PVSS Back to School Update
We hope everyone has managed to enjoy everything our area has to offer this summer, even with the current COVID siutation. Our last regular day of school was March 13, right before our Spring Vacations, and we are very much looking forward to having students back at school starting Thursday September 10th.
The Ministry of Education’s announcement of cohort sizes of 120 students at the secondary school level represents a significant change in practice for most secondary schools in the province, PVSS included. To limit the number of contacts each student has, PVSS will be operating under a quarter system for upcoming school year. This means that students will take two classes at a time (for Quarter 1) and these two classes will meet every school day for just over 10 weeks. The start and end times of our school day will not change (Start – 9:10 am, End – 3:26 pm). After 10 weeks, Quarter 2 will begin, and students will take another two classes. The school year will have 4 quarters.
Because PVSS was operating on a different timetable with five blocks a day (usually four classes and one learning centre), we had to completely rebuild the timetable and load students into classes. This means the schedules that we provided in June WILL NOT be the schedules that students follow in September.
We have successfully rebuilt the timetable, and we are now working hard to ensure that students have their required classes, full timetables, and most of the other courses they requested. We have already had a few requests for course change appointments, but we ask that you wait to see what the new schedules are before booking those appointments. Later this week, we will post the student schedules on MyEducationBC, and reset all of the passwords. Because of the way our system works, password instructions will be sent to School District student emails. We will send out additional information about this when we are ready to post the schedules. We know that MyEducationBC is a new system for our students and families, and it can sometimes be very frustrating trying to log in. Luckily, the school office is now open, so we will be available to help you log in.
In addition to rescheduling students, we are busy developing site specific safety procedures to ensure that we are providing the safest environment possible for our students and staff.
In the coming weeks, please continue to watch your emails and check the website for updated information regarding our safety plan, student schedules, and first day expectations.
Although this school year will look different from any other, it is the people that make the experience of education engaging and memorable. We have a caring and dedicated staff at PVSS and an amazing group of students. We are excited about going to back to school and can’t wait to welcome our students back in the building full time.
Thank you for your patience through all the unknowns during this time and we look forward to providing more updates in the near future.