Dear Parents, Our first trial classes using MS Teams were held last week. I am happy to inform you that we are now ready to expand this programme to the entire school. This message covers the following topics : 1) Activating your child’s individual account and accessing MS Teams 2) Timetable for activation and trial classes 3) What you should do if you do not receive an SMS 4) How to resolve your problems 5) Questionnaire on IT facilities at home 1. Activating your child’s individual account and accessing MS Teams We have created accounts on MS Teams – including unique email addresses – for every student. Before these accounts are activated and used to participate in the video conference classes and access other teaching tools it is important that parents read and accept the Policy on the Acceptable Use of Information Technology Facilities. This policy is intended to educate parents and students on the appropriate use of our facilities and protect the school from liability in case misuse occurs. The activation of the account will take place as follows : a) The SCHOOL will send an SMS to parents of each Grade according to the Timetable in section 2 below. This SMS contains a link to the IT Policy. b) PARENTS should access the link in the SMS and confirm their acceptance of the IT Policy and submit some additional details. NOTE : ALL PARENTS WILL HAVE TO SUBMIT A FUNCTIONAL EMAIL ADDRESS THAT THEY ACCESS REGULARLY WHEN THEY ACCEPT THE IT POLICY c) After the policy is accepted, the SCHOOL will send a second SMS that contains the details of your child’s account. This SMS also contains a link to a webpage that gives you instructions on how to access your child’s MSO365 account and MS Teams on a web browser, and download and install the MS Teams app on your smart phone. Please login with the details given. You will be asked to change your password. You should write down your new password and keep it safe. Also, please make sure to register a mobile number and/or a personal email address when you first login to help you recover your password. There may be delays in resetting your password if you do not do this. Instructions and videos to help you access your child’s account and MS Teams are available here: https://trinitycollege.lk/learning-at-home/ 2. Timetable for activation and trial classes Due to various constraints we are implementing the activation of accounts and configuration of classes in MS Teams in stages. The table below lists the dates on which we will send the first SMS (about accepting the IT Policy) to parents. Please try to submit the consent form within 48 hours of receiving the link as we are planning to have the online sessions soon after that. Grade Date of SMS about IT policy Possible First Date of Trial Classes in MS Teams 1 8th May Wednesday, 13th May 2 13th May Monday, 18th May 3 13th May Monday, 18th May 4 13th May Monday, 18th May 5 12th May Friday, 15th May and Saturday, 16th May 6 12th May Friday, 15th May and Saturday, 16th May 7 12th May Friday, 15th May and Saturday, 16th May 8 11th May Thursday, 14th May and Friday, 15th May 9 11th May Thursday, 14th May and Friday, 15th May 10 8th May Wednesday, 13th May 11 8th May Wednesday, 13th May 12 12th May Friday, 15th May and Saturday, 16th May 13 11th May Thursday, 14th May and Friday, 15th May Once the accounts on MS Teams are activated, we will schedule trial classes for your children. The expected first date of the trial classes for each grade is given in the table above. The timetable of trial classes can be found here: https://trinitycollege.lk/learning-at-home/ Please understand that these are TRIAL classes, intended to sort of technical problems and get the teachers and students used to the system. It is not a major problem if your child misses the first trial class. We hope to have at least two trial classes for each child before formal classes begin on the 26th of May. 3. What you should do if you do not receive an SMS Many issues regarding communications with parents have surface over the past several weeks. In a few cases, the database of contacts at the school has been incorrect, or requests for changes have not been included. However, in many other cases, parents have changed their mobile number without informing the school or have started using an additional number and are neglecting to read SMS on the number that is with the school. When parents do not receive an SMS as expected they have been calling or emailing many people, including myself. Complaints have also been made to PTA representatives. While we are always ready to help parents, it is not efficient to have everyone trying to resolve these issues. Making telephone calls is particularly intrusive and should only be used as the last resort. Please use the following guidelines to resolve these problems. a) If you have not received an SMS by 6pm on the date given in the table above, please make sure that you have looked at SMS on the mobile number that is with the school b) If there is no SMS on that mobile, please EMAIL 365@trinitycollege.lk Please include the following information: Your child’s Admission Number Your child’s name Your child’s grade and class Your PRIMARY mobile number – this should be the number used by the parent who is MOST OFTEN AT HOME. Please identify whether this is the number of the father or the mother. You can also include the mobile number of the other parent and the mobile number of any other caregiver who will be at home during the remote classes. Please identify the name of this person and their connection to the child. Please DO NOT call, text or email anyone in the IT Department or the
Dear Parents, Since my last communication to you there has been a surge in the number of cases and the curfew in Colombo has been extended to the 11th of May. The Ministry of Health has published detailed guidelines regarding the re-opening of schools, which have been made available on this website for your information. It is clear now that schools cannot be re-opened on the 11th of May. As far as Trinity College is concerned, we will re-open only when it is declared safe to do so, we are ready to follow the guidelines and a majority of the parents are comfortable sending their children to school. The scenario that we should prepare ourselves for is that normal school operations are very unlikely to resume fully in the second term. This will be especially true for the Junior School and the Middle School. Under these conditions, as I stated in my previous communication, a significant – and possibly a major – proportion of our lesson delivery will have to take place using the methods of distance education. One important component will be online lessons conducted through Microsoft Teams. We have commenced these classes for the International Advanced Level students last month and are now ready to extend these facilities to the rest of the school over the coming weeks. We have created accounts – including unique email addresses – for every student. Before these accounts are activated and used to participate in the online classes and access other teaching tools it is important that parents read and accept the Policy on the Acceptable Use of Information Technology Facilities. This policy is intended to educate parents and students on the appropriate use of our facilities and protect the school from liability in case misuse occurs. We have selected ONE CLASS in each Grade from Grade 6 to Grade 11 to begin the process of activating the student accounts and conducting trial classes using Microsoft Teams. These classes are: GRADE 6F , GRADE 7F , GRADE 8F , GRADE 9F , GRADE 10B and GRADE 11F Parents of the students in these classes will receive a link via SMS. They should use this link to access the form and confirm their acceptance of the IT Policy. Parents must submit the form within the deadline given in the SMS to minimize the delay in giving students access to online classes. They will receive the details of the email accounts of their children once the policy is accepted. Parents of students from other classes will be contacted in due course. NOTE : ALL PARENTS WILL HAVE TO SUBMIT A FUNCTIONAL EMAIL ADDRESS THAT THEY ACCESS REGULARLY WHEN THEY ACCEPT THE IT POLICY These parents will also receive a link via a separate SMS to a Questionnaire on the facilities available to their children at home to follow remote classes and access videos and other learning materials. The information obtained from this questionnaire will make it possible for us to ensure that ALL students will be able to learn at a distance. We are aware that some students may not have adequate facilities at home to participate fully in the distance learning program that we envisage. The Parents-Teachers Association and the Old Boys’ Association have offered to assist such students. The school may also be able to obtain package deals for devices and internet connections. Please feel free to communicate with me on email at principal@trinitycollege.lk if you have any questions. While we start this trial with these selected classes I would like to remind all parents to let us know your email addresses as soon as possible. Please send an email with your son’s name, admission number, grade and class to gradexx@trinitycollege.lk if you have not already done so. Here “xx” is your son’s grade. If you have more than one son in school please send an email for each of them. Thank You Dr. Nalin Wikramanayake Acting-Principal
Dear Parents I hope that you and your families are all in good health during the current crisis. Today marks the end of the sixth week since schools were closed. I write to inform you of our plans to take our teaching and learning activities forward while the school is closed and after schools re-open. Please take the time to read through this letter and feel free to email me at principal@trinitycollege.lk if you need any clarifications. Our current information from the Department of Education (conveyed to us at a meeting of Principals yesterday) is as follows: It is currently planned to re-open schools on the 11th of May. However, this date and the manner of re-opening (i.e. all the students at once or in selected groups) are very uncertain. Schools are requested to use a Learning Management System and continue online education for all Grades, with teachers keeping a record of what has been done. The GCE Advanced Level and GCE Ordinary Level examinations will be held in August and December, respectively, as scheduled. The papers for these examinations will be set assuming that the ENTIRE SYLLABUS has been covered, with no reduction in content. If the situation in the country permits schools to be re-opened on the 11th of May, it will very likely be a step by step process. We will ensure that all required health precautions are taken. We expect to inform you of detailed plans for re-opening over the first week of May. As you are aware, we have been providing supplementary study materials for our students through the website over the past few weeks. I apologize for any delays and also for any inconvenience experienced by those trying to access material. In addition to the supplementary material, we will be putting out the monthly test papers for March for Grades 6 to 11 from tomorrow. We will release one paper a day – beginning with English and First Language on the first two days. You will be informed about the link to download the papers via an SMS. The schedule of the remaining papers will also be available on the download page so that your son can prepare for the next paper. Please make sure that your son prepares for these papers and writes the answers under EXAMINATION CONDITIONS. Please see the instructions on the webpage for instructions on how to maintain these conditions. We will correct the papers in class once the school re-opens. Please note that all the material handed out so far can be considered SUPPLEMENTARY. We are aware that not all our students have access to computers and the internet at home. We plan to complete the full complement of school days and cover the syllabuses as usual IF school re-opens in mid-May AND there are no further interruptions. However, it is very likely that there will be interruptions to the normal functioning of the school throughout 2020 as further outbreaks of the Coronavirus emerge. Under this scenario we will be forced to shift some of our classroom teaching to a variety of internet resources. Therefore, it is important that EVERY student, and particularly those in the Upper School, have access to a computer with an adequate internet connection. I urge all parents to make suitable arrangements to provide their sons with these facilities as soon as possible. Please feel free to contact me if you have any difficulties in this regard. Once everyone has these facilities we can conduct scheduled online classes using tools such as Microsoft Teams and a Learning Management System. It is important that we can communicate with parents through email in order to set up and use these tools. We have sent a request by SMS to all parents asking for their email address and followed up by calling all parents who did not respond to the SMS. However, we are still missing some email addresses. Therefore, please send an email with your son’s name, admission number, grade and class to gradexx@trinitycollege.lk if you have not already done so. Here “xx” is your son’s grade. If you have more than one son in school please send an email for each of them. While we will notify you of important developments through an SMS please continue to check the website daily. Thank You Dr. Nalin Wikramanayake Acting-Principal
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