Vancouver School Board Sustainability Conference (via Zoom)

Join an engaging and informative evening with your Vancouver District PAC Community for part 2 of the sustainability education series called Sustainability: Principles to Practice on Thursday, November 26, 2020 (7- 9:30pm)

You will take away the latest information about the Vancouver Plan for greening our city, plus the latest developments and next planning stages. 

Register at this link!

Come discover more about the Six Big Moves and comprehensive recommendations that will improve access and mobility, increasing wellness, and guide the principles in reaching essential climate targets. In addition, you'll hear from student organizers for this year's VSB Sustainability Conference. 

KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION for 2021-2022

Kindergarten Registration for the 2021 - 2022 School Year starts on Monday, November 2:

To register your child for Kindergarten next year at Charles Dickens Elementary, you will need to register online and then come to the school with the required documentation.

Documentation includes: 

Birth certificate, immunization records and proof of address. Proof of address is either a rental agreement or property tax notice and a copy of a  recent utility bill (BC Hydro/Telus etc.)

Please call our School Office Admin at the Main School (604) 713-4978 and speak to Anne (Mon - Wed) or Michelle (Thu - Fri) and arrange a time to drop off the documentation.

Alternatively, you are welcome to come to the school and drop it off for us to photocopy. Please call when at the front door of the main entrance.

Thank you,

Anne Canning 

Charles Dickens Elementary 

COVID-19 Contact Tracing at BC Schools

There has been a case of COVID-19 identified within the Dickens community and you may have heard stories on the news of late, regarding how COVID cases in schools are being handled. 

We’re sure that many of you have questions about the process for informing and tracing cases and we encourage you to take a look at the websites for both Vancouver Coast Health exposures and the BCCDC exposures. 

Below, you’ll find the outline of Vancouver Coastal Health’s process when a positive case is identified, along with an infographic which describes how contact tracing works. If a student or teacher receives a confirmed positive COVID-19 test result, Public Health follows a rigorous protocol:

Contact tracing is initiated to determine how the individual was infected and who they were in close contact with. We identify and notify close contacts who may be at an increased risk, and advise them to self-isolate and monitor for symptoms for 14 days.

Only Public Health can determine who is a close contact. Learning groups, friends or other connections may not be determined to be a close contact. 

Public Health staff works closely with the school and school district throughout the case and contact management process to maintain close communication with the school community.

Understanding that it’s easier said than done, we encourage you not to panic, but rather to be vigilant in monitoring yourselves and your family members for any of the identified symptoms and keep your kids home if you’re unsure. 

When you’re picking up your child(ren) from school, keep your distance, wear a mask (unless you aren’t able to for health reasons) and, as Julie recommended last week, rather than staying in the park or on the playground where there are lots of people, head home. 

Ahead of Thanksgiving, we’d like to remind you of what Dr. Henry has said:

“Make your celebrations large in thanks, large in gratitude, but small in size.
Stick to six and share turkey, not COVID.”

Sending all our best for a wonderful, safe and healthy Thanksgiving, 

Your PAC Co-Chairs,
Laura, Tiffany, Sara & Daniela

Pandemic Guidelines for Halloween

To enjoy Trick-or-Treating, here are some helpful COVID-19 guidelines & tips from the BC Centre for Disease Control. 

Have fun and stay safe! 

   

Welcome back to school!

If this were the start of a normal school year, we’d be greeting you in the hallways with coffee & muffins on the first day of school. But so far, this has been anything but a normal year, so why should school be any different?

The year will continue to be filled with adjustments for everyone because everything is different.

Over the summer months, the four of us met and talked about how we could function as a PAC over the coming year, best advocate for our kids and best support Dickens Main and Annex. It’s an ongoing conversation and a topic we’ll no doubt continue to discuss at our first PAC Meeting later this month (see below for a list of dates we’ve identified so far).

We had a wonderful first meeting with our new principal, Julie, and vice principal’s Shelley and Jim (from the main & annex, respectively) in late August and we are really excited about the possibilities for the coming year.

Yes, it will be different. Yes, it will be hard. But we can and will do it together.
You can expect to hear more from us as we learn more and are able to make decisions. In the meantime, we ask that you bookmark the PAC Blog and that you sign up HERE so that we can do our best to pull class/cohort lists together and we can all stay in touch with one another.

We all have questions and all want answers, but in times like these it’s hard to know where to look for those answers. The PAC blog will be updated regularly and we’ll advise you of any resources we find that might make life a bit more manageable. We encourage you to be in touch with your questions (if we don’t have answers, we’ll do our best to point you in the right direction) and to share any resources you that might know of that you think are share-worthy with the Dickens community.

Stay safe & stay connected!

Laura, Sara, Tiffany & Daniela
PAC Co-Chairs

As the parent of a Dickens student, you are automatically a member of the PAC; the Executive meets on a monthly basis and if you are interested in joining, you can do so at either of the September or October meetings. If you wish to attend our September meeting or you have any questions, please send us an email !

Meeting dates (so far):
• September 24
• October 22
• December 3

Our email is dickens.pac@gmail.com

Setting Children & Youth up for a Successful Return to School in the Era of COVID-19

Based at BC Children's Hospital, the Kelty Mental Health Resource Centre Information offers resources on a wide range of mental health and substance use challenges affecting children and youth across the province.

Recently, they hosted a webinar "Setting Children and Youth up for a Successful Return to School in the Era of COVID-19" to provide families with tools and strategies for returning to school in the 2020-21 school year. 

Click on the image below to watch the webinar via YouTube.

The following article can also be viewed at the Kelty website: 

5 Tips for a Successful Return to In-Person School During COVID-19