December 17, 2021
Bonjour,
Wrapping up our final week before the holiday vacation, we are excited for the new year ahead! Our warmest wishes to all for a relaxing and safe winter break. In celebration, we are sharing video recordings of each class singing the chorus songs they've been practicing so far this year. Merci Victorien, for conducting chorus for all classes again this year on top of your other duties!
Who's excited for today's Ice Arena Friday?! Families already enrolled have been sent a separate email directly with further details. It's still not too late to sign up for more ice skating opportunities for Fridays in the new year, or our Sugarloaf Friday for students ages 7+ with the Outdoor Experience Program on Friday, January 7! Interested families can meet up on the mountain and enjoy lift tickets at our group rate. Reach out to Emily for more details comme d'habitude!
The frosty mornings and dark afternoons of late make for some bundled-up recess time. Thank you for sending your student in daily with the necessary accessories and outerwear to enjoy the outdoors. We also will remind you that cold weather and lots of running around make for extra condensation on masks-- Please begin to pack a few additional spares in addition to your usual mask bundle. Merci!
As an extra reminder, your child must be in good health to come to school. A mild case of the sniffles does not necessitate staying home, but any strong present symptoms from a cold or illness must be improved and no longer threaten contagion. Would you please review our daily wellness checklist for details on what symptoms to look for and action steps to take if your child has a cold?
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Upcoming dates to keep in mind
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Friday, December 17: This year's first Ice Arena Friday noon-2PM
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December 20-31: Enjoy your Winter Break- No School!
- (January 3: School resumes)
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January 7: Sugarloaf Friday all-day event for interested students ages 7+ and parents Ice Arena Friday noon-2pm for any interested school community participants
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January 21: Ice Arena Friday noon-2pm for any interested school community participants
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February 4: Ice Arena Friday noon-2pm for any interested school community participants
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Weekly Pooled Testing - Next Step, Provide Consent! |
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Now around 70% of our eligible student population having already received their COVID-19 vaccination (which means we are approaching 50% school-wide!) we are setting our sights on how to maintain a safe space in light of potentially lifting state-wide mandates in the months to come. To stay proactive, we at EFDM have received approval to join other schools across the state in a free pooled testing program. We hope that with a regularly scheduled "nose tickle," our students and school community can limit the threat of the unknown.
Before we can get started, we need your help! We are requesting each family to participate in this program to help safeguard the wellbeing of our entire school community. Please sign the online consent request below and read the attached overview from Concentric by Gingko (website here) to answer some questions you may have:
To get started, please fill out the consent form with your permission to perform a COVID-19 pooled test for your student at L'Ecole Francaise du Maine. This process should take no more than 5 minutes to complete using a computer or a smartphone.
- First, click here (https://testcenter.concentricbyginkgo.com/minor-consent).
- Then, enter this access code: EFDMTEST2022 (note, the numbers correspond to the new year to come, not the current year!)
- Finally, enter your child’s information, and you’re done!
Note: If you need to provide consent for more than one child, please complete the process once for each child.
If you are a staff member or are over 18 planning to be tested at EFDM, a separate link for non-minors will be shared directly.
Our school plans to use a backup rapid antigen test to provide "quick tests" for any individual in a positive pool. We have requested medical support staff to assist our school staff as testing observers and supervisors and assist our younger students in performing the testing. We will divide into pools by classroom. Each classroom pool will be tested on the same day, once a week. We will share our testing schedule as soon as the details are solidified.
What is pooled testing?
Pooling can test 25 people using one test. All students in a class, pod, or cohort swab their noses and place their swabs in a single tube (that’s the pooling step). The samples in that tube are then run as a single sample, using one test. See it in action here.
Why pooled testing? Why should my student participate?
You know the old saying: “knowledge is power.” Tools like pooled testing empower us to make great decisions. However, without knowing the specific prevalence of COVID-19 in our school, it’s tough for us to make informed decisions about safeguarding our school community.
Only students with completed consent forms can participate in testing. If you do not want your family to participate, your student will not be included in the testing program. Though, we hope you do!
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Thanks to all who have already signed up for some Ice Arena Fridays this year! We want to ensure we are offering opportunities for special Maine winter activities to all of our students. Take the afternoon off from the classroom and spend it with members of just our small school community. Group size per event is limited, so sign-up soon while space is available!
There will be four Fridays with the chance to skate:
December 17th: A great way to kick off the holiday vacation!
January 7th
January 21st
February 4th
You are welcome to sign up for one, just a few, or all "Skating Fridays" of the season. The ice at Troubh Arena in Portland will be ours from Noon to -2:00pm on the following Fridays. Rental skates are available for anyone who may need them. If you are interested in attending, you will need to pick up your student(s) from school around 11:30 am to head to the rink. A packed car lunch before hitting the ice and an afternoon of fun to follow!
COVID protocols at the arena are as paramount as at school: masks at all times on and off the ice, a screening waiver, and proper hand hygiene will be expected from all attendees. In addition, the arena thoroughly cleans rentals and spaces between every use.
Please sign up with your interest in attending this event here, and/or email Emily ASAP with any questions office@frenchschool.me
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Each year at this time, we ask all of our parents and friends to join in supporting the school with a gift to the Annual Fund. Your support helps to enrich all aspects of the curriculum and French immersion experience - everything that benefits your child and every student. So, as you celebrate the holiday season and think of all you are grateful for, we hope EFDM makes the list. Your generosity helps the school in many ways such as, improving campus facilities and supporting our financial aid program. As always, feel free to let us know if you would like to apply your gift to one of these specific areas. |
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Shaina's Strings Studio- Winter Solstice Concert |
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Please join the fabulous violinists of EFDM as well as a variety of students from the Freeport community as they participate in the returning tradition of Shaina's Strings Winter Solstice Concert! Admission is free and the event is open to the public. The show is set to begin at 5:00pm on Tuesday, December 21st at the Freeport Performing Arts Center (located within Freeport High School). Our best wishes for a wonderful concert to all! |
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December Performance Videos |
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La Maternelle classes (PS, MS, and GS) singing "C'est un petit bonhomme" |
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La Maternelle classes (PS, MS, and GS) singing "Petit escargot" |
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"Ce matin dans la rue..." by CP and CE1 classes |
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"Rumba li" by CE2, CM1, and CM2 classes |
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Updates from Amy & the English Classroom |
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All English Language Arts students have been practicing writing friendly letters with their Pen Pals in Paris and California! We have been fortunate enough to pair with two English classes in Paris and another class in our MLF community in Orange County, California. Students were very excited to receive their first letters and write their own letters back. We can’t wait to get our next letters!
Students have also started book clubs in class. Students are working in small groups to discuss a given book together. Everyone takes turns performing various roles during reading, such as word wizard, character captain, illustrator, and summarizer. Students then meet to share their work performing each role. Ask your student about their roles and the books they are reading.
We are excited for our first IB unit when we return from vacation! Keep an eye out to watch your student’s awareness of their roles as learners grow!
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So many opportunities for pretend play while simultaneously learning so much about the world around them! PS students this week can choose to have a picnic with their hibou classroom mascot, or build a pen for dinosaurs with wood blocks. |
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It seems a new game is introduced in MS each week! Teachers and students love learning and playing them together. With each month, a new "bonhomme" to draw-- December's bonhomme might be wearing a winter hat! |
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Busy hands making lots of winter-time projects in GS! Almost hundreds of circles carefully cut out, and stormy colors being painted on a snowy background... what could they be making? Check back in on Artsonia to stay up to date with the latest projects your student has completed! |
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Elodie has her students becoming experts of the art of the snowflake, having cut, drawn, and painted various decorative explorations of the tiny wonders! In between all the play and paint, reading time is another favorite activity in the CP and CE1 classroom. |
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Simon's been sharing the role of standing up at the board lately! Lots of presentations and book reports being given by all grades of students. Bravo! |
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History of the IB: Marie-Thérèse MAURETTE
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When Marie-Thérèse Maurette wrote "Educational Techniques for Peace. Do They Exist?" in 1948, she created the framework for what would eventually become the IB Diploma Programme. Marie-Thérèse Maurette (September 28, 1890 – June 25, 1989) was a French educator who, for twenty years (1929-1949) was the director of the International School of Geneva (Ecole Internationale de Genève, often referred to as Ecolint), the world's oldest international school. Marie-Thérèse Maurette envisioned "a pedagogy of peace" rooted in internationalism and designed to teach respect and acceptance of others. Her pedagogy is the basis of the International Baccalaureate (IB), a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, founded in 1968.
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Covid Protocols and Recommendations |
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To reinstate our protocols for this year, please be sure to familiarize yourself with the following presentation:
Download ==> 2021-2022 protocols and recommendations.pdf
Here is a summary of our 2021-2022 protocols and recommendations:
- We encourage all parents/caretakers/older siblings to get vaccinated.
- Masks will be required for all members of our school community inside the school during operating hours (teachers and staff, students, and parents, as well as vendors, volunteers, and visitors) and are recommended outside on the school grounds.
- Masks will be required inside regardless of vaccination status.
- Access to the school building is limited to essential workers and students.
- COVID 19 PCR will not be required before school starts.
- Domestic travel doesn't require testing either before or afterward.
- International travel requires testing 3-5 days after return.
Procedures if Someone Becomes Ill or Exposed to COVID-19
- If a child becomes ill during the day, they will be isolated in the room near the main office, and the school will notify parents to pick them up immediately.
- If a staff member becomes ill during the day, they must go home.
- If a child or staff member is diagnosed with COVID-19, the school will notify the entire school community. Possible outcomes include staying open, closing a classroom temporarily, or closing the school temporarily. Regardless, rigorous cleaning and sanitizing of the school, inside and out, will precede any return of students and staff.
Guidelines for quarantine after exposure to a person with COVID-19:
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Exposure to COVID is defined as having close (within 6 feet) contact with a COVID-positive person for a period of at least 15 minutes in a 24 hour during which they would be considered contagious. Persons are considered contagious, beginning 48 hours before exposure. The use of masks decreases but does not fully remove the risk of transmission and therefore is not taken into consideration when defining an exposure.
- If an unvaccinated parent is exposed to a person with COVID-19, the parent must quarantine for 10 days, consistent with state and federal CDC guidance. A PCR COVID test 7 days into the quarantine is recommended to help assure that an exposed person is not an asymptomatic carrier. The negative test does not shorten the quarantine period of 10 days per Maine CDC recommendations. Children of exposed parents do not need to quarantine UNLESS the parent develops symptoms or tests positive for COVID. These children would still be permitted to attend school provided they can be safely picked up and dropped off by someone, not under quarantine.
- If a vaccinated parent is exposed to a person with COVID-19, the parent is NOT required to quarantine but must monitor their symptoms and get tested if any symptoms develop. It is also strongly recommended that vaccinated persons exposed to COVID-19 wear a mask whenever around others for a period of 10 days.
- Students at EFDM who are exposed directly to someone with COVID-19 must follow the guidelines for unvaccinated parents above. As vaccinations for children are available, the school will issue updated guidance on quarantine for vaccinated students.
The school is extremely grateful to the following parents, who are medical professionals, for sharing their time, expertise and for helping us write clear protocols.
At l'Ecole Française du Maine:
Dr. James Gallea, MD, Emergency Medicine Specialist
Dr. Lisa Lucas, DO, Primary Care Physician
At the French American School of Tampa Bay:
Dr. Gaetane Michaud, MD, Pulmonary Critical Care, Tampa General Hospital and USF Tampa
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Window to the past ... just for fun |
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March 25, 2011, Happy Trails at Sugarloaf: Students in grades 2 through 6 enjoyed some great spring skiing on the happy trails of Sugarloaf. With half a foot of new snow covering the mountain, there were plenty of opportunities for great runs. Sugarloaf instructors provided in the morning "Perfect Turns" lessons for the beginners while teachers and parent volunteers explored many trails with the advanced skiers. Together, everyone enjoyed the Whiffletree trail and the SuperQuad lift which gives access to intermediate blues, beginner green slopes, and newly developed terrain through the woods.
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