Dear BCS Family,
We here at Bearspaw Christian School understand that these are challenging times. We are praying for our fellow citizens and hope that everyone remains healthy and safe during this uncertain time. We are staying positive and looking forward to the day that our regular schedules and classes resume and we get back to connecting with our students and families face-to-face.
On Monday, April 6, we began a new journey with Remote Learning at BCS. We have never wavered from our mission of “Joining With the Family to Realize Personal Academic Excellence and Christ-Like Character in Each Student”. Our desire is to provide a distinct BCS advantage for our families during the COVID-19 crisis and ensure that our students and school will not just survive but thrive. We are confident that over the next three months BCS students will experience continued educational excellence and be provided with one of the best learning opportunities in Alberta.
Educationally, we are working towards several key objectives:
- To provide the most robust, age appropriate educational experience for every one of our students. BCS will endeavour to exceed Provincial baseline expectations for educational requirements to benefit all of our students in preparation for success in the next grade. We will ensure that we are setting our Senior High students up for success in their next chapter of post secondary school.
- To create the richest learning environment possible for our students in our present reality. To accomplish this, we feel it is important for students to have scheduled live classes, with direct connection with their teachers and fellow students. We are fortunate that our proprietary learning platform provides for this level of communication and community.
- To offer extraordinary support for students and families with meaningful daily structure and activity. Students will feel safer, more secure and be able to cope with the stress and anxiety of the challenges presented by the COVID-19 situation if they are meaningfully engaged and occupied.
- To recognize students’ need for connection. In addition to connection with teachers, we want students to be able to connect with each other in productive and meaningful ways, both educationally and spiritually.
- To remove the additional burden from parents as much as possible. We believe that Remote Learning is not homeschooling, but rather a teacher directed and supported learning environment. We do recognize that younger students are more reliant on parental support and we plan to continue to grow our capacity for younger students and their parents.
- To provide tools and support for learning including learning packages, ChromeBooks, IT support, discipleship opportunities and parent prayer times. We will soon be launching a learning support-line for students and parents to ask questions as the need arises.
Financially we are working towards several key objectives:
- BCS will not implement the planned tuition increase and has frozen rates for the upcoming school year.
- We are actively engaged in looking for solutions to support our families, keep staff in place and provide for the future sustainability of BCS. Please note that the programming and curriculum we are delivering incurs the same costs for teachers as before our transition to Remote Learning. Our staff have been reassigned wherever possible to realize maximum savings. We will continue to monitor the situation carefully following advice from Alberta Education and Alberta Health Services, understanding that this is a very fluid and evolving situation.
We know that this is not how any of us expected our school year to end, but we are excited about what we have planned for our students and are committed to providing a positive school experience for every student and family. We are so grateful for your ongoing patience, understanding and prayers. All of us at BCS want to assure you that it is our joy to serve our families and students in these unprecedented times.