April 2, 2020 Coronavirus Update from Head of School: April 2, 2020 Dear Parents, Colleagues, Students and Friends,
I hope you and your families are remaining healthy, safe and in good cheer. Love your living rooms, everyone!
Many parents themselves are working from home now, juggling countless things under one roof, and we know that managing these responsibilities along with at-home distance learning for your children – especially younger children – can be overwhelming at times. This requires that our CSN Distance Learning program remain flexible. We are working not only to deliver the curriculum, but to do so at a pace students are ready for, while also keeping the students connected with their classmates and teachers during a time when social connection is a key part of everyone's well-being.
One of the key questions when launching a Distance Learning initiative is the amount of screen time we are expecting the students to experience, and whether this is healthy, as I noted in last Monday's message. Being mindful of this, we have given careful consideration to the range of activities on offer and the methods of delivery within each subject. We are working with the teachers to ensure that there is a sufficient variety of tasks; some of which require screen access and some of which need initial prompts, followed by independent learning and feedback from the teacher.
The school has also tried to ensure that there is a balance between the cerebral, active, social and wellbeing elements, so that in each day the students are stretched and supported appropriately. As you may have noticed from your child's schedule, the aim is to also give each student sufficient time at the end of the school day to pursue other interests, or to relax in their own way
As I wrote to everyone on Monday, the CSN campus will now remain closed through May 1st. During this closure, we are disinfecting and sanitizing all areas of the campus, and, before reopening, we will undergo another deep cleaning as a precautionary measure.
The Senior Leadership Team and I are currently discussing end-of-school-year arrangements which may have to be, as it were, re-arranged. For the moment we have not taken firm decisions on events after May 1st, although obviously any trips have been either cancelled or postponed. Once we know further about any possible school closure situation beyond May 1st, we will make decisions accordingly and communicate these to our community.
CSN STUDENT REENROLLMENT CONTRACTS : Current parents should ensure that they have returned their completed reenrollment contracts for next school year. Places are filling up quickly. Print, sign, scan and send your completed reenrollment contract to: bmcwhirter@communityschoolnaples.org. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Jacqueline McCormick, Director of Admissions & Marketing at jmccormick@communityschoolnaples.org. Thank you for choosing Community School of Naples for your child's education for next school year.
In other news, all but essential personnel are working from home, however, the key work of the construction of our two fantastic new building projects : the CSN Institute for Science and Environmental Research (I.S.E.R.) and the beautiful new All Sports Stadium, continues. If you manage to surreptitiously drive past the campus on Livingston Road, you will be able to see how amazing your school is going to look in just a few short months. I will include a couple of photographs in next Monday's message.
In all of the essential activity around the current situation, CSN is constantly looking forward and planning for the future of our students and our school.
As always, keep calm, carry on and wash your hands, everyone! More on Monday.
Kind regards, Dr. David Watson Head of School
COMMUNITY SCHOOL OF NAPLES Naples, FL 34109, USA Ph. (239) 597-7575 |