessment, considering the following questions:
- Fever
- Cough
- Difficulty breathing
- Loss of taste or smell
- Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
- Have you returned from travel outside Canada in the past 14 days?
- Have you been in close contact with someone who is sick or has confirmed COVID-19 in the past 14 days without wearing the appropriate PPE?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, please stay home; self-isolate right away; and call Telehealth or your health care provider to find out if you need to be tested. For more information about testing, please visit www.toronto.ca/home/covid-19/
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Playgrounds and Outdoor Learning/Recess/Lunch
We have requested for extra Lunchroom supervisors to help with supervision in their different zones. Classes are cohorted with their partner classes, maintaining groups of no more than 50. We continue to assess and modify our procedures as our student population changes. We have adjusted a few of our practices to meet new changes in our operational policies:
- City Red park can be used as a zone area and for outdoor learning, but not the playscape.- Owen Playcapes can be used only if students are wearing masks. If they are distanced off the playscape, they can remove their masks to get a break.- Classes will stay in their assigned zones based on the supervision schedule.- Students wash/sanitize their hands before and after outdoor play.- No students are to stay in at recess to do any work. Students need a break and need to be outside. If a parent has worked something out with a teacher, a note must be sent to the Principal directly from the parent to request this.
We are continually looking for supply Lunchroom Supervisors. If parents or nannies are available during the lunch hour for 1 hour and 15 mins, please contact jamie.parkes@tdsb.on.ca to apply.
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Changes Between Classes - Virtual Learning vs In-Person Learning
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