Response to COVID positive cases in school  – 10/22/2021

When a positive case is reported in school, the following protocols will be enacted:

Vaccinated students – required to produce a negative test (either PCR or Rapid) within 3-5 days of the last exposure. Results must be emailed to the school nurse before the return to school.

Unvaccinated students – required to quarantine

• 14 days
• 10 days  – may return to school with no test or symptoms
• 7 day – may return to school with a negative test on day 5

Travel Quarantine Update – EFFECTIVE 4/1/21
In response to the decreasing incidence and positivity rates in Chester County, Villa Maria will lift travel quarantines for domestic travel beginning April 1, 2021. At this time, Villa Maria Academy is not planning to add virtual days to the spring break unless incidence and positivity rates increase dramatically by April 1, 2021.

Parents are asked to comply with the following:
• Inform the academy administration of travel plans, specifically destination and date of return to PA.
• Continue to wear masks when outside of your family circle.
• Continue to remain socially distanced when outside your family circle.
• Continue to monitor COVID-19 symptoms, especially after travel.
• Avoid travel outside of the country.

If traveling outside of the US, Villa will follow the current CDC Guidelines which can be found here. Students will be supported asynchronously for travel quarantines.

Please carefully consider family travel and activities. We are planning to finish our school year without interruption. We have done our best to maintain a safe environment for the entire Villa community. With the lifting of restrictions, we are looking to you to keep your commitment to the health and well-being of everyone at Villa Maria Academy.

Contact of a Contact Quarantine Update – March 29

Updated – December 12
Contact of a Contact Quarantine – If a sibling or parent of a Villa student has been identified as someone who has come in contact with a COVID positive person, thereby identifying the Villa student as a contact of a contact, the Villa student will be required to quarantine for 14 days or until the family member can produce a negative FDA-approved COVID test taken after the 7th day of exposure. Synchronous learning will be provided. All information should be reported to the School Nurse. * Specific circumstances related to periodic work-related testing of parents should be communicated to the school administration and/or the school nurse.

Villa’s Response to Travel Guidance Change – PA DOH – Upon the recommendation of the Chester County Health Department

Villa requires that travelers of any age who are returning home from locations outside of the Commonwealth for any length of time to:

• Quarantine for 14 days from the date of the arrival back in PA.

or

• Quarantine for 10 days with an FDA-approved negative test on or after day 7th of quarantine. Villa requires written copy of test results from all who reside in the household or all who were with the student when traveling.

International travel:

• Villa recommends that the student and those who travel with the student be tested before the trip, while at the destination and upon return to the Commonwealth,
• Villa requires that the student quarantine for 14 days upon their arrival in the Commonwealth with an FDA-approved negative test on or after day the 7th  of quarantine. Villa requires written copy of test results from all who reside in the household or all who were with the student when traveling.

December 4 – Villa’s Response to Travel Guidance Change – PA DOH was shared with the Villa community

August 11 – Villa Maria Academy Lower School released an updated re-opening plan to the Villa community (see below under Re-opening Villa), that will re-open school for in-person instruction 5 days a week on September 1.

August 4 – Villa Maria Academy Lower School announced updates to the re-opening plan based on parent responses via the Q&A session.

July 21 – Parent Q&A session via Zoom.

July 20 – Villa Maria Academy Lower School released an updated re-opening plan to the Villa Community and invited the Villa parent community to Q&A session via Zoom on July 21.

June 30, 2020 – Villa Maria Academy Lower School released a statement and plan for re-opening in the fall.
Villa Maria will happily reopen in September with in-class instruction for all students. The VMA COVID Task Force for reopening is working to align the recommendations of the CDC, PA Dept of Education and Chester County Health Dept. with daily life at Villa. The 14 member team is in the process of designing appropriate protocols to ensure the health and safety of all students, staff and families. Please read here to understand the many considerations of the team. The final plan will be reviewed for approval by the CCHD.

May 28, 2020 – The academic year at Villa Maria Academy Lower School ended.

March 17, 2020 – Teachers began online learning in all grades through the use of the learning platforms, Schoology and SeeSaw in synchronous and asynchronous online learning sessions.

March 16, 2020 – Teachers prepared for the first day of online learning.

March 13, 2020 – Governor Wolf issued the first of mandatory closure of schools in Chester County, PA.

February, 2020 – In response to student/family travel to and from China, Villa Maria Academy LS published this communication to all parents of enrolled students.

In order to provide an environment where all students can feel comfortable and one in which our protocols and procedures can be tested, we will employ a phase-in approach to school entry using the following schedule.

Student-Teacher Orientation Days:

9/1 – K-2 – Arrive between 8:30 AM and 8:50 AM; will be dismissed at 10:30 AM

9/2 – 3-5 – Arrive between 8:30 AM and 8:50 AM; will be dismissed at 10:30 AM

9/3 – 6-8 – Arrive between 8:30 AM and 8:50 AM; will be dismissed at 11:00 AM

Phased-In Schedule for Beginning of the Year
Full days in school – Beginning Tuesday, September 8

• Students bring their own lunch during the week of 9/8 to 9/11.
• Monday, 9/14 –first day of Aramark Food Service for pre-ordered box lunch (more information to come)
• Morning snack items from home should be packaged. Children should be able to be able to open the snacks on their own.

Tuesday, 9/8      Kindergarten
Wednesday 9/9  Kindergarten and 1^st
Thursday 9/10    Kindergarten, 1^st and 2^nd
Friday 9/11         Kindergarten, 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th 

Monday 9/14        Kindergarten, 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd 4^th, 5^th
Tuesday 9/15        Kindergarten, 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th
Wednesday 9/16 Kindergarten, 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th
Thursday 9/17 Kindergarten – 8^th 

Students will meet teachers for online learning each day until their scheduled day to begin in-person instruction. Students will receive guidance for online learning during on the orientation day.

What does distance learning look like at Villa? While different for each age group, there is strategic instruction delivered for all levels through varied approaches, media and learning platforms. The curriculum is adapted weekly as teachers gauge what works well and what needs improvement for the success of the students. Distance learning provided opportunities for students to connect regularly with teachers and other students.  Collaboration between teachers coupled with administrative support streamlined intentional efforts to develop this new dimension of the Villa learning community. Villa continues to adapt and grow in this effort in online learning as teachers and staff maintain flexibility, understanding, patience, and compassion for one another—from a distance, but all together. Community has never been more important or apparent than right now at Villa Maria Academy Lower School.

Preschool online learning sessions included both large group and small group sessions with two – four students. As early childhood educators we know children need time to eat, play, read, interact and engage with the world around them. As we found ourselves moving from our classroom to an online platform, activities were designed to encourage our young learners to explore and make discoveries. Meaningful learning was delivered using Zoom, Seesaw, and Epic Library. Weekly lessons began for the whole group on Zoom. An email to parents followed which included an easy to follow weekly lesson plan provided for family scheduling. Teacher created mini lessons, tutorials, cognitive games and activities were presented to the children using the Seesaw app. The children listened and responded to their teachers reading stories, sharing finger plays and rhymes, and engaging in math and science activities. The teacher was able to view and interact with the children as they responded to lessons. Activities that were geared towards the development of essential skills such as letter identification, letter sounds, and number recognition were designed to be repetitive in order to enable students to gain independence and take ownership of their own learning. Small group Zoom sessions allowed our young learners to work with their peers toward a common academic goal while working on their conversation and turn taking skills. The Epic library exposed the children to a wide variety of books related to the weekly theme in preschool, as well as expanded literacy, science, mathematics and social studies topics. The children could listen to stories independently or enjoy them with their families. To meet the needs of different student learning styles, paper and pencil, digital, audio and video learning activity submissions we offered through Seesaw. The wide variety of teacher created lessons and activities presented on the online platforms permitted the children to explore, gain a sense of self and build confidence.

Elementary online sessions were held daily. As we moved to online learning, continuing to develop a learning community and a consistency in routine became very important.  Students participated either in synchronous or asynchronous sessions. Elementary teachers implemented daily Zoom lessons to provide direct instruction and video lessons that were accompanied by various activities to reinforce the skills being taught. The curriculum had a strong focus on ELA and Math, Science, Social Studies and Religion.  Individual and Small group instruction sessions allowed our students to work with their peers and teachers on a more personalized learning scale.

During the course of the trimester, students used various technology tools to present research and projects to their classmates.

• First graders studied ecology and went on a virtual Zoom field trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where they discussed what they had learned based on what they saw.
• Third grade girls researched and dressed as a Famous Woman in history and presented information related to her life to classmates over Zoom.
• Fourth grade completed ELA culminating projects in which the students were given their choice of activities such as performing a skit from the book, creating a sequel to the story, illustrating a new book cover, writing a newspaper article to present.

Added Value Classes in physical education, art, Spanish and STEM also remained part of the online learning curriculum with teacher provided videos, activities and assignments.

Although learning through Zoom and other online tools was a new experience, we believe that our students gained knowledge very similarly to how that would have in our traditional classroom environment.

Middle school students participated in online classes daily. The student scheduled provided for an hour of each of the five major subject areas – religion, ELA, math, science, and social studies – along with Added Value Classes in physical education, art, Spanish and STEM.

Students submitted assignments through Schoology and Google Drive and used the breakout room feature on Zoom for peer conferencing of writing assignments and collaborative practice of grammar topics. In middle school, Keynote and other presentation programs were used for group presentations and the “blogs” feature on Schoology was used for classroom discussions. Teachers also utilized prerecorded lectures and videos, interesting activities and virtual lab experiences, for the girls to experience science at home.

During the course of the trimester, students used various technology tools to present research and projects to their classmates.

• Sixth graders researched and presented Heritage Day projects about their family’s heritage via Zoom to classmates and teachers.
• 7^th graders studied the works of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, dissected the scripts and performed skits to help them to better comprehend the works. Instead of performing on stage for Villa’s Shakespeare Festival, they had the option of performing via homemade puppets or live-action play with the help of friends or family members at home.
• 8^th grade students used Google to collaborate on period newsletters and highlight the history of women.
• Middle school science classes utilized breakout rooms in Zoom for the girls to conduct group work and projects like discovering types of sustainable energy or investigating different endangered species. The girls used Zoom to present their findings as well.