This spring, the community is shifting to the new, three-step enrolment process. As we shared back in October, the aim of this shift is to provide our families with timely and deliberate communication, specifically on what the School requires of its constituents, parents/guardians and students, and what parents/guardians can expect of the School.

By now, you will have completed Enrolment Step 2 of 3. In doing so, you will have committed to terms and conditions related to the financial agreement you have with the School. An annual Financial Agreement is not a new expectation; however, the earlier timing is new, as is some content. For example, you will have noticed an effort to be clear and transparent about the financial implications of withdrawing a student enrolled for the following school year.

During February, parents/guardians will be prompted through email communication to complete Enrolment Step 3 of 3 by agreeing to the Enrolment Terms and Conditions and the four enrolment policies, including the CHS Code of Conduct. In the terms and conditions document, we define the nature of the relationship between parents/guardians and the School; these terms and conditions were written in an effort to create a document that is easily understood. We do not anticipate the content will surprise you.

In addition, the four enrolment policies will be familiar to you. These policies were incorporated in the annual Student Information Forms completed in August, prior to the current school year. By pulling the policies forward in the enrolment contract and combining them with the enrolment terms and conditions, Step 3 ensures a shared responsibility for both the School and parents/guardians to create and maintain a safe, orderly and caring School.

Each year, when the School invites continued enrolment and/or extends an offer of admission, the School has a responsibility to define or reinforce the expectations associated with being a member of the School's community. For parents/guardians, making a decision to accept the admission offer or continued enrolment requires a complete understanding of the nature of their relationship with the School. Through the three-step process developed this year, we believe the school is providing parents with greater clarity and transparency in order to make this decision.

On February 22, 2022, we will hold a town hall to answer any questions about the new terms and conditions and the enhanced process. Watch for further information to follow, and be sure to visit the My CHS Community Portal page, Enrolment, Tuition and Billing, for all information related to the enrollment process.

Black History Month - Resources to Share

Both the Junior and Senior School library staff have created lists of resources to support students and teachers in their learning. Parents are encouraged to access these resources as well:

• The Senior School library staff have created a Black History Month LibGuide. It's available publicly on our library website.
• The Junior School library staff have created the following list of reading material, available on LibGuide as well.

More information on school activities surrounding Black History Month will be shared in the next edition of ECalls.

COVID-19 Resource

To assist families, the COVID-19 Response Team and Vancouver Coastal Health have created a Symptoms, Testing, and Return to School Flowchart. The chart is a useful resource that parents can print out and reference when managing COVID-19 symptoms.

Save the Date: Enrolment Process Town Hall

During the month of February, parents and guardians who are enroling a student at CHS for the 2022-2023 school year are required to complete Enrolment Step 3 of 3 by agreeing to the Enrolment Terms and Conditions and the four enrolment policies. A town hall with simultaneous Mandarin translation is scheduled for Tuesday, February 22 at 7:00 pm to provide an overview and answer questions.

Save the Date: Grade 10-12 Production

Save the date for the Grade 10-12 production of Shakespeare in Love. The show takes place daily from Thursday, March 3, 2022 to Saturday, March 5, 2022. Families will be notified when tickets will go on sale in mid-February.

Join us at Nerve: Lessons on Leadership

York House School and Crofton House School are pleased to present a virtual evening with Dr Martha Piper and Dr Indira Samarasekera to discuss their recently published book, Nerve: Lessons on Leadership from Two Women Who Went First. Join Martha, Indira and the Head Girl and Assistant Head Girl from both schools on Thursday, February 24, 2022 at 7:00 pm as they discuss the insightful and powerful lessons the book has to offer for women. Register online.

Bai xin nian! We wish all families a very happy and healthy Lunar New Year! We also want to thank students across the Junior and Senior School for their enthusiastic participation and performances to celebrate the Year of the Tiger. A gallery of highlights is available on Vidigami.

As part of Heart Month, Senior Kindergarten students have been creating multicoloured heart drawings during their art classes—perfect for brightening anyone’s day.

A wonderful learning resource, the Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada, has been in use in the Junior School atrium. Students from the Junior School have the opportunity to interact with this giant floor map and explore the country with various topics in mind, including Indigenous languages, Indigenous governance, residential schools, seasonal cycles and animal migration, original place names, and more.

Students in Grade 5 have been learning about the structure and design of theatre spaces in their drama classes, distinguishing downstage left to upstage right and everything in between.

Blindfolded obstacle courses are challenging to begin with, but what if your teammates had to use directions in another language? Grade 7 students have been putting that idea, and their French skills, to the test with some highly entertaining results. Allez!

Stop motion animation requires precision and patience, but the results can be truly magical. These Grade 8 students are in the middle of making their own experimental, stop motion films using origami, toys and lego bricks.

Following their own discussions of her book in class, the Composition 11 students invited author Lindsay Wong for a Zoom reading and Q&A on her award-winning memoir The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family. Ms Wong spoke to the class about her writing process, her thoughts on addressing mental health in literature, her experiences as a Chinese Born Canadian author, and her overall tips for aspiring novelists.

Grade 12 French students explored Lunar New Year across a variety of countries, drawing interesting contrasts and similarities. Vietnamese, Indonesian, Korean and Chinese traditions and celebrations were explored, among others.

Senior School students in Studio 65 art club have started making Venetian masks to support the costume department for the upcoming production of Shakespeare in Love. We can’t wait to see the finished versions!

Speaking of the Grade 10-12 production, performers have been put through their paces recently in both dance lessons and fight choreography. Ms Burgess, Assistant Department Head, AADST, Senior School, walked the students through Elizabethan-era choreography, while Leon Potter of Vancouver Island University guided them through how to safely portray brawls and sword fighting!

Grade 12 students from 20th Century History led the rest of the Senior School in an engaging and informative assembly for International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 28, culminating in the creation of this butterfly collage. Each small butterfly carries the name of a Holocaust victim or survivor, and links back to Pavel Friedmann's moving poem The Butterfly about life in a Polish ghetto.

To celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day on February 2, Crofton House staff and students wore their favourite sports jerseys to school! The day recognizes the influence sport can have on women and girls, celebrates the accomplishments of women and girls in sport, and highlights the progress and continued work towards equity for women in sport.

Throughout CHS, sport and physical activity plays an important role in campus life, from the athletics program through to Physical and Health Education and daily activities within classrooms—just look at these snapshots from the year so far!

Return to Tournament Play on February 4

Paused through January with the rise of Omicron, student athletes and coaches will be cheered up by today’s good news: school sports tournaments can resume play on February 4, 2022.

The BC Ministry of Education has released specific communicable disease guidelines for sports tournaments that support existing school-based health and safety measures. The School will review these additional or enhanced requirements to ensure they are in place both on the CHS campus when the Crofton Falcons host a tournament, and at other host schools. At this time, the guidelines restrict external spectators indoors (i.e., persons who are attending to observe, but not participate in, the sport, or who support tournament operations).

We just got back from winter break and it's February already —time is flying.

Once again, this school year has provided some interesting challenges for the CHS Parents’ Auxiliary to create opportunities to safely celebrate our community and connect with one another.

We started the year with a dazzling display of collaborative chalk artwork to welcome students and staff back on campus, while virtual cocktail parties helped connect the grades welcoming new families. The Whole Girl, Whole World event brought important lessons on slowing down, and the much-loved Winter Bazaar was a big hit as it offered traditional favourites and new delights. December saw our Service Together Program launch a coat drive that knocked expectations out of the park. And, of course, all throughout the term, Class Parents were working hard to organize many special grade events. Thank you to all of our volunteers—your efforts are so appreciated!

Looking ahead, health guidelines continue to call for creativity, flexibility and patience. We hear you, however, and Zoom fatigue is real, particularly for large Zoom gatherings. Rest assured the CHS PA is poised to provide extra support for Class Parents when restrictions allow for small gatherings again.

We are also exploring other ways to spark joy for students and staff on campus, and perhaps connect in small groups when possible—book club, anyone? Watch your inbox for more details.

What about staff appreciation, you ask? Shh…stay tuned on that too!

The start of a new year brings hope and sparks optimism, and the PA is focused on continuing to foster that vibrant CHS spirit we all love and miss. We are here for one another; as always, we are on this journey together. When the time is right, we look forward to opening up our social events with welcoming arms and hearts to celebrate our community together once again!

Kris Dattani
Chair, CHS Parents’ Auxiliary

Log into the My CHS portal to access the full school calendar.

Whole School

February 7 - Grade 6-12 All Bands Concert (video)
February 18 - Professional Development Day (No classes)
February 21 - Family Day (No classes)
February 22 - Enrolment Process and Terms & Conditions Town Hall
February 23 - Pink Shirt Day (anti-bullying)
February 24 - Virtual Event: Nerve: Lessons on Leadership - Register online.

Junior School

February 11 - Grade 1-2 Coffee & Conversation with Ms. Macken: 8:30 - 9:15 am February 17 - Grade 3 Coffee & Conversation with Ms. Macken: 8:30 - 9:15 am
February 24 - JK-SK Coffee & Conversation with Ms. Macken: 9:00 - 9:45 am

Senior School

February 9 - Shakespeare in Love (Grades 10-12 Production)
February 10 - Ivy 8 Day
February 14-16 - Outdoor Education 11 Excursion
February 16 - Course Planning for 2022-2023: Evening for Parents (Virtual)
February 17 - Ivy 10 Day