Dear Parents & Guardians,

Welcome to the near start of the 2020-2021 academic year at Trinity College School! All of us at our beloved “School on the Hill” are keen to once again open our historic doors (and the TCS Connect e-community platform) to welcome your children very soon.

A lot has changed in the world and in our community since the previous school year was unceremoniously, but necessarily, altered due to the global pandemic. Over the course of the summer, you have been learning about the enormous amount of planning that has taken place, aimed at providing a healthy, active and fun learning environment when we all reunite, whether online or in-person, in September.

With the health and safety of your children and our staff as the top priority, there will need to be a perennial commitment to personal and community health protocols and procedures. Social interaction and relationships are a necessary element of teaching and learning, and the School has prepared a myriad of observable safety measures, within each of our buildings and on our campus grounds, which will require adherence to specific conditions of engagement. To learn more about these detailed plans and protocols, it is critical that your family reviews our School Re-Opening Fall 2020 webpage before your child returns to campus: www.tcs.on.ca/reopening2020.

With the School’s plans and protocols providing a necessary new framework, nothing is more important than each student and staff member’s individual efforts and commitment to manage their own personal health and safety. Those individual efforts, in turn, will significantly help support the wellbeing of our collective community. Five key foundations to this requirement include: staying at home or self-identifying if you are not feeling well in residence or during the school day; washing your hands; wearing a face mask; practicing physical distancing; and daily vigilance to all of the above! We all, students and adults alike, have a role to play and responsibility to role model these healthy behaviours on a daily basis.

The continuation of the learning process for your children is imperative. It is in their best interests (and the future wellbeing of society) that a return to school occurs. That said, education by nature is a social activity and adolescents (and humans, in general) are social creatures. The balance between a return to school while reducing the possibility of community transmission will be our biggest challenge. And, realistically speaking, we recognize that we cannot promise that each member of our community will abide by all outlined plans and protocols perfectly. That is why each of us must remain vigilant. And helpful, supportive, compassionate and kind.

While I am fully confident that we will do our very best, as a parent, I understand that this will be a most challenging daily leap of faith. While we are focused currently on September, it would be prudent for parents to also look ahead. Health experts tell us that it is likely that there will be second wave of COVID-19. Similarly, as we all adjust to our new situation, we should brace ourselves that there will be breeches in our best-laid plans. As parents we should also proactively consider plans for our children should the School be required to shut down for a period of time and/or your child be required to temporarily self-isolate.

All that said, I would encourage us all to approach the variety of challenges that we will inevitably face over the course of this academic year with calm, grace and a presumption of best intentions. Our mission as a learning community is to develop good habits of heart and mind for your children. Perseverance, optimism, caring, integrity and respect are just a few of the skills and values necessary for children to face the “slings and arrows” that they will experience over the course of their lives. These same virtues will also be necessary for the adults in our community – parents, faculty, staff – to embody and practice in what are these most unusual of times.

As parents, you have overcome obstacles. Our school has too – for more than 155 years. We will need one another, working, supporting, communicating and caring to provide the best possible active, challenging, engaging and fun community of learning possible under the circumstances. And, I am confident that together we will succeed, and, more importantly, so will your kids!

Thank you for your confidence and trust in Trinity College School. We will look forward to seeing you soon, and, of course, we are particularly looking forward to seeing your children back on campus! I anticipate that no mask will be able to hide the happiness felt by the members of the TCS community as we re-engage for a new school year.

Stuart Grainger  
Headmaster

Please read on for more important details about the 2020-2021 academic year.

(If you prefer, click here to read or print this communication as a PDF.)

While mention of daily routines, uniform and bussing plans have been past items for parent communication, the School is in a better position to share more specific information in these areas. Please know that, as in all aspects of the re-opening of school planning, we have had to account for health protocols and strategies, the need for increased supervision, intentional movement across campus, and increased cleaning and sanitizing.

Before and after school access to campus

Senior School: Campus buildings will not be accessible to day students before 7:45 a.m. Students who plan to arrive between 7:45 a.m. - 8:15 a.m. (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Friday) will be required to: pre-arrange early arrival with the School (more details to come on this process); complete their daily health screening form in advance of arrival; and check in upon arrival using the REACH platform. Once on campus, students will make their way to Cirne Commons, which will be supervised for quiet study. As breakfast is restricted to boarding students given the logistics of physical distancing and sanitization protocols, day students are encouraged to eat at home or bring a breakfast snack and refillable water bottle. Those wishing to listen to music are asked to bring earbuds. Those needing bathroom facilities should use the washrooms adjacent to the mezzanine area of the commons. Early arriving students should depart directly from Cirne Commons in time to arrive at their first period class which begins at 8:30 a.m.

Day students will be asked to depart campus at the end of their scheduled TCS authorized activities. The bussing schedule, for example, has been set to provide for early departures for students not engaged in TCS activities (see below for bussing information). While this request stands in contrast to our usual open approach to community building on campus, including day/boarding, peer-to-peer social time, the initial re-opening of school is marked by efforts to reduce each student’s daily circle of close contacts. Moreover, our property staff must be provided adequate opportunities for thorough sanitizing of various sectors of the School in preparation for the following day’s classes. We will look forward to a future time when, once more, the campus is a hub of integrated activity at all hours.

Junior School: Students who are walking or being driven to school may enter Boulden House after 8:00 a.m. and go straight to their homeform room for quiet supervision. Those arriving on the bus, please see below for the bus protocol. On Wednesdays, as part of the wellness initiative, students benefit from a later start time (9:00 a.m.); however, those arriving on buses will be supervised outdoors for physical activity (Activ8).

Students must be picked up at school by 4:00 p.m. We understand that occasionally students will need to stay after school due to parental commitments, however, in these cases we strongly encourage parents to make other arrangements. Those who absolutely require supervision after 4:00 p.m. will be supervised outdoors until 5:00 p.m., respecting social distancing and keeping to their cohorts.

New Information: Day Bussing Update

As previously communicated, the School’s bus service provider, Century Transportation, has advised that TCS day families will have access to busing for September 2020. Additionally, the Ontario government has released new guidelines and school buses will no longer be restricted to one child per seat provided all safety protocols, including non-medical mask wear, are followed. While the seating capacity has been approved as 44 riders, we would like to underscore that the School’s aim is to have approximately half of that ridership on each of our bus runs.

With the last of our family bus registrations now in hand, TCS day bus families will be contacted within the next two weeks with more definitive details. In the interim, it would be beneficial if parents were to review the general expectations related to busing health and safety with their child(ren). In order to help ensure as safe transportation for day busing students as possible, families should review the following:

• Bus company protocols include disinfecting high touch points and high traffic areas at the end of each run and, for drivers, the mandatory use of gloves and face masks/shields. You may click here to read protocols currently being followed by Century Transportation.
• Junior School and Senior School students will travel on separate busses with the exception of the Peterborough route, where low ridership allows for separation of Junior School and Senior School students. (In this case, Senior School students will board the bus first and sit near the back of the bus, and Junior School students will board after and sit near the front.)
• Families are to assess each child’s health in conformity with public health guidelines before entering the bus each day, including the completion of the School’s daily health screening form.
• Students experiencing any symptoms of illness will be required to stay at home; the TCS Connect e-community platform will be in place so ill students may attend school online if they are physically able to do so.
• As per guidance from the Province of Ontario, students will be required to wear face masks while on the buses. We will be following any directive issued by our local health unit and will update parents as more information becomes available.
• The front rows of the bus will be kept empty to allow for appropriate physical distancing from the driver.
• Seating on the buses will be pre-assigned to minimize the contact of students. Shared seating will be limited to family members only.
• Upon arrival at campus, Junior School students will be greeted by Ms. Wyatt and will go to their designated outdoor zones. Upon entering the School through their designated entrances, students should sanitize their hands and go directly to their homeform classes. At the end of the school day, buses depart at 4:05 p.m.
• It should be noted that in the Senior School, bus departure times have been determined by the necessity of having students depart campus when not engaged with a TCS-led activity. The following Senior School departure times have been determined to accommodate the end of co-curricular programing and we are pleased to be able to provide two bus departure times on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays as indicated below:  
  
  Monday - 6:00 p.m.  
  Tuesday - 4:15 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.  
  Wednesday - 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.  
  Thursday - 4:15 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.  
  Friday - 6:00 p.m.

We ask all families to prepare their children for very strict observance of rules while on the buses. Drivers will be required to report any conduct that is of concern for health and safety reasons and TCS will reserve the right to cancel bussing service to any student who cannot comply.

We believe that the above measures will result in TCS having sufficient bussing for all families who require the service. The TCS travel office (traveloffice@tcs.on.ca) is now open and is happy to respond to any questions families may have.

*Special note for Senior School Day Bus Families regarding Opening Week (September 8th-12th)  
While we initially believed the School would be unable to provide day student bussing on Opening Week, we can now confirm that both the 401 route and Peterborough route buses will be available to day students, offering both a morning and an afternoon run on: Wednesday, September 9th; Friday, September 11th; and Saturday, September 12th.

Important: Newly Revised Uniform Expectations for September

The School’s traditional uniform remains a point of pride for the TCS community. Our uniform is a visible display of the deep sense of history and community felt by our staff, students and alumni. If you have purchased uniform pieces already please know that we fully intend to utilize uniforms at a later point in this academic year. For instance, school photos now being planned for January will certainly require Number One dress.

However, at this time, the evolving situation related to our re-opening health strategies necessitates providing even more initial flexibility with respect to uniforms. This development is based upon maintaining student and staff health through the reduction of the number of clothing articles that cannot be readily laundered. Equally, important, the shift in uniform recognizes both the projected use of outdoor spaces and the unavailability of change rooms for co-curricular programming. Foremost, it will be imperative for students to wear clothing and appropriate footwear that matches the expectations of their scheduled physical education or daily co-curricular programming activities.

Students attending on-campus classes will follow a further modified dress code, to be applicable as of September, and to be reviewed following the Thanksgiving weekend.

Students are expected to wear:

• Socks
• Shoes: Closed-toe athletic, dress or casual shoes
• Bottoms: Business casual pants/shorts, chino/khaki-style/cotton pants, non-ripped jeans, athletic warm-up pants, sweatpants, yoga pants, leggings
• Tops: TCS, TCS team or (unaltered) House shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, quarter-zips; TCS tracksuit jackets
• Headwear: religious or culturally-appropriate headwear only

Students may default to the TCS uniform (minus jacket and tie),provided these items are laundered before being worn again to school. Please note that TCS kilts provide a particular cleaning challenge and should be avoided whenever possible.

During school hours, students are expected to avoid wearing:

• Shoes: Slides, flip flops, sandals, slippers
• Bottoms: Pajama pants
• Headwear: Ball caps, hoods

Again, students and families are encouraged to launder clothing before items are worn again to school.  
As a general reminder, it is noted that it is the School's intent to sustain a community that is positive, anti-oppressive, equitable, accepting and inclusive of a diverse range of social and cultural identities. Clothing choices should not promote offensive or obscene images or language, not promote content that is discriminatory, not reference tobacco, cannabis, alcohol, drugs or related paraphernalia, and not promote violence.

For families who may be looking ahead to a time later in the year when we anticipate a recommitment to uniforms, Top Marks remains available to fulfill uniform orders via their online form at www.topmarks.ca.

For families wishing to purchase additional TCS clothing items and/or personal items, the school store is currently open by appointment only, Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. All visitors are required to wear a face mask before entering the School and throughout their visit, as well as to sanitize hands at both the school entrance and the store entrance. To make an appointment, contact Store Manager Lindy Wease at 905-885-3217 ext. 1256 or lwease@tcs.on.ca.

Updated: Health Protocols for the TCS Community

As the opening days of school get closer, we appreciate the effort families and students have been making to follow public health directives and the School’s advice regarding healthy habits. As previously communicated, all students and staff will need to complete a health assessment form daily, prior to leaving home or their dorm room for campus. It is essential that any person feeling unwell (even mildly) stay home. Or, in the case of a boarding student, contact the health centre for advice, prior to leaving their room.

The School’s daily health assessment form will be done via phone or computer, with reminder “prompts” being sent each morning. The questions will align with the province of Ontario’s COVID-19 self-assessment tool and may be edited periodically accordingly. Sample questions below:

Preventing community spread of COVID-19 is everyone’s responsibility. As parents, please remind your child that staying home or letting an adult at school know if/when they feel ill (even mildly), is the responsible thing to do. Any time and every time.

The province of Ontario released new health, safety, and operational measures on August 26th to support the safe reopening of schools this fall. The School is currently reviewing our protocols and plans in light of this latest guidance, and is committed to continual re-assessment of our practices as government, public health and expert guidance evolves.

What if a student becomes ill on campus?  
Care of student: If a student is feeling unwell, the student will be isolated from others and provided with a mask if they do not have their own, or it is soiled, and triaged by our health centre staff. Kits with sanitizer, masks and other items will be available for use by both the person attending to the ill student and the student.

If deemed necessary by the triage nurse, the School will contact the student’s parent/guardian to arrange immediate pick-up and to recommend next steps for further medical assessment. The student will remain isolated from others while awaiting pick-up at the Junior School (Junior School students) or Health Centre (Senior School students). The isolation area used for the student, and other areas of the School where the ill individual has been, will be sanitized as soon as reasonably possible.

In the case of a boarding student for whom immediate pick-up is not possible, we will provide nursing care on campus until such time that an alternative arrangement can be made as required. The lower level of the School’s health centre has been designated an isolation and quarantine space where 24-hour nursing care, meals and accommodation can be provided. Students will be assessed by the school nurses and physician, and as deemed necessary, will be further assessed and tested at the regional COVID-19 assessment centre, which is located in the Northumberland Hills Hospital in Cobourg. Further instructions, following confirmation of diagnosis, will be provided by the local public health unit and we will follow those instructions, particularly with respect to the required contact tracing and testing.

While the student is in the care of their parent/guardian, communication between the TCS health centre and parent/guardian will continue related to further medical assessment, findings, recovery, support and return to school. Students feeling well enough to tend to academic work will be able to do so during their time at home via the TCS Connect e-community platform.

Care of others: Contact tracing is an important part of maintaining community health. The local public health unit is responsible for conducting case and contact management activities; however, the School has an important role in providing information to support public health. We are committed to maintaining accurate records of students, staff and essential visitors. This includes contact information, schedules, attendance, bussing and engagement in co-curricular activities. This information will be shared with public health authorities as required to support contact tracing.

In addition to the School’s attendance systems, students and staff will also be “tapping” into spaces throughout the day using the same REACH app that is being used for the daily health assessment form. Simply put, this allows another layer of contact tracing data. We can identify individuals who “tapped in” to the same space as the ill individual within certain time periods. This information will also be provided to public health to aid in contact tracing efforts.

Public health will provide direction to the School, families and staff. Where public health determines there was a transmission risk to others in the School, students and staff will be assessed to determine if they were at high risk of exposure (requiring isolation) or if they were at low risk of exposure (can self-monitor for symptoms and return to school). All students and staff determined to be at a high risk of exposure will be directed to isolate and recommended to be tested within their isolation period. The province has deemed that negative test results do not change the requirement for isolation nor do they shorten the isolation period for close contacts.

Students required to isolate per public health’s direction will do so in the care of their parent or guardian, engaging in TCS Connect e-community remotely. Communication between the Health Centre and parent/guardian will continue related to further medical assessment, support and return to school.

Communication with the school community: Parents, students and staff have an understandable interest in knowing when a COVID-19 positive case has been identified in the School. Schools are required to create a COVID-19 advisory section on their website and to post information if there is a confirmed case of COVID-19 that involves a student or staff member. Privacy remains a top priority; identifying names and information will not be included.

If public health advises that a group of students/staff should self-isolate (not attend school) for a period of time, TCS parents, students and staff will be notified immediately. Similarly, notice of any closure will be communicated and posted on the website.

Senior School Schedule

Students will be introduced to this schedule following opening week.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday  
Classes will be 75 minutes in length with time in between classes to allow for transitions between spaces that prioritize health protocols, including but not limited to, the cleaning of classroom spaces and hand hygiene. Evening day bus departures are offered at two times on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

*Flex Period Activities (1:55 – 2:25 p.m.)  
Monday: Chapel  
Tuesday: Academic Flex  
Thursday: Academic Flex  
Friday: Clubs & Leadership

Wednesday  
Wednesdays provide a change in pace given the new schedule and framework and give students an opportunity access additional academic support, engagement and co-curricular programming. There are two evening day bus departures offered on Wednesdays.

*Academic Programming: During these periods, students will have the opportunity to select from three levels of support and a series of offerings.

TCS campus closed to the public as a preventative measure

Members of the public are not currently allowed access to the TCS campus, nor will the School be hosting large events for the time being, in order to help ensure the health and safety of our students and staff. And while not consistent with our traditional community ethos, parents dropping off or picking up students are asked to stay in their vehicles unless they have a pre-scheduled appointment with someone at the School (or on Opening Week when one individual per boarding student may assist with move-in), in which case, health screening and protocols apply. Service providers requiring access to the campus (e.g. suppliers or contractors) must follow strict health and safety protocols, including completing a health screening form. The campus perimeter and buildings will be clearly marked to indicate no public access in order to help ensure the health and safety of our students and staff. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Reminder: New students & Returning students with new laptops

All new students as well as returning students with a new laptop are asked to contact the IT help desk to set up a virtual appointment before the start of school. The IT department will work with your child to ensure they are set up to be able to immediately access the TCS network when they arrive on campus for the start of school and have the ability to download any needed software automatically.

Click here to schedule a virtual appointment. To access the booking system, students click the “Login/Create Account” button and create an account using their TCS email address. Once logged into the booking system, appointment times will be listed; students will select the day/time they prefer to “create” an appointment. We look forward to assisting our students and families.

Over the past week, as dozens of our international students have successfully made their way to Canada and are now in 14-day quarantine off-campus, we are feeling grateful that we will have the opportunity to re-open our school and safely welcome back so many of our community members.

We are looking forward to next week when we will be providing you with further details about the start of school. Please watch for that email to arrive on Thursday, September 3rd. Until then, a reminder that each of us will play an important role in ensuring a healthy and happy school community. With that in mind, please familiarize yourself and your child(ren) with the details of the School’s re-opening plans, found at: www.tcs.on.ca/reopening2020.

Wishing your family a wonderful final wrap-up to the summer break.

Sincerely,

Stuart Grainger  
Headmaster