Principal’s Message 

Good afternoon staff, students, and community members. Tapwe iyiman.Please note the following information in regards to CNMS re-opening for staff and students on October 12th.

CNMS RE-ENTRY ENHANCED MEASURES

As of October 12th, all staff will be returning to school after our three (3) week lockdown due to a declared outbreak at the school and community of Big Island Lake.

However, after consultation with Elders and the Pandemic Team, we will be implementing a staggered start for students. Only grades 7-12 students will be in school for in person classes starting Tuesday, October 12. All other students, from grades K4 to Grade 6 will continue doing virtual classroom sessions with teachers conducting these from their classrooms at the school.

This staggered start is a measure to prevent spread through limiting student numbers in the school. We hope to have all classes in person in the foreseeable future but do not have any dates set at this time.

As part of the outbreak declaration, we have received some health and safety recommendations to prevent further outbreaks and have also decided to implement some of our own enhanced procedures to prevent the risk of further cases of Covid 19 amongst our staff and students.

We value our staff and students as well as the community members. We need to provide stricter measures to ensure that we have a safe facility where students can learn and staff can be assured that we are doing whatever is necessary to have a safe learning environment.

Following are some of the recommendations from the letter outlined by Dr. Khan, the Regional Medical Health Officer;

-Inform outside/connected parties that use the facility-Restrict visitors to the school

-Minimize the movement of staff between cohorts

-For those students/staff that are medically vulnerable, they may self

-exclude until the outbreak is declared over

-Temporarily discontinue extracurricular activities and limit student activities to their cohorts

-Maintain accurate records of staff and student attendance, including school transportation, before/after school program, etc.

-Encourage daily self-monitoring of all students, staff and visitors for COVID-19 like symptoms

– Require/reinforce non-medical masks and face coverings indoor, and make masks available to students, as needed

-Implement weekly rapid Antigen testing of asymptomatic students and staff that are not identified as close contacts

-Review and complete environmental cleaning and disinfection protocols and enhance cleaning and disinfection of the facility

-On site or virtual EPHO assessment for enhanced public health guidelines to prevent transmission

These measures are measures that we must adhere to limit the spread or risk of Covid-19 in our school setting. We, as staff will be extra diligent in implementing the recommendations.

Following are some of the ways CNMS will implement the recommendations:

-An additional daytime cleaner will be added to wipe down high touch surfaces

-Limited movement allowed between classrooms and have staff members accompany students for bathroom breaks to ensure no gathering of students

-Food cart will continue pickups and delivers to each homeroom

-Sharing of computer trolley will be discontinued, a limited amount of chrome books will be assigned to a classroom for their use only

-No shared recess breaks are allowed, teachers can take their students outside for recess on their own

-Gym instructors will still be permitted to go to the classroom to take students outside for a gym period. This may change as the weather starts to get colder and the gym is available.

-Cree class will be done via smartboard which eliminates students going to the Cree classroom, students and teacher stay in their room and the Cree teacher will instruct from her room via smartboard

-No public visitors allowed at school

-PD facilitators booked to be in person will be moved to online workshops

-No substitute staff will be called in

-When a teacher is away from work due to sickness, they are to instruct using google meet and google classroom with the EA to manage the classroom

-All staff wipe down surfaces in their classrooms consistently and any other high-use areas such as photocopiers, phones, etc.

-Students must wear masks at all times

-Maintain social distancing as much as possible-Rapid testing is available

-The playground is off-limits and will be roped off

-Student attendance will be monitored daily and if homeroom sizes are too large smaller groupings will be considered

-Grade 10-12 students will remain in homerooms and the teachers will move to teach them

Please note that these are measures that must be taken during this time. We ask for your diligence and cooperation to help curb the spread of the pandemic by keeping your child(ren) at home if they are feeling sick.

We must be prepared at any time for another school closure and in this regard, teachers will be sending home homework packages to be used for online learning or working from home. Desktop computers will be ready for pickup Tuesday afternoon from the van shed for those that are prepared to install on their own. Please call the school to arrange for a pick-up time. If a family requires assistance, we can arrange to have a staff member assist with hook-up through facetime or through a walkthrough via phone or a quick demo at time of pick-up.

In the event of a COVID positive case, we will send home the affected class to isolate for the full 14 days from the last date of contact. A letter will be sent home and testing would be set up with the health clinic. Unless this affects students aged 12 and up, who are fully vaccinated, and who are not displaying symptoms, then those students will be allowed to remain in school; they will be rapid tested every other day to make sure they are not covid positive. At this time, as long as the sibling from the affected class is not displaying any symptoms they may continue to go to school. Nurse Dwan will attempt to contact all students in the affected class daily to ensure we are not allowing siblings in the school if there are any symptoms in the home.

Van drivers and assistants are requested to be extra diligent in screening students when they do their morning pick-ups. Van assistants will ask all students the “Fit for School” questionnaire. Any students who present symptoms are to stay at home along with any other members of their household. Please help us prevent the spread of Covid by keeping sick students at home. We will ensure that these strict guidelines are followed.

We all want a safe return to school and we must make sure that we limit movement between people as much as possible and stay with our own family bubble.

We hope and wish that Covid goes away. We all want for life to go back to normal as much as possible. Let’s all work towards this by staying safe, getting vaccinated, and by heeding the advice from our health staff.

Have a safe and happy thanksgiving.

Principal Helen Ben

Sept 22, 2021, First Day of Fall

Tansi and good morning! It is a beautiful day and we always need to give thanks for beautiful fall days. Fall is so vibrant with color and it is a time where we prepare for the winter season. As you are aware, we are in the midst of a temporary shutdown at the school. We plan on returning to in classroom instruction on October 4th full speed ahead. It has been an exciting time of classes and schoolwork to learn and relearn important concepts in all subject areas. Land base camp was in full swing with students getting an opportunity to connect with nature and apply their knowledge of land-based skills that help them reconnect with their traditional roots. We look forward to opening doors once again for students and staff so that we can continue with the full slate of classes and fun programs that have been planned over time. As you may be aware, staff have been looking forward to in-person learning for quite some time. We ask that we all work together to stay safe and shut down this annoying covid that has affected our community. We need to ensure that we heed all the directives from the pandemic team as we all want to keep our children and community members safe. We are now well into the 4th wave and it is hitting our First Nation communities. Staying home as much as possible, masking up, and hand sanitizing are key to fighting this pandemic. We assure parents that we will continue to work hard to keep our school safe from covid. Regular hand washing, masking, and wipe down of high traffic areas will continue as well as limited movement between classes along with access to in-school nursing services to test students as required. We are eager again to have students in the school. We, do, however, plan on this, being fully aware that we must all work together to eliminate the threat of covid. While we are on shut down, please have your students do online learning. Teachers have been reaching out and have established their google classrooms. I would urge all parents to ensure that their child is engaged in online learning. Please go on the school website to connect to your child’s google classroom. We will continue to update information as it becomes available.

Hiy, hiy. Principal Helen Ben

Principal’s Message

August 18, 2021

Good afternoon to the students and parents of Big Island Lake Cree Nation. As you are aware, the new school year is upon us. We are excited to announce that we will be reopening with students for the 2021-2022 school year! This year’s theme is “Every Child Matters”. We want to create an environment where students know that they matter and that their educational needs and personal needs of learning, acceptance, and love are what matter most! We will be introducing some new programs this year that help to complement our supports. New this year will be; an in-house Mental Health Therapist, a Hockey Skills Academy Program, Outside Looking In and Right to Play program. Check out the attached links to learn more about these upcoming new programs. We have made some other improvements to our school. The gym floor is being painted, new lighting is being installed with a brighter LED system, a new security system has been installed and classroom windows have been replaced with new windows to provide for proper ventilation and we have created new outdoor learning spaces. We are bringing in mobile classroom units for high school classes to eliminate split classrooms and to ensure smaller classroom sizes wherever possible. Eliminating split classrooms will ensure concentrated teaching at student grade level. Land base education continues to be a key focus of our education system. New this year will be the addition of treaty education as a key pillar to land base education to provide students the background and knowledge of their history and contemporary and relevant information. Knowing one’s history and roots instills pride in oneself and will help to incorporate the theme and main concept of “Every Child Matters”. These enhanced programs and improvements to the school are geared toward providing a safe and caring learning environment for our students at CNMS. We want to continue to provide a welcoming and inviting place where children feel loved and where their education is valued. Unfortunately, Covid is still around us. As a school, we want to create the safest school environment for our students. We have had the school professionally steam cleaned to get rid of the remnants of the gym being used as an isolation center. The school will no longer be used as an isolation center. We know that Covid can still impact our community. As a result, we will be implementing our Reopen Plan of masking, heightened cleaning procedures, and social distancing as much as possible. Our school nurse, Dwan Simard will be on hand to provide support and ensure that we create a safe school environment and follow health protocols as required. We are concerned about Covid and I am sure that you as parents share this concern. Please be assured that we will work to provide a good healthy environment whereby students can learn and excel educationally to the best of their ability. We look forward to seeing the students! We have missed them tremendously. Please come in on August 30th or 31st to register your child(ren). We look forward to seeing you!
https://righttoplay.com/en-ca/national-offices/national-office-canada/get-involved/indigenous-programs/?_ga=2.142838833.540733747.1629230907-51838828.1629230907
https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/hockey-programs/schools/hcsa
https://www.olishow.com/copy-of-our-programs

Hiy, hiy.

Helen Ben

Thank you for visiting CNMS website!