December 11 Message from the Principal
Hello to all of our students and families!
The transition to online learning since the end of November has been very successful, thanks to the commitment of our students and staff to make this work. Our student attendance has been very good, our technology is holding up, and the skills of our staff are well beyond what they were in the spring when we first tried whole-scale off-site learning. Everyone deserves a big thank-you for their part in making this successful.
The assessment of curricular outcomes is a critical part of every teacher’s work. They use this assessment information gathered in a variety of ways to help them decide how best to teach their next lesson, to decide what skills and information they need to stress, or even reteach. The information gathered from assessments is also reported back to students and parents in conversations, comments, and marks. The whole process of assessment has become more complicated and challenging with the transition to online learning, because face-to-face interactions are limited, and conducting secure formal assessments is difficult.
A further consideration is student mental health. We know from several years of talking to students, parents and teachers that the stress of summative assessments has taken a toll on the mental health of students, and as a result, CLHS has worked to reduce the number of summative assessments teachers use, and to have teachers be as predictable as possible in terms of their summative assessments.
When students return in person to school on the 11th of January we will move to an assessment schedule that will ensure that students do not have more than one summative assessment on any day until the end of the semester. We will do this by having a ‘block assessment schedule’. Starting on January 12, Block one teachers will be able to have a test, quiz, or assignment for marks. Then on the next day it will change to Block 2, and so on. The January assessment calendar is below.
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11 Catch up/ Review English PDE Part A |
12 Block 1 Social Studies PDE Part A |
13 Block 2 |
14 Block 3 |
15 Family Friday |
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18 Block 4 |
19 Block 1 |
20 Block 2 Math PDE |
21 Block 3 English PDE |
22 Block 4 Social Studies Part B Last Day of Classes |
|
25 Block 1 Biology PDE |
26 Block 2 Chemistry PDE |
27 Block 3 Physics PDE |
28 Block 4 Science PDE |
29 Catch-up for non-PDE courses |
Our Exam Week will occur from the 25th to the 29th of January, and will follow a similar block format to ensure that students do not have more than one exam on any given day. We will send this calendar out shortly. We will work with students who choose to write PDE exams to make sure they have a reasonable workload. Please do not hesitate to reach out to your teachers if you have questions. Semester Two will start on February 1st!
Mr. Walker