Author Archives: Acacio

COVID-19 Update May 22 share

Community Update May 22, 2020

Dear Spare Time families,

The Vancouver School Board is entering the next phase of the COVID-19 response and has announced plans to reopen schools June 1. Your school has sent out surveys regarding whether your children will be participating.

Kindergarten to Grade 5 students will be scheduled for 2 consecutive days of instruction per week at school, and Grades 6 and 7 students will be scheduled for 1 day of instruction per week at school. If you are an COVID-19 Essential Service Worker, you may choose to have your child scheduled for up to 5 days of instruction per week at school.

Starting June 1, all child care services provided by school age child care operators in VSB schools will be limited to before and after-school care only. May 29 will be the last day we will be providing full day child care, as of June 1 we will offer before and after school care at all our facilities.

All our registered families and Essential Service Workers attending our home schools have the option to enroll for before and after school care in June, for the days that correspond to your child attending school. If you don’t register for child care in June, you will not lose your child care space. All our registered families will have their spaces held until Sept 2020.

Placements for children of essential service workers based on the following priority:
• Tier 1 (highest priority): employed in Health and Health Services, Social Services, Law Enforcement, First Responders, and Emergency Response. For child care, Tier 1 also includes children approved to access care at a designated Young Parent Program, referred to child care by MCFD or a Delegated Aboriginal Agency, and/or children of teachers and support workers providing care to children of essential service workers or students who would benefit from additional supports.
• Tier 2 (second priority): all other occupations not included in Tier 1 that are listed in the Essential Service Workers list.
• Tier 3 (third priority): all other families not employed in an occupation listed in the Essential Service Workers list.

Next week you will receive summer program registration information, we will be offering 9 weeks of care, June 29-Aug 28.

Fees for June 2020:

Before and After school care, 7:30-9 am, 3-6 pm
Fees for June 1-25:
Gr. 6-7, 1 day per week $20, $80.00 for the month
Gr. K-5, 2 days per week $40, $160.00 for the month
ESW multi grade, 5 days per week, $100.00, $380.00 for the month

Spare Time continues to follow health and safety guidance issued to us by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry for Children and Families, to prevent transmission of COVID-19 and maintain safe and healthy environments for children and staff.

COVID-19 Public Health Guidance for Child Care Settings

Please contact your centre directly to register for June.
We look forward to seeing you,

Astrid Visscher
Administrator
Spare Time Child Care Society
astrid@sparetimesociety.org

COVID-19 Update March 18 share

Letter to Parents March 18, 2020

March 18, 2020

Dear Spare Time families,

New information and directives regarding the COVID 19 virus are coming to all of us daily, from the Federal and Provincial governments, and the City of Vancouver.

Childcare falls under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Health, therefore we wait for guidelines and recommendations from the Office of the Provincial Health Officer and BC Communicable Disease Control.  This is the latest communication we have received:

Childcare falls under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Health, therefore we wait for guidelines and recommendations from the Office of the Provincial Health Officer and BC Communicable Disease Control.  This is the latest communication we have received:

As of today, the centres have continued to follow enhanced cleaning and disinfection guidelines, followed hand hygiene instructions (children and staff), practiced social distancing between adults in the centres (staff and parents) and kept the children in small group sizes. We have cancelled field trips and inter-centre events and we are not visiting any busy parks or playgrounds.

Many of you have withdrawn your children from Spring Break care, and I would like to assure you that we understand and support your decisions and will refund your fees.

What we do not know at this time is whether we will be able to continue to operate after Spring Break. The Vancouver School Board has not yet informed us of their intentions regarding the buildings.  I believe there is a joint task force now examining how childcare in Vancouver can continue to safely operate under the current circumstances.

For regularly enrolled families who will temporarily withdraw children from our programs at this time for reasons related to the pandemic (ie; working from home, isolation, etc.) , or if we are directed to close down our centres, you will not lose your child care space when we resume regular operations. Your postdated cheques for April, May and June will be returned to you, and you will still be considered as registered in the program.

We intend to keep the centres open throughout Spring Break, however, if too many children are withdrawn, we may be unable to operate (financially) without support from outside sources. We are exploring solutions for this possibility.

I will continue to keep you updated.

Sincerely,

Astrid Visscher Administrator

Spare Time Child Care Society

COVID-19 Update March 11 share

March 11 Covid-19 Update

March 11, 2020

Dear Spare Time families,

I would like to update you on the preventative measures we are taking regarding the COVID-19 virus.

We take direction from our licensing body, the Ministry of Health, and we are following the recommendations provided to us by the Office of the Provincial Health Officer and BC Communicable Disease Control’s publication: 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) B.C. public health guidance for schools and childcare programs.  

http://www.bccdc.ca/Health-Info-Site/Documents/COVID19_schools_childcare_guidelines.pdf

We are promoting hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette by:

• supervising and assisting proper handwashing when the children arrive at the centre, before eating and when they come in from the outside.
• reminding children how to sneeze into at tissue or a flexed elbow and having them wash their hands after they dispose of tissues.

We are maintaining and increasing cleaning and disinfecting by:

• daily cleaning and disinfecting of high touch objects and surfaces (such as door handles, tables, toys)
• Removal of soft toys
• Disinfecting high touch areas in our vans and busses

We are planning to operate our spring break programs, but as new information is emerging daily, we may have to change some of our field trip plans, for the safety and well-being of the children and staff.  We were told in a communication on March 10 from the office of Chief Medical Health Officer that “It is not necessary to cancel childcare facility events, outings or field trips to public locations.”

We have considered alternate activities that will keep us based at the centres and will make changes based on future directives from the Ministry of Health and inform you of any such changes. As of today, there is no plan to close schools.

If you decide to remove your child from care during the Spring Break, you will be refunded and there will be no penalty, but we ask that you please cancel by Friday March 13, or Friday March 20 for the week ahead.  

Sincerely,

Astrid Visscher

Administrator

Spare Time Child Care Society

March 12 Covid-19 Update

Play, Learn and Discover at Spare Time This Summer share

CHECK BACK MAY 2ND FOR SUMMER BREAK 2016 DETAILED CALENDARS

Play, learn and discover at Spare Time this Summer.  Each centre has planned fun hands-on activities, field trips and variety of learning opportunities and experiences for children ages five to twelve (entering kindergarten to entering grade eight.)

You may download your centre’s registration package and program calendar to see what’s been planned!

Centre hours:  7:30 am – 6:00 pm, Monday – Friday.

KEY REGISTRATION DATES IN MAY

Summer programs registration starts on May 9th for enrolled families, and on May 27th at 7:30 am for the community at all centres except for Spare Time Clubhouse and Spare Time Connection (see details below). Forms are accepted in-person only for all centres. 

New families enrolling to Spare Time are also required to complete the Spare Time Registration Documents once they are accepted into the program. These include contact information, centre-parent agreement, photo/video consent and more.

For Spare Time Clubhouse and Spare Time Connection only:

Registration for community families attending David Livingstone and General Wolfe schools begins at 7:30 am on May 26th.

Registration for all other community families begins at 7:30 am on May 27th, in person at Spare Time Clubhouse, General Wolfe School only.

Spare Time Clubhouse/Connection Summer Flyer 2016

FEE SCHEDULE FOR SUMMER BREAK 2016

Summer Fees (Summer 2016):  $237.00 per week (No daily rates available). $190 for the holiday week August 2-5.

Lunch, snacks and all activities and field trips are included in the fee. On all field trips, children are well supervised and ride in our Variety Club vans and buses driven by qualified, licensed class 2 and 4 drivers.

Challenge Club Summer 2015 Video share

Here is the link to view our Summer 2015 Slide Show from Spare Time Challenge Club and Bobolink
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