Dear Parents,
In our rapidly changing environment, we write to tell you that we have made a change to our school calendar. Our term break, formerly scheduled to begin at 3pm on Friday, 27 March, will instead begin at 3pm on Wednesday, 18 March. Teachers and support staff will remain at work on Thursday and Friday this week to test and extend remote learning systems and protocols. The unpredictable global situation means that our learning is increasingly likely to move off campus. We want to make sure that option is fully tested and in place, should it be necessary when school resumes.
This means that the College will be closed to students from Thursday, 19 March until Monday, 6 April. Term 3 will begin a week earlier on Monday, 6 April and continue until Friday, 19 June, as published.
The decision to change our calendar has come as a result of developments over the last few days, following a series of additional travel and health advisories. These have had a growing impact on our ability to run operations at the College; yesterday, the decision from Malaysia to close their borders means that some of our staff who live over the land border between Singapore and Malaysia cannot come to work.
Keeping the priorities of the health and safety of our community and the learning for our students in mind, the schedule for the coming weeks is as follows:
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Wednesday, 18 March
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- School open for students (note: East Primary students will continue with planned online student-led conferences from home)
- Teachers prepare students for possibility of remote learning
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Thursday,
19 March
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- Term break holiday begins for all students – students on holiday
- Teachers on campus working on remote learning systems and protocols
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Friday,
20 March
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- Students on holiday
- Teachers on campus working on remote learning systems and protocols
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Monday,
23 March – Friday,
3 April
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Monday,
6 April
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- School resumes for Term 3
- Learning may be remote or on campus, depending on the developing situation. Families will be informed as far in advance as possible during the week beginning 30 March.
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Friday,
19 June
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- End of 2019/2020 school year
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Principals will be in touch with any specific arrangements for schools, including arrangements for remote learning. The Boarding House will remain open as we have previously discussed with boarding parents. If your children are involved in any on campus holiday activities, the Activities Teams will be in direct contact with you shortly.
We appreciate that this is a significant change for parents and will cause disruption, for which we apologise. Thank you for your patience and resilience in the face of the continuous changes.
We will keep you updated on any developments over the term break.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Bray, Head of UWCSEA Dover
Graham Silverthorne, Head of UWCSEA East
