Home and School Meeting October 20th

Come join the Elm Street Home & School in our first meeting from 6-7 on Tuesday October 20th. Here are a few items we hope to discuss:

1. New activities we can plan for the children following CPHO guidelines.

2. Potentially offering more parent group sessions on various topics in person and via google meet.

3. How we can fund raise to be able to offer various activities during the school year due to Covid regulations?

We will need to know how many people will be in attendance to prepare.

Also new this year, we will be offering a virtual option for parents to join via google meet!

Please RSVP by emailing Naomi at naomidonn@hotmail.com

**Please note you will be encouraged to wear a mask while moving through our school building.

October Newsletter

october-2020-newsletter

October Newsletter

School Occupational Therapy Program Information

School Therapy Occupational Therapy (OT) Program

Hi everyone!  I would like to introduce myself and the School Therapy Occupational Therapy (OT) Program.  My name is Anne-Marie Peters and I am one of the OTs for the Three Oaks family and schools and French schools  in Prince County.  I am very excited to be working at your child’s school for the 2020-2021 school year.  I will be at Elm Street Elementary every Day 1 beginning early October.

Occupational Therapists work with children of all ages and know a lot about children’s development in the areas of:

• fine motor (i.e., small muscle coordination)
• gross motor (i.e., large muscle coordination)
• visual motor (i.e., eye and hand coordination)
• sensory processing (i.e., how we respond to sensory information in our environment)
• environmental set-up (i.e., ensuring the environment works to meet everyone’s needs from seating to wheelchair accessibility, etc.). 

The focus of the School Therapy OT program will be to work together with classroom teachers and school staff to support children’s motor and sensory development in order to assist children in: achieving their learning goals; successfully participating in school and most importantly feeling good about school!  To do this, I will be spending time in: classrooms; gym, music and library classes, on the playground and in small group settings.  Throughout the day, I will be offering guidance, suggestions and tips.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the School Therapy OT Program. I can be contacted at the school on Day 1 or at aspeters@ihis.org or 902 303-2224.  I look forward to a wonderful school year working together with school staff, students and you as parents/guardians!

Anne-Marie Peters, OT Reg. (PEI)

Occupational Therapist, School Therapy OT Program

When to Keep your Child at Home and When to Send Them to School.

Dear Parents, Just some reminders about when to send your child to school and when to keep them home when he/ she is under the weather.

Parents are responsible to notify the school of the reason for the absence(s) from school.
Families play an important role in slowing the spread of COVID-19 and ensuring that students can access educational services. It will be important for you to monitor your child’s health each day before sending them to school and to keep them home when they feel ill.
If your child exhibits any of the symptoms listed below and they are unusual for your child or are not related to an existing condition (e.g. seasonal allergies), parents/guardians are asked to visit a drive-through testing site, call 811 or your health care provider and report any symptoms of COVID-19 to the school.

Whether it is cold, flu, pink eye, coronavirus or other illness, students should stay home if they are ill so that illness is not spread through schools.

A negative COVID test does not mean an individual is ready to go back to school or work. If a student has tested negative for COVID-19 but still displays mild symptoms, please consider the following.
Students and staff should not return to school or work:
 if they have on-going fever or chills
 if symptoms are not improving or there are new symptoms

Students and staff could return to school or work:
 if they are fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medication, e.g. Tylenol
 if they have a runny nose, congestion, or other mild symptoms they can return to school provided they are well enough to engage in learning or their job
 if mild symptoms are improving and there are no new symptoms
 if they continue to practice good hand hygiene and cough/sneeze etiquette (e.g. cough or sneeze into your arm or a tissue)

In addition, if you have traveled outside regions as per the current CPHO guidelines, you are asked to declare this to the school, and follow the current CPHO measures in place at the time (e.g. self-isolation).

Symptoms of COVID-19 include:  new or worsening cough  shortness of breath or difficulty breathing  fever  chills  sore throat  runny nose, sneezing, congestion  headache  muscle aches  unusual fatigue  acute loss of sense of smell or taste

Thank you

Message from Public Schools Branch and Chief Public Health Office

Parents and Guardians,
Island children and education staff have been back in school for one month. At this time, it is important to recognize the tremendous work our education system, parents, students and the Chief Public Health Office have put into ensuring this school year, while different, can be successful. The health and safety of our school community is our top priority and we have put measures in place to support a positive learning experience for all.We are monitoring what is happening across our country with respect to cases of COVID within schools. Because of the guidance of our CPHO and the compliance of Islanders, we are in a good position but recognize that a second wave is possible. We need to continue to mitigate the risk of potential community spread. Now is not the time to be complacent. The measures our province has put in place can only be successful with the continued support of Islanders. We all must continue to follow these guidelines and adapt to our new normal.
Staying home when ill
Whether it is cold, flu, pink eye, coronavirus or other illness, students should stay home if they are ill so that illness is not spread through schools and workplaces.
A negative COVID test does not mean an individual is ready to go back to school.
If a student has tested negative for COVID-19 but still displays mild symptoms, please consider the following: Students should not return to school or work:• if they have on-going fever or chills• if symptoms are not improving or there are new symptoms Students could return to school or work: if they are fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medication, e.g. Tylenol• if they have a runny nose, congestion, or other mild symptoms they can return to school provided they are well enough to engage in learning or their job• if mild symptoms are improving and there are no new symptoms• if they continue to practice good hand hygiene and cough/sneeze etiquette (e.g. cough or sneeze into your arm or a tissue)
Improved access to testing and results
Health PEI has expanded access to COVID-19 testing with new drop-in, no-appointment screening clinics across the province for those with symptoms of COVID-19. This is in addition to the scheduled testing clinics still being offered in Charlottetown at 64 Park Street and in Summerside in Slemon Park.
The drop-in options are available in O’Leary, Summerside, Borden, Charlottetown and Three Rivers. Testing at these locations is offered on a first-come, first serve basis, with no referral necessary for symptomatic children and any symptomatic household members, as well as essential workers and any of their symptomatic household members. However, only people who meet criteria for testing will be swabbed.
Islanders do not have to call 8-1-1 to access these services.
Drop-in Testing Clinic Locations and Hours of OperationO’Leary testing clinic (O’Leary Health Centre)• Monday: 1-4 PM • Wednesday and Friday: 8 AM – 12 PMSummerside testing clinic (Slemon Park)• Monday-Friday: 8 AM – 12 PM• Saturday: 8 AM – 4 PM• Sunday: 1 PM – 4 PM Borden-Carleton (20 Dickie Rd)• Monday & Wednesday: 8 AM – 12 PM• Saturday: 8 AM – 11 AM Charlottetown (64 Park Street)• Monday to Saturday: 8am-4 pm Montague (Montague Health Centre Parking lot)• Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 8 AM-12 PM
The hours of the Drop-in Testing Clinics are subject to change so we would encourage individuals to check the website before visiting: https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/information/health-and-wellness/information-about-covid-19-testing-pei As well, Islanders who have tested for COVID-19 can now access their negative test results online within 72 hours. Individuals must enter their PEI Health Card number information, date of birth and date of testing to access the results. Only negative test results are displayed online. The Chief Public Health Office (CPHO) will continue to contact individuals directly if they have tested positive for COVID-19.Unless otherwise instructed, individuals are required to self-isolate until their COVID-19 test results are confirmed to be negative. Household members do not need to self-isolate with the person awaiting the test results, however, they should continue practicing public health measures like washing hands frequently, maintaining physical distancing and masking when in indoor public settings where physical distancing cannot be maintained.Cases within a schoolOur response to a positive COVID-19 case within a school will be proactive. The Department of Education and Lifelong Learning and Chief Public Health Office have developed an outbreak management process to ensure that roles and responsibilities are understood when there is a positive COVID-19 case identified in the school system.
Each school has identified a school-based COVID-19 Response Team who are organized and prepared to respond to a positive case of COVID-19 should one be identified in their school. The Education Authorities (Public Schools Branch and Commission scolaire de langue français) also have response teams that will work closely with the school to support a response.
School closures will be decided on a case-by-case basis by the Chief Public Health Office in consultation with the Education Authority and school administration. The recommendation to close schools will be based on the risk to students, teachers and staff and the operational needs of the school while also considering and balancing the public health risks associated with COVID-19. A school closure could be anywhere from one to 28 days.
More information to help keep our school community safe can be found here. https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/topic/keeping-everyone-safe.

Norbert CarpenterActing DirectorPublic Schools Branch

Picture Days: Thursday – French Immersion classes, Friday English Classes

Welcome to Week #4

We will be celebrating “Orange Shirt Day” on Wednesday.  What is Orange Shirt Day?    “Orange Shirt Day (September 30th) is a day when we honour the Indigenous children who were sent away to residential schools in Canada and learn more about the history of those schools.”  

 School pictures are this Thursday and Friday.  French Immersion classes will be on Thursday, October 1 and English classes on Friday, October 2.

This week we will be having another fire drill and our first school lock down drill.  Today we had a bus evacuation.

Breakfast program started today and the students had apple sauce  with cheese and crackers. Many thanks to the volunteers who stepped forward to get this program started.

Terry Fox Walk Friday September 25

The annual Elm Street Terry Fox Walk will be held tomorrow afternoon. We are asking that everyone bring in $1.00 to help us raise our goal of $400 for Cancer Research.

UPDATE – The rescheduled picture days will be Thursday October 1 for French Immersion Classes and Friday October 2 for English classes.

September Newsletter

Newsletter

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