Dear ROMS families,
Welcome to a new school year that will be, without a doubt, like no other! A special welcome to our newest ROMS eagles and welcome back to our Gr 7 and 8 students. We are looking forward to seeing you next week at our orientation sessions (Gr 6s on Thurs from 9:30-11am, Gr 7s on Thurs from 1:15-2:45pm, and Gr 8's on Friday from 9:30-11am). Safety will be our number one priority this year, but we will also have lots of middle school fun.
Below you will find some important start up information to help you navigate the new school year. We will send these updates out to families via email on a regular basis throughout the school year, so please ensure that the email information we have for you is correct. We will also post these updates on our Royal Oak website at https://royaloak.sd63.bc.ca/ - this is a great place to bookmark and check regularly.
ORIENTATION - Check out this short video to find out what will happen at our orientation sessions next week:
. Students will find out who their teacher is on their orientation day and will learn about all the safety protocols that will be in place at ROMS to ensure that the guidelines from our provincial health officials are followed. To read the District Health and Safety Plan click here Health & Safety plan or go to the district website for much more information.
BUSSING - The Saanich district can ONLY support school bus transportation for students to and from their homes. For Health and Safety reasons, students will not be able to ride the bus to after school activities or friend's houses. If students live in two household, they can continue to ride the bus to both homes. More information about riding the school bus is available on the school district website.
FIRST WEEK - The first full of school will be Monday, Sept 14th. Busses will run as normal. Students will meet on the field in their division (similar to how we did in June) to ensure safe distancing as we enter the building.
STUDENT DROP OFF/PICK UP - due to limited space and increased safety protocols, we are asking that the main driveway and circle be limited to bus drop off and pick up at the beginning and end of the day. If you are driving your child, please drop them off on Greenlea Drive and they can walk across the field to get to school. Please do not drop your child off any earlier than 15 minutes before the start of school.
PHONE/MESSAGES FOR STUDENTS - With 600 students in our building, it is a challenge for us to deal with messages to/from students. Email is the best way to communicate with your child's teacher and the office. Forgotten lunches, homework etc can be dropped off at the office counter. Only essential messages to individual children will be delivered throughout the day e.g. essential message: "your appointment has been changed; I will pick you up at 2:10 pm."
LOCKERS/LOCKS - we will not be issuing students with locks/lockers until we've established the flow of movement throughout our building. To start, we ask students to bring all personal items in one backpack which will be stored in their classroom. Please leave valuables at home.
SCHOOL SUPPLIES - lists for each grade can be found on our website. Your child's teacher will let them know on their orientation day when to bring their supplies and if there are any extra items that are needed beyond those that are on the list.
PHOTO DAY - Individual student photos will be taken on Thursday, Sept 24th (and will follow COVID safety procedures). For other important dates, please check the school calendar on the front page of our school website. We will continue to add dates to this calendar throughout the year.
Have a great long weekend! We're looking forward to seeing our Royal Oak eagles next week.
Karen MacEwan
Principal