COVID 19 update from the government

THE FOLLOWING MEASURES WILL BE IN EFFECT, INITIALLY, FROM 04.01.2021 TO 18.01.2021:

• Do not receive visitors at home and do not visit others. This does not apply to close friends and relatives of those in the last phase of life. Those who live alone may receive one or two persons as regular visitors or alternatively visit one household regularly. Children may visit other children from their cohort from kindergarten or school.
• It is prohibited for pubs or restaurants to serve alcohol, but these establishments may remain open.
• Maximum five persons can meet at private events outside of the home, for example at birthday parties at rented venues.
• Maximum ten persons can meet at public events indoors. However, up to 200 persons can meet if all are seated in fixed seats. At funerals, up to 50 people may attend, even if the seats are not fixed.
• All teaching and planned events at universities, university colleges and vocational colleges (universiteter, høgskoler og fagskoler) will be digital up to 18.01.2021.
• All middle- and secondary schools (ungdomsskoler og videregående skoler), will be organised at red preparedness level.
• Avoid unnecessary travel within and outside of Norway. You may travel to your cabin together with the people in your household.
• All who can work from home, should do this.
• Shopping centres and shops should have entrance control and limit how many people that may be in the shop at the same time. This is to ensure that the distance can be maintained.
• All organised leisure activities, sports activities, cultural events, and religious events are postponed until after the 18^th of January. This does not apply to funerals.
• Outdoors activities may take place if one-meter distance can be upheld.

Bottle drive 2020 - to support Doctors Without Borders

Can I attend at school today?

See the Skagerak guideline below for attending school in case of illness

Skagerak Welcome Day - CHANGE OF PLANS on Saturday 15 August

Due to the recent increase in COVID cases in the local area and with an abundance of caution, we are going to make some modifications to the Saturday Skagerak Welcome Day. It is vital that during the first weeks that we be extra vigilant.

We will be shifting the Primary and Middle school portion of the welcome day to a digital format. A link will be sent Friday evening for parents to connect with a welcome from contact teachers and the heads of the Primary Middle school. We will keep meetings times as scheduled, and have staggered the day for parents who have students at multiple levels within our school.

The High school portion of the welcome day will still be a physical meeting with proper precautions. This is due to the special year 11 group of students and parents who are largely completely new to the school. Likewise, the new parent evening on Thursday, August 13 will continue as scheduled for new parents.

Unfortunately, this also means the Parent Council pølse festival at lunch will also be cancelled. Hopefully before the weather turns, we will be able to get together as a community.

As directed by Utdanningsdirektoratet, the school year will start as we ended, in the yellow phase. On Monday the 17 August, we ask that only new parents of Primary school students accompany their children to the playground where their teachers will meet them. Returning students should join their classes in their class groups on the big playground where they usually line up. This situation is our reality for the foreseeable future, and we endeavour to be a safe, communicative and transparent as possible throughout.

ManageBac access

As we are updating class lists and courses in preparation for the new school year, we have temporarily disabled student and parent access to ManageBac. It should be available again from Friday 14 or Monday 17 August. New parents will be sent a log in email and current parents will gain access to a new sibling who has just started at Skagerak.

Our apologies for any inconvenience.

School Start Information

For the official school start up information, camps and stationery supplies etc., detailed information has been sent from each section head for your son or daughter. This year the heads of sections are:

• Kindergarten Ms. Daniela Allen
• Primary School Ms. Lesley Schafer
• Middle School Mr. Tony Egan
• High School Mr. Niklas Winander
  

COVID-19 Planning and Procedures

COVID-19 planning will continue to be a high priority for this school year and foreseeable future. We are constantly updating our Skagerak safety plan regarding COVID-19 for the 2020/2021 school year. We are starting in the yellow phase, which is very close to where we were at the end of last year. Any new regulation changes announced by the FHI and Norwegian government will be adapted by this plan and communicated throughout the year. As last year, we will endeavor to go above and beyond all the government regulations and keep hygiene and distancing top priorities.

Saturday, 15 August, Parent welcome

For the first time this year we will be doing a whole school welcome, with the PYP, MYP and DP programs having a welcome ceremony on Saturday, August 15. The timetable will run throughout the day by individual sections, with a Parent Council pølsefest lunch at midday.

0930-1030 Kindergarten and Primary School Welcome

Lars Ask Auditorium and then classroom with contact teacher(s)

1100-1200 Middle School Welcome

Lars Ask Auditorium and then classroom with contact teacher(s)

1200-1330 Parent Council pølsefest

Outside in playground oval – pølse, coffee and laughs provided.

1330-1500 High School Welcome – for parents and students

Lars Ask Auditorium and then classroom with contact teacher(s)

During this welcome session, you will have the opportunity to meet your child's contact teacher and will be given information about class level routines and expectations. This is always a great start for the Skagerak community and it is our hope that the majority of parents can make it to this welcome day. As many of our students come from a wide radius of Vestfold, it is important that the parents get to know each other and communicate. Skagerak is a small school that does big things with a great parent community.

Welcome meeting for new parents only, Thursday 13 August, 16:30

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the Skagerak International School community!

Being the "new person" in a community or country is never easy and this adjustment period is especially magnified with children and changing schools. Over the next month there will be large amount of information, acronyms, jargon and Skagerak International School terms being presented in emails and welcome presentations, which are likely to be confusing to newcomers. At Skagerak we always like to nurture a welcoming environment and hopefully your transition will be a smooth one.

I would like to formally invite all new parents to an informal information evening (a Skagerak "101" if you will) on Thursday August 13^th at 16:30 in the Lars Ask auditorium. Present at the meeting will be members of the Parent and Student councils, the Board, Finance Manager, school sections heads and myself. This is a perfect opportunity to meet some great people in the community, ask questions you may have or find out how to get involved here at school. I intend to cover and hopefully explain the following:

• A typical day in our school and the campus
• School systems and safe arrival programme
• Overview of year calendar with highlighted dates
• A brief overview of our curriculum
• Skagerak technology
• A who's who and where to go with questions/concerns
• How to get involved and meet new people at Skagerak
• Any questions you may have

This brief overview will get you up and running with the day-to-day operations at the school, before our official school opening on Saturday August 15^th.

Velkommen!

Kind regards,

James Tester

Skagerak International School is now

an official SAT test centre