I hope that each Voyager family has a wonderful and relaxing FALL BREAK. Can you believe we have already completed the first quarter of the school year? Our students will return to school on Monday, October 18 and we will be ready to learn. I encourage you to have your child read over the break and even keep a journal showing the things they were able to do over the break. Finally, I want to challenge each family to make someone’s day over the break. Rake leaves for someone, wash someone’s car or bake them some bread. The list of deeds that we can do with your students are endless. Thank you for being a part of the Voyager family and thank you for helping us support our families and our community.
REPORT CARDS. Report cards, for the first grading period, were sent home on Friday, October 8, 2021. Please review these documents and contact your child’s teacher if you have any questions. We have also provided families with an educational standards document to show you all the concepts we have covered in math and language arts during this first quarter.
BOOK CHARACTER PUMPKINS: Reading is fun and reading is important. After fall break our classes will be talking about and voting on their favorite childhood book. Next, each grade level will create a Book Character Pumpkin to display. The pumpkins will be available for display beginning on October 29, 2021. We will need 7 good sized pumpkins for this event. If you are willing to donate a pumpkin to us please let your child’s teacher know. I encourage your family to create a book character pumpkin too. Mrs. Davis has created a video to show you how. If you would like to display your family pumpkin at school, let us know and we will set up an area to display family pumpkins too.
Make A Book Character Pumpkin Video
FALL FESTIVAL: Please join us Friday, October 29th 6-8:30pm for our ALL SCHOOL FALL FESTIVAL! Parents, teachers and students are working together to bring you a special night of family fun. Enjoy food trucks, vendors, games, silent auction items, a photo booth, bouncy houses, live music and emergency vehicles for kids to explore! Save the date- Come join the fun!
STEP IT UP: Our new date for the DAY OF AWESOMENESS is set for Thursday, October 28th. The grade level times are the same. We had a great list of volunteers to help us out and now we need to get volunteers again for our new date. If you are able to help us on October 28th, please click on the link below and sign up. We need you to pull off this event.
STEP IT UP PRIZES: Our Day of Awesomeness was moved to October 28, but our student prizes were delivered to classrooms on Friday and sent home with students. If you have any questions about the prizes, please let me know. If your child earned a Pelican Snowball or a chance to spin the money will, those prizes will be granted during the new Day of Awesomeness. All other prizes have been sent home. Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you for working so hard to help us raise funds for our school. We will begin making some improvements , with our fundraising money, after fall break.
VAES FAMILY MARATHON EVENT: VAES is hosting its first family marathon event. The details of how this will work is listed in the documents below. Exercise is so important and the weather is perfect for walking outside. Families will be encouraged to walk or run 25 miles between October 8th and November 19th. Then, each grade level will walk or run the final 1.2 miles at school. Mrs. Flowe-Dawson and Mrs. Boyd encourage parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents and friends to join in.
VAES Family Marathon Instructions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rLMz-runmIkb4SMbiDg3TEhuyiFlNg5SpmcM1nzBMCE/copy
VAES Family Marathon Log: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1clJaA1gBuqZn_39cHJLx-1gzf1qmu6fABFJXQ0POLd4/copy
PICTURE MAKE-UP DATE: Tuesday, November 2, 2021
CHICK-FIL- A READING CHALLENGE: We love Chick-Fil-A (on Roxboro Rd) and how they support our school community. Stay tuned for details about how Voyager Elementary will be partnering with Chick-Fil-A to promote the value of reading. We will explain this new program in November and begin on December 1.
HOW DOES VOYAGER ACADEMY TEACH READING: Please click on the link below to learn all about how Voyager helps students become even stronger readers. We are thrilled to now have a Reading Interventionist on staff. Mrs. Heather Roberts holds a Masters degree in reading and is diligently working to help Voyager embrace the Science of Reading.
BLOOD DRIVE: VAHS will be hosting a blood drive on October 22 from 8:00 am until 2:0 pm. If you have questions, please email at lking@students.voyageracademy.net
VAES BIRTHDAY ROCK: The Voyager Birthday Rock is a BIG success. The students seemed thrilled with it and parents have done an amazing job of showing their creativity. If you are interested in signing up to paint the Voyager Elementary Birthday Rock for your child, please click on the link below for details.
Birthday Rock Details and Sign Up
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS CONCERNING COVID: Voyager’s amazing school nurse has created a document for all of our families entitled FAQ Concerning Covid. We understand how challenging and stressful this situation has been and we appreciate your support and partnership. I highly encourage you to click on the link below and read the health information so you can stay informed and will better understand the guidelines Voyager is following as we seek to keep all students and staff safe.
FALL BREAK IS COMING: October 11-15. Make plans now to enjoy this season with your family.
QUARANTINE GUIDELINES: Listed below are the guidelines we have been given as they are related to quarantine:
When your children need to stay home to learn, always contact me and your child's teacher.
The teacher will provide remote assignments for your student. As long as the student is doing some work at home and you complete the attendance link provided below they will be counted present. The link to complete your child’s attendance is HERE
Because your student has been directly exposed to someone, outside of school, who has tested positive for COVID, your student needs to quarantine for 10 days. They may return to school after the 10 days of quarantine have been completed AND have no symptoms from the time of exposure.
The 10 day quarantine protocol is not school days, it also includes the weekend. For example, if your child was exposed on Aug. 9, they can return to school on Aug. 20 (10 days).
Please keep me, your child’s teacher, and our school nurse, Mrs. Skoff updated on your child’s symptoms and/or test results.
See below for details for siblings where ONE tests positive, another tests NEGATIVE. Or for students and a parent tests positive, but student tests NEGATIVE.
Your positive student will need to complete a 10 day quarantine and may return to school after those 10 days so long as they are fever free for 24 hours and their symptoms are improving. With regard to siblings - as of now, IF you are able to isolate the positive child from the family, eat in separate spaces, wear masks in the home, use separate bathrooms, etc the negative child may return at the end of the positive child’s 10 day quarantine IF you were able to ensure the above protective measures were taken in the home.
The negative child(ren) would need to have NO symptoms and obtain a COVID test NO SOONER THAN 5 days following their last exposure to the positive sibling. So, if you used Monday as Day 1, they could test after Friday. If that test is negative AND you have been able to keep the positive student isolated the entire time, then the negative siblings could go back to school after the positive child's 10 day quarantine is over. We would request that you provide us documentation of their negative PCR tests before the children return. IF any of your other children develop symptoms at any point, they should get tested. If they then test positive they would then just complete a 10-day quarantine from the onset of symptoms.
These are the recommendations that the Durham Health Department has provided us as of today. They will continue to assess and monitor the situation and may update their guidelines. We will make changes to our protocols here at Voyager if that happens.