11 June 2020
Dear Parents and Grade 8 – 11 Boys
RETURN TO SCHOOL GRADES 8 – 11
The Government Gazette of 2 June announced that schools could apply to the Head of Education in the province to allow grades to return to school earlier than the originally published dates. We submitted an application to allow our Grade 8 and 9’s to return early and we have been granted permission as long as we never have more than 50% of the school present at any stage. We also need to adhere to the strict Covid-19 protocols, which are already in place for matrics. Last Thursday, 4 June, we were audited by the DBE for Covid-19 compliance and we passed with flying colours.
This email will just give a broad outline of the plans for the weeks ahead, but a much more detailed “information pack” will be sent to you a week before the boys return. We know that you might have questions, but these queries will likely all be answered in the information pack which will come later.
Week 15 – 19 June
Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 June School holiday for Grade 8-11 (no work or lessons).
Wednesday 17 to Friday 19 June Maths Week.
The Maths department will be running live online lessons on Teams revising the work done over the last few weeks. The details and times of these lessons will be given to the boys by their Maths teacher. The Grade 10’s and 11’s will also be doing Accounting during this week.
Matrics will have normal classes on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Week 22 – 26 June
The Grade 8 to 11’s will have a break from all work during this week. It is a holiday.
Matrics will continue with their normal classes at school.
Week 29 June to 3 July
Online Teaching for Grade 8-11: This will be a consolidation or revision week and teachers will be helping boys to prepare for their “knowledge audit” (assessment) the following week.
Matrics will have a study week and will start writing assessments on the Friday, 3 July.
Week 6 – 10 July
Grade 12 Assessment Week
Grade 11 Return to school on Monday 6 July. Boys will be at school from Monday to Wednesday and at home on Thursday and Friday.
Grade 10 Return to school on Tuesday 7 July. Boys will be at school on Tuesday and Wednesday and at home on Thursday and Friday.
Grade 9 Return to school on Friday 10 July.
Grade 8 Return to school on Thursday 9 July. Boys will be at school on Thursday and Friday.
All four grades will write an assessment or “knowledge audit” for each subject to assess how well they understand the work that was studied during the lockdown period.
The weeks thereafter until further notice
The Grade 10-12’s will attend classes at school on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The Grade 10-12’s will work at home on a Thursday and Friday. When at school some classes might only finish in the late afternoon because we have stretched out the day so that we do not have more than 50% of boys at school at any one time. The Grade 11 and 12 classes are small enough and will remain intact, but the Grade 10 classes will be split in two in order to maintain social distancing.
The Grade 8 and 9’s will work at home from Monday to Wednesday but will attend classes at school on a Thursday and Friday. These classes will also be split in two to maintain social distancing. Half of the Grade 8 and 9’s will attend school in the morning on these two days and the other half will attend school in the afternoon.
There will be no extra-murals until we have been given permission by the DBE or WCED to resume these activities. Boys will wear civilian clothes to school as it is not practical to wash a blazer and rain jacket every day.
I must stress that although we are excited at the prospect of having the boys back in the classroom, our number one priority will be the safety of the boys and we have a Covid-19 team that has spent hours making sure that we comply with strict Covid-19 protocols.
An information pack will follow a week before the return to school.
Kind Regards
Peter van Schalkwyk
Deputy Headmaster, Operations
