Welcome to Learning Services Letter

Mr./Ms. _______,



 

Thank you for your interest in Heritage Christian Online School’s (HCOS) Learning Services (LS) support for the 2020/2021 school year. This email is to confirm that we have received your application for ________.



HCOS recognizes that home education is often in itself a learning support and that it often at least partially alters the learning profile of students and addresses some concerns.  Additionally, our experienced teachers are a wealth of information about the universal supports HCOS offers, resources that are available to all students, including:

• The Learning Commons which offers audio books, Susan Barton kits, books on giftedness, anxiety, behaviour & much more
• Hearbuilder and Touch-Type-Read-and-Spell subscriptions are available at a greatly reduced rate 
• Student Support Centre staff who offer 1-on-1 online academic and executive functioning support for students grade 7 - 12
• Universal supports for Provincial exams, including extra time, a separate setting, spell-checker, calculator and supervised breaks
• Sensory and attention tools available to those attending Community Connections

With these resources available to all, and following a “Response to Instruction” model, we typically wait until we have given new HCOS students a few months to engage in home education with teacher support before we come in with additional LS support.   This allows us to see what the learning issues are in our environment, which might be different from those experienced in other schools.  

For current/returning students,  your referral will be reviewed by an LS consultant and discussed in the next meeting your teacher or Grad Advisor (GA) books with the consultant.  For referrals received after May 1st this meeting may be in September as we work in May and June to wrap up our current LS student supports. 

For students newly enrolled in HCOS,  the initial meeting may take place after you have been schooling with HCOS for at least a few months.  Your HCOS teacher will then contact you regarding additional resources and suggestions that may assist your child, which may include online cognitive, reading and/or math assessments.  

While you are waiting for LS support, please consider booking an appointment with a Pediatrician to rule out and/or document any underlying medical or health concerns (including things like ADHD or anxiety).  The current wait to get in to see a Pediatrician is around 6 months, so getting this step started early will save a great deal of time in setting up supports or assessments down the road.  We also strongly recommend having  your child’s hearing and vision tests updated, with tracking and convergence being assessed by the optometrist as well as acuity.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact your HCOS teacher, or for your Grad Advisor (GA) for those in grades 10-12.

Kind Regards,