News Detail
Update on School Holidays
Friday, October 16th, 2020
Dear parents and guardians,
Feeling refreshed and ready to learn and engage, students and staff returned to the classrooms on Tuesday after our Thanksgiving break. Academics, sport and 360 activities are in full swing and our community is buzzing. Next week, a series of fun and innovative Halloween events are planned for the community including a Haunted House, pumpkin carving and a costume extravaganza. We are experiencing autumn at its finest here at Shawnigan.
I am pleased to report that, as of today, we have been able to maintain a Covid-19 free campus.
We have reviewed the systems we put in place for the Thanksgiving weekend. The headlines are:
- An exciting program of engagement was run on campus by our staff for our students – so exciting that we were surprised that so many students staying elsewhere on the island wanted to return to participate!
- Our staff members committed to staying on Island for the weekend. We therefore limited travel by students and staff off Island on public transportation (ferries, airplanes, buses etc);
- Students who travelled off-island for non-essential purposes have been based and sleeping in the Prep (an established cold zone) for 7 days as part of our return-to-school procedure put in place to protect the health of the campus;
- Our messaging this week to students and staff has been: let’s stay alert, cautious and not let our guard down.
Thank you to all our parents who wrote to the School expressing support for what was a challenging decision, but the right one in the circumstances. The safety of the campus is, as you understand, of paramount importance.
Off the back of this review and our continued monitoring of the BC Centre for Disease Control website (including the information re Covid-19 exposures on internal flights) and the rise of active cases in BC’s lower mainland, we are continuing to plan provisionally for a November break ‘on Island’.
November break - Thursday, November 12th (afternoon) to Monday, November 16th (evening)
It is strongly recommended that this November Break will be another ‘on Island weekend’ (campus open and travel restricted to the Island) with special events run throughout the weekend;
November is a critical month in the School’s calendar for maintaining strong physical and mental health as fall transitions towards winter. To offset this and to build on our Thanksgiving learning, the School and staff plan:
- To keep Houses open and to run activities for students who choose to stay for rest and recuperation;
- To encourage our local / Island current parents to invite students within House cohorts to stay for the long weekend. This will enable students to have time off campus in a family environment – good for the soul. Please note, our Public Health Officer and Shawnigan’s Director of Medical Services request that day and boarding students are given separate rooms to sleep in. Please be in touch with your respective House Director or the SPA if you would be willing to support other students and the host family program;
- To encourage our local network of Shawnigan supporters (former parents, alumni, staff etc) to act as a host family and give students a home-away-from-home experience;
- To encourage parents to come and visit their children on the Island but to observe strict protocols when travelling to reduce the risk of infection. We expect parents who travel to the Island to respect the advice given by BC Public Health and to work with us to keep our Shawnigan bubble Covid-free. Please do be in direct touch with your House Director regarding your plans;
- To ask our visiting / hosting families to maintain the Shawnigan protocols over the weekend so that we can all continue to protect and maintain our campus community bubble for the remainder of this term. As we all appreciate, this is a time for individual leadership and collective responsibility;
- To ask that parents move off-island medical appointments, if non-essential, to December;
- To use the Prep and Camp Pringle (based locally on the edge of Shawnigan Lake) for our cold zone for return-to-school protocols for the week starting Monday, November 16th
Thank you for your continued support and patience – and encouragement.
We continue to assess the best plan for the Winter Break and the provisional calendar for the academic year 2020-21. Please see here for my letter of September 28th and the green section for the provisional plan.
At Shawnigan, we continue to focus on protecting the delivery of in-person schooling. It has been a massive and collective achievement to open our campus and to create our boarding school bubble with no Covid-19 exposure thus far. A significant and increasing number of schools on the lower mainland and across the country have not been so fortunate. We are mindful of the trajectory of Covid-19 and believe that our provisional plan for this term is the safest and most effective way for us to guide the school to December.
We thank you for trusting us with your child(ren). If you have any queries, please be in direct touch with your House Director.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
With best wishes,
Richard D A Lamont
Headmaster
We acknowledge with respect the Coast Salish Peoples on whose traditional lands and waterways we live, learn and play. We are grateful for the opportunity to share in this beautiful region, and we aspire to healthy and respectful relationships with those who have lived on and cared for these lands for millennia.
Shawnigan Lake School is an independent co-educational boarding school for ages 13 –18 on Canada’s beautiful West Coast. Our diverse, interdisciplinary and innovative programming helps shape the next generation of global leaders.
