Procedures For a State of Emergency (COVID)

Originally Published 15 AUG 2020 – Updates Below, last update 9 FEB 2023

Hello Everybody!

We now consider the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic largely resolved an under control. We are returning to normal operations and will continue with guidance from public health and our own best practices where they may go beyond as we move forward. Our procedures will remain available and in place in the event that we should experience another such event at any time in the future. This will assure you that we have a plan, and will move quickly to implement it to avoid any interruption on your part to your services.

LESSONS

Please take particular care about #5 and #6, which deals with Contact Notification, and your attendance/make-ups.

  1. Teachers will not begin teaching in-person lessons until they are fully vaccinated.

  2. We will not begin in-person instruction until the Province and Municipal Health Officers allow all businesses to be fully re-open, and subject to our individual location partners’ individual decisions to open.

    2.1 If schools are closed for any length of time, we will wait a minimum of 3 weeks after schools resume in-person teaching before we begin ours
    to provide a wide margin of safety. All aspects of this plan are likely to be affected by what happens with infection rates across the GTA with public school openings, and we will make decisions about in-person lessons based on your safety.

  3. When we start, we will have a flexible and timed re-start:

    3.1. We will have one teacher on-site per-day, per-week for the first three weeks, and then add another teacher per-day, per-week. This will continue in 3-week increments to allow for a full incubation cycle of the virus so we may responsibly stop in-person visits if necessary.

    3.2 No student/family will be required to attend in-person lessons, and may choose to continue digital lessons for as long as they like based on their individual decisions around safety.

    3.3. Similarly to 3.2, Teachers may elect to continue to offer digital lessons if they elect to do so on the basis of their personal safety, and may continue to deliver lessons digitally to their students.

  4. Lessons may be abbreviated by 2-3 minutes to allow for precautionary cleaning of common areas and instruments between lessons. 
  5. If there is any occurrence of the illness in our student or teacher body by location, we will halt all in-person lessons at that specific location only, for a period of 3 weeks. The clock would then re-set on our re-start as outlined above. The new start date would be outlined at the time of the halt of in-person lessons.

  6. Anyone not feeling well on a lesson day will be required to stay home. They may take/teach their lessons digitally from home. This will be a requirement for the entire duration of the state of emergency.

  7. All students and teachers will be required to attend lessons with a contact tracing app, such as the Health Canada COVID Alert app (or equivalent) installed on a bluetooth-capable device. Teachers will be required to check each student, and will ask students not equipped with the app to leave. We regret that there will be no make-up lessons for this occurrence.
    Click to download COVID Alert.

    You agree to report notifications you receive through the app to ABC, as well as any positive test result for Covid you may receive. Please call the office immediately at 416-651-7529 if you receive a contact notification through the app and let us know.

  8. We ask that for families where applicable/possible and where adults accompany their children to lessons:

    7.1. The same adult accompany the student each week.

    7.2. The accompanying adult wait outside of 12 Conway or 2180 Bayview, weather permitting.

    7.3. That caregivers above 60 not be asked to accompany students through the duration of the state of emergency.

  9. Students will be asked to wear masks for the foreseeable future. Voice and Wind instrument students will not be required to do so. See our policies and procedures for information about this.
     

     

  10. In line with provincial requirements, all families must provide a declaration, or proof of vaccination/vaccine passport for the student taking a lesson if this is a provincially available methodology for assuring the greatest level of safety. If vaccination for certain age groups (such as under 12s) is not available for a time, they will not be eligible for in person lessons until they are vaccinated. Lessons for children under 12 will remain digital until then. We require parents that will be dropping off their children to include their proof of vaccination, as well, in advance of the colder weather, when you will want to sit in the waiting room. Please include this so we may allow you to do so.

As this is a careful and gradual plan, we feel it will allow the greatest degree of your confidence in our ability to operate.

Home-on-Demand – as a result of great success with online lessons we have decided to permanently continue digital service, giving families a new level of service that not only addresses immediate public health concerns but also a lot of regular life situations. Basically, HoD will help make your life easier by giving you the flexibility to have your lessons online when you need them. Don’t have enough time to get kid ‘A’ to lesson and kid ‘B’ to their activity? Ask for a HoD lesson. Not sure if one of your kids is sick, or maybe you don’t feel so hot? Ask for a HoD lesson.

MUSIC TOGETHER

While young children are at very low risk for themselves, the associated risks for parents and grandparents has been top of mind for us as we’ve considered how to best re-start our classes.

  1. We will not begin in-person instruction until the Province and Municipal Health Officers allow all businesses to be fully re-open, and subject to our individual location partners’ individual decisions to open and their requirements for in-person activity.

    1.1. We will wait a minimum of a full 3 weeks from this date to begin in-person classes.

    1.2 If outdoor classes are allowed and can be safely conducted, we may offer these without the 3-week wait described in
    1.3. Families will be responsible for controlling children to preserve social distancing, and may also be asked to bring some instruments to participate in class (those which we cannot provide and properly clean). Such class offerings will be hybrid, with a digital component still offered weekly to offset any inclement weather week-to-week that would make attending classes outdoors impossible.
  2. When we start, we will inform you of our target start date, and we will have a flexible approach inclusive of:

    2.1. No student/family will be required to attend in-person classes, and may choose to continue digital classes based on their individual decisions around safety.

    2.2 Teachers may elect to continue to offer digital lessons if they elect to do so on the basis of their personal safety, and may continue to deliver lessons digitally to their students. If no teachers are prepared to return to in-person classes, all classes will be delivered digitally until we can deem it fully safe to resume those classes.

  3. If there is any occurrence of the illness at a class location, we will halt all in-person classes at that specific location only, for a minimum period of 3 weeks. The new start date would be outlined at the time of the halt of in-person classes.

  4. Anyone not feeling well on a class day will be required to stay home. They may take/teach their lessons from home. This will be a requirement for the duration of the state of emergency.

    4.1. This applies to outdoor classes, as well. Not well? Please don’t come and instead use the digital class that week.

  5. All families will be required to have and use their own hand cleaning/sanitizing equipment before the start of each class.
  6. All families and teachers will be required to attend classes with a contact tracing app, such as the Health Canada COVID Alert app (or equivalent) installed on a bluetooth-capable device.
    Click to download COVID Alert.

    You agree to report notifications you receive through the app to ABC, as well as any positive test result for Covid you may receive. Please call the office immediately at 416-651-7529 if you receive a contact notification through the app and let us know.

    6.1. This applies to outdoor classes, as well. Families without an app on-device and in-hand will be asked to leave.

  7. We will only use easily cleaned equipment in our classes during the state of emergency.

  8. Only one parent may accompany their child or children to classes, and it must be the same parent every week until such time as we inform you that this restriction is lifted.

  9. Masks are required for adults in class and for children over 2 years of age.

  10. 2 meter distancing will be required for indoor activities between families. We understand this will be challenging with kids, just do your best.

  11. In line with provincial requirements, all families must provide a declaration, or proof of vaccination/vaccine passport once in-person classes resume and assuming that this is a provincially available methodology for assuring the greatest level of safety. This is required for the parent bringing children to class only, at this time. When such documentation becomes available for children, this must be completed at that time.

The priority in our overall approach will always be to make safety-first decisions.

22 SEPT 2021
Update (All)

We have updated our procedures to align with new provincial Vaccine Passport mandates for both lessons, and Music Together Programs. For lessons only students 12+ will be able to attend lesson in-person, with proof (declaration must be provided) of vaccination until such time as vaccination becomes available for 5+ year-olds. This does not waive any other part of our plan requirements. Music Together programs and families will require the same parent to attend in-person weekly, and that that person provide proof of vaccination (declaration must be provided). Spacing requirements for Music Together classes indoors has also been updated.

Remember: Attendees at lessons and classes must always have a device with the Covid Alert app installed, or they will be asked to leave.

Click here to complete your self-declaration.

31 AUG 2021
Update (Lessons)

We added a button to our Annual Teaching Days Calendar. Please download and put up in an obvious place at home. We recommend highlighting your day across the whole school year (just not in boxed off holidays!).

25 AUG 2020
Update (Lessons)

After polling our teachers internally it has been decided that Lessons will continue digitally using Zoom through December 2020. We expect some changes to your meeting ID#s in September, so stay tuned.

10 DEC 2020
Update on All Programs

Lessons & Music Together will continue online for the next calendar quarter (Jan-Mar 2021). We will make our decisions about implementing our Restart Plan on a quarterly basis, with next update coming mid-March 2021.

18 SEPT 2020
Update (Music Together)

We need your help to decide how many classes we run, and at which locations. Please click and complete this 5-question, 1-minute survey now.

10 MAR 2020
Lesson Update

Lessons will continue digitally until individual teachers are vaccinated, at which time the rest of the plan will come into effect.