Academics

• All students are be dropped off in the main parking entrance between 7:40 and 8:00 a.m. 
• Parents drive into campus through our main entrance where a person will be directing traffic into two lines. 
• Parents remain in their cars.
• Students exit their car wearing a mask. Belongings should be easily accessible. 
• A team of faculty and staff taked student temperatures as students exit their cars. 
• Parents remain on site until their children’s health is assessed.
• Lower School students go to their homeroom classes. Younger students are helped by faculty and/or staff. 
• Upper School and Lower School forms students go directly to their first period class or homeroom. 
• After 8:15 a.m., all late arrivals must check in at a screening tent at the back door of the Health Center to have their temperature taken.

2020-2021 Dress Code 

• When inside, all students and faculty must wear a face mask that covers both the mouth and the nose except where medical restrictions apply. Masks with exhalation valves are not acceptable because they permit respiratory droplets to escape the mask.
• When outside and students are practicing physical distancing, students and faculty are not required to wear masks. 
• With faculty permission, students can take mask breaks during the day when physical distancing is maintained. 

• Teachers plan for mask breaks where appropriate and students may ask permission from the teacher to take a mask break. 

• During mask breaks, whether they be inside or outside, students and faculty must remain six feet apart from other students and faculty.

As recommended by the CDC, we ask all community members to maintain six feet of physical distance whenever feasible. Classrooms have been reorganized and rearranged to support physical distancing. We are spacing out, removing furniture, assigning seats, adjusting the number of students to the size of the classroom, and utilizing/renovating a variety of new spaces to allow for lower classroom density.

• Following CDC guidelines, student seating/desks have been placed at a six-foot distance wherever feasible.
• Plexiglass face shields, dividers, and/or barriers are being used where teachers/students or students/students work together at tables where physical distancing is not feasible. 
• With our expansive outdoor spaces, teachers are holding class outside when the weather allows and/or when appropriate. 
• Physical guides such as tape on the floors and signs on the walls remind students of our physical distancing protocols. 
• Student seating is assigned in all classes to assist with contact tracing. 
• In Kindergarten through Primes, students have individual cubbies for their belongings. In Ist-IIIrd Form (3-5), students keep their belongings at their assigned desks. In the Upper School, students  bring their belongings with them to each class; no lockers are used. 

• Upper School students are cohorted by Form in their English, history, science, co-curricular classes as well as during lunches. There is some mixing of grade levels in foreign language and mathematics. Desks, chairs, and shared supplies will be cleaned between classes. 
• Lower School classes will travel to co-curricular classes with their teacher. Teachers clean previously-used surfaces and shared supplies between use. At times, co-curricular classes take place outside or in student’s homeroom classes.  

• Signs reminding students of proper hand washing techniques are posted in all bathrooms. 
• Hand sanitizing stations are at the entrances of all buildings and classrooms. 
• Teachers have students wash or sanitize their hands before and after playing with others or when sharing supplies. 
• All paper towel dispensers in bathrooms have been converted to no touch dispensers.
• All air hand-drying equipment has been disengaged. 

We partnered with our cleaning service, Diversified Building Services, to enhance and ensure that our cleaning and disinfecting protocols are in accordance with CDC guidelines. 

• Routine cleaning of all areas of the school occurs before, during, after the school day. 
• Cleaning and disinfection of “high-touch” areas takes place throughout the academic day.
• Bathrooms are cleaned multiple times per day. 
• Bathroom vents run twenty-four hours a day. 
• Shared supplies are cleaned after shared use.
• Upper School students and teachers wipe down surfaces and supplies prior to leaving class. In the Lower School, teachers wipe down surfaces and supplies whenever a class changes or when a seating change is made. All classrooms are fitted with approved cleaning supplies. Additionally, all Lower School classrooms are assigned specific bathrooms and breakout spaces for use during the academic day. 

We have worked with HVAC experts to ensure that our classrooms comply with the Connecticut  Department of Public Health’s guidelines.

• In buildings where HVAC systems already exist, filters were replaced and upgraded to comply with all CDC recommendations.  
• In classrooms where these systems do not exist, we installed air purification units that include charcoal, MERV-13, and UVC light filtration. 
• Ceiling fans in classrooms were adjusted or replaced so that fins are rotating in the direction that draws air up toward the ceiling rather than down onto students. 
• Windows and doors remain open while classes are in session where appropriate. 
• Fans, where used, blow out of doorways and not into classrooms. 

Lower School

• Snacks are delivered by Culinart, the School’s food service, before the start of the second period. Students may also bring their own, nut-free snacks if they choose. 
• Students eat their snack in the classroom or outside before the end of the second period. Students remain seated during this time since they will be unmasked. 
• Recess is not scheduled into the regular school day. Teachers decide when students need a break and take students outside to play. 
• Classes remain cohorted during recess. 
• Playground equipment is used by one cohort at a time.
• Students that maintain six feet of distance don't need to wear a mask. 
• Indoor recess is in students’ classrooms when classes cannot go outside to play.
• Students sanitize their hands before and after recess. 

Upper School

• To increase transition times, there is no scheduled recess. 
• Snacks are delivered by Culinart, the School’s food service, before the start of the second period. Students may also bring their own, nut-free snacks if they choose. 
• Students will eat their snack in the classroom or outside before the end of the second period. Students will need to remain seated during this time since they will be unmasked.

Lower School

In the Lower School, students eat in their cohorts either in their classroom or outside. Students remain at least six feet apart while not wearing masks. Our dining service sends out a lunch menu each week. By Wednesday of the week prior, students select what items they would like for lunch on each day of the week. Dietary restrictions are taken into consideration as menus are created. Students bring their own lunch to school if they prefer; however, to protect students and faculty with nut allergies, foods containing nuts are prohibited. Meals are prepackaged and delivered to student’s lunch locations. 

Upper School

In the Upper School, lunch is divided over two periods to reduce the density of student groups. During each lunch period, boarding students eat in the dining hall at their dorm’s “family” tables and day students eat in the tennis courts so that students can remain six feet apart while unmasked. Lunch is served buffet style by Culinart and students sit in assigned seats. Maintaining six feet of distance and wearing masks, students pass through the buffet line and tell the Culinart staff what they would like to eat. The Culinart staff plate the food for the students; students do not serve themselves from the buffet. Students bring their own lunch to school if they prefer; however, to protect students and faculty with nut allergies, foods containing nuts are prohibited. Students remain seated and physically distanced during this time since they will be unmasked.

The Upper School uses a rotating schedule so that most classes take place at a different time on different days. In this way, students in different time zones will be able to attend each class live several days a week. Upper elementary classes (I-IIIr^d Forms)  rotate based on each teacher’s homeroom schedule. Students in the lower elementary grades (K-Primes) have a very different experience from upper elementary and upper school students since younger children need more parental support and less screen time.  A team of faculty from different academic departments are available for extra help during athletics or in the evenings to work with students who take part in our hybrid-distance learning program. These faculty members reach out directly to students and families for regular meeting schedules.

Upper School students and upper elementary students that participate remotely are Zoomed into a classroom outfitted with an  OWL Pro Camera. This smart video conferencing camera captures 360° video and audio for engaging distance learning. The camera automatically shifts to focus on whoever is speaking  These cameras connect students studying remotely with their teacher, classmates, and material, allowing for a more interactive classroom experience. All upper elementary through upper school classes are recorded for students who cannot make a class. In the lower elementary grades, students Zoom into classes where appropriate and do asynchronous work with guidance from home. In all grades, Google Classroom is the Learning Management System used as the classroom’s communication hub. 

Since the weekly academic schedule also includes a virtual Morning Meeting three times a week and Upper School Advisory meetings twice a week, students in the hybrid-distance learning model have the opportunity to share in community life with their peers.