Montessori Buzz – September 8, 2020
A message from Kristen Crouse, Academic Director
Dear MA Families,
Welcome Back!
I hope that everyone had a relaxing, fun-filled summer with their family. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome both returning and new families to what I feel is the most amazing place to be: our school!!
The start of this school year may look different in many aspects. However, I can assure you that many things are the same. That is the love our teachers have for your children, the Montessori lessons that will be taught with enthusiasm knowing the children have such a desire to learn, the commitment the administration team have to helping the staff and parents and the trust we know we have from you.
We thank you for your patience this week as we adjust to our new processes to ensure the safety of our community. Here is to an amazing new year that we will all be a part of together!!
Warmest regards,
Kristen Crouse, Academic Director
Heads-up: Attestation will become a monthly requirement
Starting at the end of September, will require all families to complete the attestation form. The Attestation form must be submitted for every student of the school, and is different from the COVID-19 Screening forms that Toddler and Casa must complete each morning. Watch for a link in a future Buzz.
As with our return-to-school Attestation form, by signing the attestation you are agreeing that:
- You understand the policies and processes in the MA COVID-19 Parent Guide document(s), as applicable to your family
- You commit to daily screening of your household, as this is extremely important for the health of our community
- You commit to keeping your child home if they are ill or unwell
- Despite all we are doing to prevent exposure of our students and staff to COVID-19, we cannot guarantee that while attending a program of the Montessori Academy of London your child will not be exposed, whether at our facility or elsewhere, or that if exposed, your child will not contract the virus.
This Attestation form must be completed before your child comes to school. We can not stress enough the importance of screening and keeping unwell children at home, and continuing as a community to follow all the current public health guidelines that are in place for the City of London. Thank you for your continued partnership in making this school year safe for all of our community.
We’ll provide a link for your October Attestation in a late-September Buzz.
Reminder: Extended Hours forms required
Even if you completed the Extended Hours survey, we ask families to complete and submit a Request for Extended Hours forms along with payment to the Main Office. These forms can be found on the Resources tab of the Parent Portal or on in the Forms and Policies tab on the school website.
Friendly reminder: the hours of the before- and after-school care are shorter this year due to staffing and COVID-19 precautions.
Reminder: Getting into the Parent Portal
Friendly reminder about logging into and locating your child’s classroom information in the MA Parent Portal:
- Login to the MA Parent Portal: https://montessori.myschoolapp.com/
- Click your child’s name in the top left corner
- For families with multiple children, a drop down menu will appear
- Scroll down to the “Courses” section and click the link for your child’s classroom
Please review your child’s August classroom letter and back-to-school information if you haven’t already. FYI: We will update the Classroom Bulletin Boards with September classroom letters later this week.
Photos from Phasing In!
Phasing In last week was a huge success. It was so fantastic to see our students. Take a look through this photo album of photos from the three days: https://montessori.myschoolapp.com/app/detail/album/photo/1174801
Phasing In – in Junior High…
What a success of a day! It was so nice to see and be with our Adolescent students. Our Mantra of “Believe You Can” took centre stage. Each student received a Surprise bag filled with all they “need” to return to Junior High.
Inside the care packages was
Humour (a joke). Safety (band aid). Awareness- Know who they are (name labels). We acknowledge how this new way of life kinda stinks, but we will make the best with some Sweetness (lollipop)… We commit to seeing the good no matter what… We are in this together.
From the Community – Mom & Caregiver – digital edition
We’ve had a longstanding tradition of providing print copies of The Mom & Caregiver magazine to our Toddler and Casa families.
Starting in October, we’re reducing the number of The Mom & Caregiver magazines we distribute, and instead, each Toddler/Casa location will have a handful of magazines on display, and we’ll share the link to the online version of the magazine in the Buzz. Here’s a link to September’s issue: https://themomandcaregiver.com/issue/september-2020/