Please note that we have three school closure days in Term 2. These are:

• Wednesday, 3 November - Staff Professional Learning Day

• Thursday & Friday, 4-5 November - Deepavali Holiday
  

Other important dates for Term 2 are:

• Tuesday, 2 November - Deepavali School Celebrations (learners are encouraged to wear traditional Indian or Hindu dress)

• Friday, 17 December - Last day of Semester 1 (school closes at noon)

During these extraordinary times, we understand that some learners may be prohibited from joining us on-site in school due to enforced Stay Home Notices (SHNs) or chronic medical conditions that dictate that they cannot safely mix with the general public. At the start of Term 1, we created an Off Campus Learning (OCL) programme for such learners. The programme, administered by Steve Gallego, utilises special OCL SeeSaw groups to provide daily activities to learners that are designed to achieve similar objectives to those that the learners on-site are covering.

Learners are able to submit work online, which is duly assessed and feedback is then provided via SeeSaw. From time to time, live lessons are organised according to need. If your child is absent due to an enforced SHN or chronic illness, please advise Learner Services who will make arrangements for your child to be added to the programme.

We also note that there may be other learners absent due to concerns about the current COVID infection rate, or because they are serving SHNs at home or in a hotel after returning from abroad. While the school strictly follows all current safety protocols and has been deemed safe, and while we do not authorise absence for holidays or family visits during term time, we do acknowledge that these are extraordinary moments.

We have prepared a special resource pack for families that elect to keep their children at home, or elect to travel during this period and may/may not need to quarantine on return. If your child will be absent in such circumstances, please inform Learner Services in advance and the pack can be provided.

Every class in our Primary School has a WhatsApp Group. We are a school that prides itself on our strong community relationships and these WhatsApp Groups will allow you to build friendships between families in each class.

What these WhatsApp Groups are:

• A place for families to come together to arrange social activities (e.g. parties, play dates, coffee mornings and evening drinks)

• A place for occasional reminders (e.g. remembering Dress Up Days!)

What these WhatsApp Groups aren't:

• A school communication channel (we will continue to share all school information via the fortnightly Newsletters, school emails and our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/NexusSchoolSG/) - please do make sure you read these to find out all that is going on in school

• A place for discussing individual learners

• A place to raise issues (we welcome all feedback and encourage you to contact us directly with any concerns you have so that we can help to resolve them)

We are delighted that a large group of parents have agreed to help to administer these WhatsApp Groups. The Singapore Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) does not allow us to share your personal information with them so we are not able to automatically add you to the appropriate WhatsApp Group. Instead, you can message these parents so that they can add you to the group.

If you would like to join this informal class group, please contact Learner Services (learnerservices@nexus.edu.sg) and they will be able to provide your WhatsApp group administrator's details. Simply send a text to the administrator with the following information:

• Your name (first name and family name)

• Your child's name (first name and family name)

• Your mobile phone number

If you have children in different classes, please text the administrator of each class.

Once again, thanks to all the parents for supporting our school community. We are sure that you will find this informal social network very valuable throughout the year.

It has come to our attention that several learners have SafeEntry tokens that are no longer working. Please check the token is still working by looking to see if a light flashes on every minute. If the token does not have a light, you can exchange it for a working one via a vending machine at most Community Centres. The school's safe-entry check-in process is significantly delayed when we are unable to use Bluetooth technology with tokens.