Dear Parents,
As we are facing the reality of the Corona Covid-19 Virus Epidemic in South Africa, our President, Cyril Ramaphosa, last night addressed the nation and informed us that schools will be closed from Wednesday 18 March 2020 until after the Easter weekend, Tuesday 14 April 2020. He also added that the July holidays will be made 1 week shorter to compensate for the time lost during this period.
We know parents will be looking for ways to continue their children’s education during school closures and prevent them from missing out on valuable learning time.
We urge parents to have students work on their PACE work every day until the schools reopen.
Many companies are offering employees the option of working from home or explicitly telling them to do so, so some parents may find themselves at home with their kids, trying to figure out new ways to navigate their own workdays as well as their children’s.
For those who must work outside the home, unless you can arrange for a nanny there are few options but to ask friends or relatives for help. There are no consistent standards as to what is the right age to leave a child home alone.
It’s important to know how much responsibility your child can handle: Children who can safely make themselves a meal and care for pets can most likely look after themselves for the span of a school day. Parents should provide emergency contacts and check in regularly; if an older child has to be responsible for a younger sibling, try to ensure that they are keeping the peace and are able to get their work done.
Do You Have a Schedule?
At home, there are no bells ringing to tell students when it’s time for, and the end of the break period. But apportioning time and sticking to goals for the day are valuable skills kids can use while school is closed.
Explaining the current crisis and the challenges it presents while enlisting children’s help in making the best of a bad situation is important. The first step is to make a daily schedule of when PACE work should start, how many pages per subject should be completed, and what time to end the day.
We are currently working on contingency plans for students to work from home and still reach their daily goal targets by introducing online assistance and help when having questions and scoring of PACEs. In order for us to be able to set this up, we will require some information from you to find the best solution in terms of a video conferencing tool that will accommodate our and your needs.
We will send out a survey shortly on our website for all parents to complete and we will be in regular communication around this matter.
We’re hopeful that we will be able to make a challenging situation a little easier and our thoughts are with anyone who has been affected.
