Update Centre: COVID-19

Useful links

It is important to note that a positive case reported does not mean the individual was exposed to COVID-19 at the school.

January 11, 2022

RETURN TO SCHOOL ANNOUNCEMENT

In order to keep all of our staff and students safe, we will not be following suit. We do believe that back to school protocols will be released later this week and will take the appropriate time to review them. It is not believed that Omicron has reached its peak.

We strongly believe that the best place for students is in school. We also believe that we need to do this as safely and carefully as possible. We understand the challenges of being online and believe the extra week will help us plan accordingly for the HNMCS community.

Slight changes to the previously announced plan:

On Tuesday, January 25th the Middle school students will return. This will give us time to work on protocols with teachers and students and ensure that everyone stays safe and that we are managing the girls and our protocols well for two days before the senior school returns.

On Thursday, January 27th the Senior School girls will return to start semester 2, as previously planned.

This staggered start should allow for the best possible restart to school. Please let Mr. Baker know if your daughter will be continuing online and let busing@hnmcs.ca know if you will be changing your current busing practices.

As we are asking all staff to receive their booster doses, please if your daughters become eligible, we ask that they also receive this dose. It is still the best way to keep everyone safe and healthy. Please update the vaccine form in PowerSchool with any changes to your daughter's vaccine status.

Also, as previously mentioned about masks, we are comfortable with a N95 level mask for students or the equivalent KN95, KF94, FFP2, P2, CAN95. A surgical or disposable mask rated at 95% is also acceptable, and the girls are welcome to wear a cloth mask overtop, should they desire. As always, hand washing, sanitizing and social distancing is still useful and required.


January 3, 2022

As you likely heard today from the Premier, schools are being closed to in person learning until at least January 17th. As the plan for other businesses currently has an end date of January 26th, and the language used was “until at least the 17th” for schools, we have made the difficult but right decision to have our students finish the semester/term online in order for consistency for the girls themselves and for planning purposes. Our hope is to have all students return to in person learning on Thursday, January 27th.


October 4, 2021

There are currently no active cases of COVID-19 at the school.


September 21, 2021

There is currently one (1) active confirmed case of COVID-19 at the school. Any close contacts have been contacted. As per Peel Public Health, the entire grade has been asked to isolate and will move to online learning. The school remains open for staff & other students.


September 9: Antigen Testing Town Hall

Thank you to everyone that attended the Town hall this evening and for the extra step these families are taking to help keep our community safe. Please note along with these families that many of our teachers are also participating in the antigen testing programme. Here is a recording of the Town hall.

To find out how our Antigen test works, please watch this video of a 5 year old girl and her mom showing how to take the test.

August 24, 2021: Roadmap to Re-opening 2021-22

We are so excited that September 2021 will start with a full school of HNMCS students!  Their health & safety, and that of our entire community, continues to be our highest priority.  To that end, we have created our Roadmap to Re-Opening 2021-22 document, in keeping with directives from the Ministry of Education (MoE) and return to school guidelines. Please click on the image for more information.

August 3, 2021

COVID-19: Health, safety and operational guidance for schools (2021-2022)
Read Ontario’s guidance for schools, school boards and school authorities to operate during the 2021-2022 school year.

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April 20, 2021

There are currently no active cases of COVID-19 at the school.

April 12, 2021

The Ontario government issued a statement that all schools will go to remote/online learning starting on April 19th. The government will continue to listen to the advice of public health experts, and we will update parents once a safe return to in-person learning is recommended.

All HNMCS students will be learning online as of April 19th, at 8:30 am. Please have your senior school daughter(s) sign onto their Quad 4 AM class, or your middle school daughter(s) into their homeroom or MS period 1 class. Teachers will be running classes as per the regular schedule unless we communicate otherwise. Please stay tuned for more communication.

April 7, 2021

There is currently one (1) staff-related case of COVID-19 at the school.

March 15, 2021

There are currently no active cases of COVID-19 at the school.

March 3, 2021

There is currently one (1) active confirmed case of COVID-19 at the school. Effected class moved online and the school remains open.

January 12, 2021

Dear HNMCS Families:

Premier Ford has announced today that the province is headed into a 28 day state of emergency. Schools in Peel have been closed until February 10th and given our midterm break, we would be looking at a return to school on Tuesday, February 16th, if it is not extended. This is a week A with grades 9/10 in school.

The Premier has asked that families stay home unless for essential travel: groceries, pharmacy, medical appointments, and work only if necessary and essential. It's a "stay at home order".

I know these are challenging times for our girls and for all of you and we are planning activities for our girls to build community and resilience. There will be an academic plan in place for this longer term programme and it will be shared with the girls and a communication to all families next week.

Please join us on January 27th at 6:30 to hear from Rachel Simmons as she has some excellent insight on how to help parents during a pandemic. Please see one of her articles here and a short video here. RSVP so that you can be included on the link - it is a talk that you won't want to miss.

Stay safe - stay home and know that we are in this together.

Appreciating your flexibility, patience, and grace,

Carrie Hughes-Grant
Head of School

January 7, 2021

The Ontario government shared a press release this afternoon regarding the extension of school closures.

NEWS RELEASE

Ontario Extends Teacher-Led Online Learning Until January 25 to Keep Students and Staff Safe in Southern Ontario. Province Also Extends Province-wide Shutdown in Northern Ontario

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise at an alarming rate throughout the province, the Ontario government, in consultation with the Chief Medical Officer of Health and other health experts, is extending certain measures to keep students, education staff, and residents of Northern Ontario safe. This includes extending in-person learning until January 25, 2021 for elementary school students in the 27 Southern Ontario public health unit regions and extending the shutdown in Northern Ontario for another 14 days, aligning with the shutdown period in Southern Ontario.

To support families during this extended school closure, child care centres, and home-based child care services will remain open. Ontario is also expanding eligibility for the Ministry of Education's targeted emergency child care program for a broader number of frontline health and safety workers.

Please read the full press release.

January 6, 2021

Please find attached a letter to parents from Minister Lecce, that we've been asked to distribute to our parent and family communities.

In the letter, Minister Lecce confirms the provincial government's plans for the re-opening of Ontario's schools:

Recognizing the importance of in-person learning, students will return to class across the province in January: Elementary school students enrolled in in-person learning will return to class on January 11, 2021; Secondary school students enrolled in in-person learning in northern Public Health Units will also return to class on January 11, 2021;

Remaining secondary school students enrolled in in-person learning across the remainder of Public Health Units will return to class on January 25, 2021.

October 26

There are currently no active cases of COVID-19 at the school.

October 15

There is currently one (1) active confirmed case of COVID-19 at the school. No closed classrooms and the school remains open.

August 28, 2020: HNMCS Roadmap to Re-opening

We have reached that point in the summer when families are beginning to get excited about a return to school. Although this Spring looked and felt very different, and at least for now, all of our girls will not be together in the school building, we are very excited to be welcoming all of our girls back to campus.

In following guidelines provided by the Ministry and best practices shared by health officials, HNMCS has put together a Roadmap to Re-opening 2020 documents. You can access this document by clicking on the image below.

Thank you to everyone who has completed the Return to School survey.  The responses submitted will help us as we plan for your daughter's return to school.  We have created a document with answers to the questions submitted and this can be accessed here.

  
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HNMCS Summer Hours

From July 1st - August 14th our staff is available 8 am - 4 pm, Monday to Thursday. We are closed on Fridays.

May 19

Today, Minister Lecce announced that publicly funded schools will not reopen this school year. He also mentioned that a plan is coming before the end of June with what reopening will look like for schools in September.

The leadership team and I have been doing the scenario planning that has been ongoing not just for the end of the current school year, but also for the beginning of the next one. While the situation continues to be dynamic, we can assure you that the HNMCS 2020-2021 academic year will commence on Tuesday, September 8, 2020 with new students and all grade 9s, and Wednesday, September 9th for all students.

I want you to know that the leadership team has been planning for the last few weeks with what this could look like for the HNMCS community. Although we do not yet have all of the answers, I wanted to reach out to let you know that we are planning for the different scenarios.

At this time, next year could take any of a number of forms based on the situation and the public health directives issued over the summer. The three scenarios that we have been working on and which form the basis of our planning, are as follows:

  • Scenario 1: Schools will remain closed and the school year will commence virtually for all grades.
  • Scenario 2: Schools are open to particular grades while ensuring health and safety protocols for staff and students including physical distancing, while other grades will continue with virtual teaching or a blended version (online and in school) until advised otherwise.
  • Scenario 3: Schools are permitted to open for all while ensuring health and safety protocols for staff and students including physical distancing.

It is our commitment to you to continue to keep everyone as informed as possible as directives become clearer from the province, and within our community.

As we do not yet know the health and safety requirements of reopening, we do want you to know that your daughter’s best interest and health and well-being are in mind. We are truly looking forward to having them all back in school with us.

May 1

As you likely heard on Sunday, the Government of Ontario declared that public schools will not return until after May 31st. Due to this declaration, the leadership at HNMCS has decided that our school year will officially end in online classes.

Unfortunately, we have had to call off any in person events, including grade 12 graduation. We will have a two day celebration beginning with mass on Wednesday, June 10th and following up with an online ceremony on June 11th. The grade 8 class will celebrate the end of middle school with a mass and an online celebration in which we will invite parents to participate on Friday, June 5th.

On Wednesday June 10th, it will be a day for all classes to celebrate what has been an exceptional year in so many ways. There will be more information to come on these events. Please rest assured that teachers and administration are planning to make this year end extraordinary.

April 17

On Tuesday, Premier Ford announced that the legislature has extended the state of emergency until May 12th. We will keep you informed, as it sounds like more information is forthcoming at the beginning of May.

April 3


March 31

Dear HNMCS Community:

I wanted to take this opportunity to touch base after your daughters have had the opportunity to meet with their teachers, attend class, hopefully have joined a movie night, danced in a tik tok, or sent a photo into Instagram. As we navigate this new normal, I want to ensure that we all feel connected and a part of a great school and an excellent community. As the Premier announced today, independent school buildings are remaining closed until April 13th, but with public schools staying closed until May 1st, we will continue to support the efforts to flatten the curve. Please rest assured that our learning continues. Our goals, like the province, are to keep our girls safe and to keep them learning. Due to the fluidity of the situation, we will keep communicating and supporting in every way that we can.


March 23: 4:30 pm

No non-essential entry into the building past 2:30 pm Tuesday, March 24th due to provincial mandate. Our staff & faculty are working remotely and can be reached via email from 8 am to 4 pm.


March 23

Dear HNMCS Community:

As the situation continues to change, we are trying to update our community and keep everybody in open communication. As we have said, community and health are our number one priority. Please keep updated with Health Canada. We will update you with any new information on closures as soon as we have it. As well, there will be a COVID-19 Updates page on our website.

Today, being the first day back from March break, we met virtually as a staff to plan what the program will entail going forward for our students. This is a time for both routine and flexibility. Although we are not yet closing the school past April 5th, we have included a schedule right up to Holy Thursday, so that you can see the pattern of the learning to help with planning, routine and understanding. Today and tomorrow are being spent with and for teachers to plan and prepare for the girls. In line with many CIS schools, the plan for and with the girls will start on Wednesday at 8:15 am when prayers and any student government announcements will be sent via email. We ask that students be present at the assigned times to both facilitate learning and to meet the Ministry Outcomes for both graduation and succession to the next grade level. Although there are no formal assessments right now, we are setting up the girls for success should we be continuing online learning past April 6th, at which point assessments may begin. Google classrooms will be used to set up this work and keep the girls connected.

In order for all students to be best prepared for learning, we ask that your daughter have a charged device, a quiet space to work, and that she is logged into her School Google Account. All students will be asked to connect with their class teachers based on the Middle School and High School schedules detailed below. These synchronous (live and online) sessions will be run using Google Hangouts Meet. Students will access their classes through the URL link on their Google Calendar for each class.

Please ensure that your daughter is logged into her school email to access this and not a personal Gmail account. To join a lesson, students will need to click on the Hangouts Meet URL link for the class that they are set to attend. There is a short how-to video for joining a Hangout Meet here. Please test microphones and cameras for use as a class.

Middle School schedule

Our Middle School students will be focusing on Interdisciplinary projects and key learning in both Math and Language Arts. Students will be keeping active with challenges sent by our Student Government and will have the opportunity to meet with their elective teachers in Weeks 2 and 3 of the schedule. Below you will find the schedule for the coming weeks for your daughter. Your daughter’s next Interdisciplinary project will be available on her Interdisciplinary Google Classroom Wednesday morning and her core teacher(s) will be in touch via email to both parents and students.

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High School schedule

For Senior students, Wednesday is a time to meet with all of the teachers and classes, and then it will proceed with two classes a day, with the formal part of the day ending at 12:25 (unless otherwise scheduled). It is a time for creativity, possibility and collaboration. Things will look and feel differently and we welcome constructive feedback as we learn together.

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*Async (Asynchronous) meaning there is no live communication and the student is to use that time to complete any set tasks, and/or message the teacher using non-live means (email, Google Classroom posting etc.)
**D1P1= day one period one; D2P2= day two period two, etc.

The aim is business as unusual and seeing the challenges as opportunities. Our goals remain the same for the HNMCS community; the safety and well-being for all and the successful completion of the academic year. "The idea here is really to help our students [and teachers] feel included in the process of rethinking education for a challenging time" (MindShift, March 19, 2020).

To respect the closure of the school and the provincial emergency protocol, we have asked teachers to provide what is needed and ask that no students or families enter the school building. Please contact me directly should you believe it is absolutely necessary to enter the building. Only essential services that must be completed in the school building will be accessing it as needed. Please note that the building will be closed for a detailed cleaning, so after Thursday, March 26th, no further access will be permitted until a return to school has been scheduled.

It is important that as we embark down this path, our girls pace themselves with their work and that they do not become overwhelmed by this new method of delivery. While the curriculum will be a continuation of what they were already studying, the style of delivery and learning will be different. We appreciate your patience and flexibility. Keep healthy and stay active.

Please take care of yourselves and your families.


March 18: COVID-19 Update

Dear HNMCS Community:

Thank you for your patience in these unprecedented times. Please know that your daughter’s well being and the health and safety of our entire community is of the utmost priority. We hope that everyone is home safely and that you are all practising social distancing and reducing your interactions with groups of more than 50 people. We know many of our families are returning from abroad at this time and are being asked to self-isolate as per the guidelines of the Public Health Agency of Canada.

At times like these there are a lot of questions and concerns. If you feel that you would like to do some reading about managing anxiety around this health pandemic, I have attached a NY Times article from an excellent writer and counsellor from an all girl’s school. There have been a lot of news stories, social media posts and news conferences from the Prime Minister and Premier and we are all trying our best to sort out exactly what is being said.

For now, we know that the schools will remain closed until April 6th and that the situation will be reevaluated at that time. During this period, we want to provide an educational experience that, albeit different from a face to face one, still represents what we stand for as an HNMCS community. We will be in touch Monday, March 23rd, with an outline of our academic and student support plan moving forward. We will be keeping the lines of communication open and will help to facilitate this process in the best way possible.


March 13: COVID-19 School Closure

Dear Parents/Guardians,

As you know, the safety of our families and staff is our number one priority. With yesterday’s pandemic declaration of COVID-19 and the Ontario Government’s closure of publicly funded schools, HNMCS will be closed until April 6, 2020 to help slow down the spread of COVID-19.

In making this decision, please know that HNMCS, as a member of the Conference of Independent Schools (CIS), received advice from Sarah Craig, CIS’s Executive Director, who “strongly” encouraged that Independent Schools “follow this approach”. The HNMCS Board, in evaluating the situation, communicated their support of this action to school leadership.

At this time, we have cancelled all major trips. The Spring Café, Mother Daughter Tea and all other future events will be on hold until further notice. The CISMF has been cancelled and all credit card purchases for tickets will be refunded directly from Roy Thomson Hall.

Our leadership team will be convening to discern the best ways to support our students and their education in the coming weeks. As such, we appreciate your patience as we work through our collaborative planning and we look forward to sharing information with you as we know more.

During this time of uncertainty, we ask for your prayers for those impacted. Please know that we are continually monitoring the situation and will be in touch with updates as they arise.

Sincerely, Carrie Hughes-Grant Head of School