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New Families: Eight Steps for Getting Started

WELCOME!  

You're signed up with HCOS. You've talked with a Regional Administrator, and have been accepted. Now what do you do?

The purpose of this page is to help new to HCOS families get started in their school year. Hopefully following this step by step guide will make the start of the new year as smooth as possible for you.

Step 1. Connect with your Support Teacher

Your support teacher is your primary connection to the School. S/he is responsible for collaborating with you in planning your year (SLPs). S/he is there to support, encourage and empower you in your home education journey. Your support teacher will help you choose and order curriculum for the year. S/he will help you with weekly input and guidance as well as answering your questions. Your support teacher will collect work samples throughout the year and will provide formative assessment (feedback). Your support teacher will write report cards for your children. Your support teacher is key to your child's educational journey. (And your sanity.)  :) 

Regular communication with your teacher

It is very important that you work out a system for communicating regularly with your support teacher. The most used options include: email, phone calls, texting, and reporting programs such as See Saw. If your teacher doesn't know what you're doing it's really hard for them to support you.

Step 2. Get into Encom

Encom is our school data base. It is where we house student applications, documents, Student Learning Plans, Report cards, Proof of Work, your curriculum spending account, and more. It's also where you choose any online courses. You will have received your Encom username and password in your "Welcome to HCOS" email. (That's an important email to hang onto.) 

Here is the link to the Encom How to's page.  Encom

Step 3. Work together with your support teacher to create Student Learning Plans (SLPs) for each of your children.

The Student Learning Plans (SLPs) are very important documents.  It is the first document that the Ministry of Education looks at when they are checking to see if we are following the government guidelines. Collaborating to write the SLP is usually your first contact with the Support Teacher. It's important to remember that the SLP is a living document, meaning that it can be revisited and revised during the school year.  Parents are required to sign off on the SLP once it has been completed.

Here is the link to the SLP How to's page. (SLP page).

Step 4. Order your resources and sign up for courses

How do you purchase curriculum?  Your support teacher can help to guide you through this process.

Vendor Purchases

The HCOS website has a list of Vendors who accept HCOS PO#s. After reviewing the resource choices with your teacher, you can order those from one of the approved Vendors.

Here is the link to the vendors and ordering page. Vendors and resource purchasing

Non-Vendor Purchases

New guidelines have changed how HCOS can process the purchasing of resources from companies that do not accept HCOS PO#s. For more information see here. For a list of vendors which do accept HCOS PO#s please go here. 

For more information visit Purchasing Process for Parents.

Computer / Tablet Leases

How do you lease a computer/tablet/iPad? Our computer lease program is available. For more information and forms please visit here. Please note: You must obtain your Teacher's approval in order for the lease request to be processed.

Online courses

If your student is taking any online courses, you will need to go into Encom to choose those courses. Here is the step by step process of choosing online courses. Note: Although this refers to High School courses, the process is the same for grade five to nine online courses. Online course selection 

Step 5. Check out the Learning Commons

The Learning Commons is our Library. It truly is amazing. With a little bit of work, you can find all of the resources needed for your schooling without spending a dime of curriculum funds. There you can sign out physical books, virtual books and audio books. We also have unit kits for Science and Social Studies. HCOS subsidizes many subscriptions which both enhance and reinforce learning in all subject areas. To find out more information on specific subject related subscriptions, click here. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) resources can also be signed out including various robotics and coding kits. 

Your "Welcome to HCOS" email will also contain your login information for our Learning Commons. 

Here is the link to the Learning Commons website. Learning Commons

Step 6. Subscribe to your region's Learning Groups e-alerts 

We have many Learning Group activities that happen around the province. Everything from writing workshops, to robotics, to drama, to field trips happens in Learning Groups. It is important to subscribe to Learning Groups for your region so that you will receive notifications of upcoming events. 

Most events allow you to use curriculum account funds to pay for them.

Step 7. Set a daily schedule

You will find the greatest success if you have a set schedule and location to do your school work.

When scheduling for the year, look at the total number of weeks (usually 30-36) and then divide your lessons so that you will complete the curriculum on time. Do this for all of the courses. Online courses have a built in scheduler to help with this. Be sure to factor in holidays. :)

Schedule your week. Start with a weekly schedule. Which days will you teach each subject? English, Math, Physical Education and Bible should happen every day. Science and Social studies should be taught three times a week. Art, Second Language, ADST and Career can be taught twice a week. Leave room to have some fun. Field trip Fridays, Project Wednesday, "Choose your own adventure" afternoon. 

Have a set starting time for the day's studies. This helps to keep everyone on track. You will find that some days go longer and others will be shorter. This flexibility is one of the great strengths and blessings of home educating. Your average day will likely be about four hours long. Of course this will vary by child. 

Step 8. Note the important dates 

For specific information about deadlines and due dates please go to our SOPHIE page: Important Dates 2018/2019

It's useful to have these dates on hand so that deadlines aren't a surprise. 

 

If there are other items that you would see as being useful that we should add to this page, please contact your Support Teacher or Regional Administrator. 

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