Rawlinson Weekly

September 14-18, 2020

Upcoming Dates

Sept 15 School begins for students in SK, grade 4 & grade 8

Sept 16 School begins for students in JK, grades 1, 5 & 7

Sept 17 School begins for students in grades 2, 3, & 6

Sept 24 School Council Meeting 7-8:30pm via Zoom

Greetings from Rawlinson

We are so excited to be welcoming our students back to school this week.  Staff have been working diligently to prepare their classrooms and materials and the only thing that is missing is our students!  

We’d like to thank all of our families for their patience over the past few weeks as we have been preparing for the return of our students.  Many things have changed and our staff and families have been amazing about adapting.  Please continue to check the Return to School link on the tdsb website for the most up to date information.  Please also check out this daily checklist for students (it has helped Mrs Altosaar organize her own children).

Families should have received an email with their child(ren)’s class placement and date of entry.  Due to technical difficulties, some families received multiple emails and some did not receive one at all.  If you have not received any welcome email, please let us know as soon as possible and we will connect you with your child’s teacher.  We apologize to all of our families for this inconvenience.  We know how eager our students were to find out their placements and we recognize that some students are disappointed.  Unfortunately, due to the structure of the reorganization for in-school learning, we cannot change student placements at this time.

On the first day of entry this week, administration and additional staff will be outside wearing their fluorescent vests (so that we are easy to find) and will be able to answer questions or provide directions.

Our first week of school will be spent reacquainting ourselves and building classroom communities while reinforcing the routines (i.e. entry/exit, handwashing, recess, lunch etc).  It is a new year for everyone and an exciting time to build, with our students and families, new ways of doing things at Rawlinson.

Thank you to Alexis Dawson, Marty Venalainen & Tricia Hong for all of their support during the past two Rawli Return to School Q & A sessions and we look forward to our first school council meeting on Thursday, September 24th from 7-8:30 pm on Zoom - details to follow.

As always, please contact us with your questions.  You can call the school at 416-394-3080 or you can email us at

erin.altosaar@tdsb.on.ca

edward.vella@tdsb.on.ca

jemaine.wallace@tdsb.on.ca

Looking forward to seeing everyone this week.

Rawlinson School Day

Kindergarten/Intermediate

Primary/Junior (1-6)

Entry

8:15 am

8:15 am

Lunch

10:48am-12:03pm

11:01am:12:03pm

Dismissal

2:35pm

2:48pm

Our grade 6/7 classes (in English, Extended French and French Immersion) will follow the intermediate timetable

Health Screening Assessment

Before coming to school each day, all students must conduct an active health screening self-assessment, considering the following questions:

  • Do you have any of the following symptoms (new or worsening):
    • Fever
    • Cough
    • Difficulty breathing
    • Sore throat, trouble swallowing
    • Runny nose or red eyes
    • Loss of taste or smell
    • Not feeling well, tired or sore muscles
    • 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 you answered no to all of these questions, please record the information daily in one of the following ways, which will allow you to enter to your school or administration building:

Health Screening App

To use the app, please note:

  • Parents/guardians are to use their child’s student account information to login to the Health Screening App. 
  • If you don’t know your child's student account information, please contact IT Services Support via Student Password / Device Help. 
  • For a step-by-step guide, please refer to How to Use the Health Screening App. 

Health Screening Paper Pass

  • If you don’t know your child’s student account information or cannot access it, please feel free to use the Health Screening Paper Pass. 

We will provide families with a copy of the Health Screening Pass - which needs to be signed each day (and dated) indicating verification of the screening being completed.

FOR THE FIRST WEEK, WE ARE ENCOURAGING FAMILIES TO USE THE PAPER PASS WHILE WE SET UP THE TECHNOLOGY NEEDED TO UTILIZE THE APP

Arrival at School

Once students arrive at school and the bell rings, students line up at their designated doors where their classroom teacher will verify their health screening information before school entry.

Simply show the staff member either your signed Health Pass, or, if you used the Health Screening App, show your QR code or provide your name for verification. 

If you were unable to record your active health screening at-home or forgot to, students will be asked if they feel well and then parents will receive a follow-up call for verification purposes.

Students will then sanitize their hands, take a mask if necessary and continue to their classroom.  We are loading students into the school with the furthest class going in first.

If a student arrives late, the only point of entry is through the main front door and students will be able to be recorded late in their classroom up until 8:30am.  After 8:30am, students will need to enter the front door and go to the main office for a late slip.

Students will be lining up in new locations this year.  Students will need to look for their class number which has been painted in fluorescent pink on the colas area.  They are to stand behind the number and distance themselves as they line up.

Staggered Recesses and Lunches

We will be staggering our recesses and lunches with half of the school going outside at one time (intermediate classes will not go out for morning and afternoon recess as their teachers will take them out for breaks).  Please see the attached chart 

Cohort A Classes - recess and lunch (outside first)

Cohort B Classes - recess and lunch (outside second)

Betty

Dewey

Cottreau

Winick

Saverino

Sproat

Morgan

Birch

Creedon

Mahmoud

Ramsay

Bornstein

Beveridge

Armstrong

Paskauskas

Stadus-Soo

Dodic

Schembri

Doucette

Hong/Norberg

Taylor

Kindergarten Drop Off

We recognize that the first day of school can be unsettling for students and because of that, we will enable families to come into the kindergarten playground for drop off on their child’s first day of school.  For our JK families, on Wednesday, you have 2 options, you can line up with the rest of the class at 8:15 am or you can join us at 8:30 on the kindergarten playground for a staggered entrance.  We had a wonderful time today meeting so many new Rawlinson families.

Lunches/Dropped Off Items

We will have a table just inside the front doors for any lunches or forgotten items to be dropped off.  Please ensure that the item is clearly labelled with your child’s name and room number and we will ensure that it gets to your child.

Twitter

Don’t forget to follow us  @TDSB_Rawlinson

New this week:  Please check  for weekly updates and click on the images for different activities.

 Mr. Vella's Office 

Trustee Stephanie Donaldson’s Update

Please see the attached update for Trustee Donaldson.  There is great information and links to a variety of resources.

École Communautaire Rawlinson Community School

231 Glenholme Avenue

Toronto, ON M6E 3C7

Telephone: 416-394-3080 Fax: 416-394-4159

Rawlinson School website: http://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/rawlinson/Home.aspx

Principal

Erin Altosaar 

erin.altosaar@tdsb.on.ca

Vice-Principal

Edward Vella

edward.vella@tdsb.on.ca

Vice-Principal

Jemaine Wallace

jemaine.wallace@tdsb.on.ca

SAC Chair

Alexis Dawson 

rawlinsonsac@gmail.com

September 11, 2020

Good evening Rawlinson Families.

We have sent out class placements to the families in the following homeroom classes:

English:  JKSK-A, JKSK-B, JKSK-C, 1/2, 2/3-A, 2/3-B, 6/7, 7/8

Extended French 4/5, 6/7, 7/8

French Immersion SK-A, SK-B, 1, 2, 2/3, 3, 3/4

Unfortunately, not all of our homerooms have been loaded into the school messenger system.  We recognize that students and families are eager to find out their teacher's name and class so we will continue to check the school messenger system throughout the weekend and send the class placements out as soon as the homerooms are loaded into the system.

We apologize for the delay - technology is great...until it isn't.

Our Rawlinson Weekly will come out Sunday evening.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend and we cannot wait to see our students.

The Rawlinson Staff

August 2020 Letter to Families

We are so excited to be able to see everyone over the course of this school year. We miss  you and would like to thank all families for your patience.   We know you are anxious to learn more about what to expect as we open TDSB schools and welcome students back. As a school and a learning community, our main goals continue to be the safety and well-being of our students, staff and families, as well as providing the best learning opportunities for our students.

Our TDSB trustees have made a number of important decisions including the approval of more than $30 million in funding to hire an additional 366 teachers to lower elementary class sizes to help improve student and staff safety in schools.  At the board meeting on Thursday, August 20, the TDSB trustees made a number of decisions that will impact the return to school.  All the information about the TDSB plan for a return to school can be found on the board website www.tdsb.on.ca. 

Registration for In-School or Virtual Learning

All families received a phone call earlier this month from a 1-833 number to begin a pre-registration process to learn which students planned to attend school in September and which students planned to take part in fully remote (home) learning. 

This Wednesday, August 26 the TDSB will ask parents/guardians via email to make a final decision and register their children to attend school or choose remote learning through the Virtual School. The email will contain a unique link to an online registration form for each student. Parents/guardians with more than one child will receive one email per child and will be required to complete a separate registration for each child. The online registration will be available in twenty different languages.

It is very important for all parents/guardians to complete this online registration, even those who have already responded to the pre-registration phone call.  Parents/guardians who do not have an email address on file or do not complete the registration online will receive a registration phone call asking them to make their selection. For more information and to learn about the different registration options, we encourage all parents/guardians to visit the TDSB website at www.tdsb.on.ca .

On  Saturday, August 29: Registration closes.

Delayed Start: Tuesday, September 15

Given the time required to prepare for the return to school, the TDSB has to move the first day of school (for elementary, secondary and virtual school) to Tuesday, September 15th. The entry of all grades will then be staggered over three days. This extra time will help all schools, including Rawlinson, open in a safe and orderly manner. We will be sending more information and specific details prior to the first day of school.  We will also be holding meet and greets for families as more information is available. Stay tuned!

Mask/Face Covering Guidelines

To improve health and safety in schools, all students and staff will be required to wear masks/face coverings in TDSB buildings and on school buses. This decision is in line with the overall City of Toronto requirement that anyone over the age of two wear a mask/face covering in indoor public spaces — with exemptions for medical reasons. While schools will have masks available for students if required, the expectation is that students will provide and wear their own masks/face coverings. Particularly for younger students, we will ensure there are outdoor breaks, so students are not wearing masks for multiple hours at a time. More details on mask/face coverings will be coming shortly.

All the information about the TDSB plan for a return to school can be found on the board website www.tdsb.on.ca.  

For your information and based on the TDSB plan, classes, at Rawlinson, will be capped at 27 for FDK/SK FI, 20 for grades 1-3 and 27 grades 4-8.   

Stephanie Donaldson - Trustee Ward Forum –  On Tuesday, August 25 – 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. :  Trustee Stephanie Donaldson will be holding a Ward Forum with Robin Pilkey on Building Positive School Climates During Covid.   Please join, for a panel discussion with Superintendents, Principals, Parent representatives, and Trustees about the importance of school-level partnerships and initiatives that can help us all work together in our school communities to ensure student wellness, mental health, and re-engagement of students and families. Time will also be provided for questions and answers about school re-opening plans.

If you are interested in attending this virtual meeting, please ensure that you register at https://forms.gle/NhAEgnE3DxpU1YbY6

Meeting links and details will be sent to those who registered.  The video conference platform used will be WebEx.If you are not familiar with WebEx you can refer to this YouTube video https://youtu.be/fE5FnEUKtaE

Information on the return to school in September including reports, plans, timeline, survey results, and Q&A can be found at https://www.tdsb.on.ca/returntoschool . 

We are missing all of our students and families and cannot wait to connect with everyone.  As always, if you have any questions, please contact us by phone at 416-394-3080 and via email at:

erin.altosaar@tdsb.on.ca

edward.vella@tdsb.on.ca

jemaine.wallace@tdsb.on.ca

Wishing everyone a wonderful last few days of summer.

Best,

The Staff at Rawlinson